Dystopian Romances: Under The Never Sky-Veronica Ross

Under The Never Sky by Veronica Ross

Date Released: January 3rd 2012            

Publisher: Harper Collins

Pages: 374 pages

Date Read: Feburary 28, 2012

Format: Hardcover

Source: Bought From Barnes and Noble

Goodreads Synopsis:

Goodreads Synopsis:  Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland - known as The Death Shop - are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild - a savage - and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile - everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.

From Goodreads

Welcome to Day 2 of Dystopian Romances! Check my first review for Eve by Anna Carey HERE as part of my 3 Day Dystopian Week! :)

My Review:

Under The Never Sky had the potential for a total kick-ass, awesomesauce dsyoptian but I didn't deliver for me. I just really wanted to love it so much with all the reviews going on but reading it was hard reading this book! *sighs* I was waiting for the action to kick up and start but it felt flat. But the ending had me rushing till the end and I'll definetly be reading the next book, Through The Ever Night. :D

Under The Never Sky is about a girl named Aria who lives in an enclosed part of  Reverie. She's been waiting to contact her mom after a message she sent through her Smarteye [there super cool!]. She's a Dweller safe in her pod from all the harm outside. The "outside" also known as The Death Shop is full of horrors Aria can't imagine. Safe in the walls she likes to explore the Realms, which are absolutely amazing! I would so love to live in them! You can be underwater having a tea party or be on Mount. Evereast with shorts. You can control the enviroment based on your Smarteyes, which are just as cool. JUST SAYING. :P

Aria is waiting to talk to her mom since leaving to go to Bliss for some DNA research. [which you will later discover what it is by the end] But the connection link to Bliss is down and Aria starts worrying. She must find out what happened to her mom and so she gets close to the son of the head of Reverie’s security. They break into Ag 6, a disabled pod in hopes. This is the first time Aria discovers fire. She and a few others get caught, but Aria is the one to blame and is sent to the Death Shop to die.

Then comes along Perry. The super-swoon worthy character who came from the wild with his scars and fierce battle tactics and they way he cared for Aria was perfect! Aria came from a fragile world block from all the violence outside then Perry comes and the romance starts. But look it wasn't INSTA-LOVE like typical YA Books nowadays. I love the romance and it was a high point for me in the book! *claps*

But what totally turned me off was Perry and his family issues. He's the younger brother of the Blood Lord. The only reason he comes home is his love for his nephew, Talon. Perry come from a line of hunters that have a sharpened sense of everything: taste, sounds, smell, and I would so love to have them! Perry thinks he can take control of the tribe but he also worries for Talon's feelings. This part in the book just made me want to throw the book against the wall! *eye roll* I really was expecting more from Perry side, but ended up flat. *sighs again*

Now, a Dweller and an Outside come face to face as they both journey together. They learn trust, love, and secrets exposed in the brink of society. I was happy with the ending actually! It was suspenseful and action packed and left me hanging on a thread for the next book! I would read the next one just because of the end. Aria and Perry know their bond can't happen but it does. And everything is on the line for both of them.

Overall, Under The Never Sky could have been better in my opinion. It had so much potential and didn't deliver. It's a good dystopian but nothing so popular like Legend by Marie Lu or Divergent. But still Veronica kept up the pace for me to read the book
and I can't wait to see where Rossi takes Perry and Aria! :)



Fever-Lauren DeStefano

Fever By Lauren DeStefano

Date Released: February 21, 2012 

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Pages:  341 pages

Date Read: December 24, 2012

Format: Hardcover

Source: Pre-Ordered From Barnes and Noble

Goodreads Synopsis: 

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.
Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price - now that she has more to lose than ever.

My Review:

First...let me just say how beautiful that cover is! I can't stop staring at it and its just awesomesauce over awesomesauce! :D Can't see what they have for the final book it must be as good! *Eyes gleaming with suspense*

I loved Fever so much it was so damn good! I literally finished it in two days, stayed till 11 p.m to get half-way into it since it was just jaw-dropping good! I just feel in love with Lauren DeStefano's writing again and I so want to meet her! Fever was just as awesome as Wither, survival is high than ever for Rhine and Gabriel, and the suspense is killing! Don't to mention the crazy, heart-breaking, tearful *Picks up tissue to wipe eye after reading the end*  ending that I kept reading over and over realizing Fever ended.

I love everything about this book! The characters were perfect, suspense and action exploded from page to page *Frantic eye look* , and romance with sizzling between Rhine and Gabriel. There wasn't a time where I just wanted to drop the book because it had boring character, low action, no this book made my day better from every page and I was always excited.

Fever immediately starts right where Wither left off, Rhine and Gabriel running from the mansion. Danger and survival is higher than ever because Housemaster Vaughn is somewhat following them on their trail, nowhere is safe. Rhine and Gabriel find themselves in a carnival where girls are watched closely by a mysterious woman, a fortuneteller giving Rhine a glimpse of what life is in a very short amount of time, a lovely couple, allot to keep you entertained.

There's lots of things at stake that make you race till the last page and it will keep you up all night!

Fever is amazing, beautiful, awesomsauce book that is so good! 0.0 Give Wither a try and once you do keep Fever on hand because you will need it ^^

“He kissed back, all the pages spread out around us like riddles waiting to be solved. Let them wait. Let my genes unravel, my hinges come loose. If my fate rests in the hands of a madman, let death come and bring its worse. I'll take the ruined craters of laboratories, the dead trees, this city with ashes in the oxygen, if it means freedom. I'd sooner die here than live a hundred years with wires in my veins.”    

“Once upon a time there were two parents, two children, and a brick house with lilies in the yard. The parents died, the lilies wilted. One child disappeared. Then the other." Pg 225”   

 

Shatter Me-Tarereh Mafi

Date Released:November 15th, 2011
Publisher:Harper/HarperCollins

Pages: 388 pages
Date Read: November 22, 2011
Format: Hardcover Source: Bought from Barnes and Noble

Goodreads Sypnosis: 

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.



My Review:

Shatter Me was a additive, stunning, sexy, dysoptian debut that will leave you breathless after page one! It was riveting, gripping, and absolutely mesmerising! Tahereh Mafi weaves a book so good, you want to savor every sentence, word and page one hooked me!

Did you see that cover??? So flipping amazing! And the trailer????!!! Once I saw it I immediately bought it the day it came and I normally don't do that but this book...I NEEEDED IT!!!

The writing? Do I need to say anything? Its AMAZING. It flows so well and I experience a whole new sensation reading this book! It was flawless and beautifully written, Tahereh Mafi is only 23. Unbelievable right??? Everything pieces in and its hard to believe its her debut novel!. Seriously go out and buy this book. Right now.

Juliette hasn't touch another human being in exactly 264 days. She's looked up in an asylum where the Reestablishment treats her like a monster, with a curse, and they tell her locking her up was the best thing. Juliette is a strong, tough, I-have-plans-of-my-on type of heroine. She plans to escape and flee to a world she wouldn't have for once be judged.

She's counting the days, hours, second in small notebook hidden in a crevice of her cell.

    Then the unexpected happens. [Yep the romance.] Adam Kent. ADAM. ADAM. He was the perfect guy for Juliette. I can't remember the times I was reading this and swooning over the scorching romance scenes. It was beautiful. It was like cookies and milk when you eat them it melts with perfection, that's how the romance is. I can't believe how easily I loved Adam and Juliette....PERFECT!!!!!!!!! :D Adam was a tought, swoony, heart-pounding guy. There was something about him that maded all YA romance novel guy not the same at all.

Warner. Warner was convincing and intrigiung each time he spoke and him personally. He can really twist your mind and make you think of yourself as a lethal weapon, like he did for Juliette. I actually liked him. Odd right? Well, he really jumped between the lines of a romantic, supper evil villan.

 Juliette stood up to him. She was a total bad ass, with the power to take down people with a slight touch of her hands. Don't tell me that's not total kick-ass power! Think of her clawing through four walls of concrete and glass. Imaginative! Best Dysoptian ever. Period.

I can't stop thinking or shwoing off this book! It was PERFECTION. Perfect. Perfect. I can't stop saying how awesome this book is! I'm actually reading it for the second time beacuse I can't get enough of it and me praising alll about it! This book was delicious throiughtout, crispy in the edges, and a slice of stunning perfection! I cannott stop looking at that cover!

Here's the must-see trailler:



I'm dying of excitement!



Wither-Lauren DeStefano

 “Eventually I realize that I am holding on to him just as tightly as he holds on to me. And here we are: two small dying things, as the world ends around us like falling autumn leaves.”
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Date Released:September 27th 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing 

Pages: 358 pages

Date Read: October18th 2011
Format: Hardcover Source: Bought from Amazon Goodreads Sypnosis:

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a
lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.
When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?
Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom

My Review:

Wither was a heart-pounding, amazing dysoptian debut! It's probably one of my favorite dysoptain novels of 2011 since every second of this book made my world! Look at that cover *points at cover* beautiful! One of the most beautifully crafted covers I saw and I can't stop looking at it. This book has everything for a perfect dysoptian: creepy elegance, gripping characters that you never want to leave, edgy with a real,unique voice.

Wither starts immediately. Right from page one you already know you will love everything about it. 16-year old Rhine Eldery is taken by the Gatherers, to be forced into marriages with a husband having two to how many wives they could afford? Kinda creepy...just saying^^ In her society, a deadly virus caused all people to live a certain age. For men its 25, and for women it's 20. Forced marriages are a must, so that the population doesn't die out.

Rhine is taken to a endless, trapped house were her husband Linden cares for his wives, but all Rhine wants is to go home, keeping her motivated to run away, even with a attractive servant boy, Gabriel. During her whole time trapped, she discovers Linden's father close to finding a cure for the virus, but that means experimenting on Linden's dead wives to get his hands on a cure. For Rhine freedom seems to far away...

Really try Wither! Even with dysoptian, post-apocalyptic coming in the YA genre, Wither is a must-read. I mean read it! Just read it!! :D



Did you watch the book trailer for it? Well if you haven't here it is:

“You've been captive for so long that you don't even realize you want freedom anymore.”