decided on this novel after all the reviews i read on website. sounded alright and reviewers were raving about it. themes are similar to all the big hyped dystopian series out there. pros: - i enjoyed the sister bond of the 3 new wives. you'll pick your fave. - food description is good. makes you want to have a june bean - destefano's description is vivid and imaginative. i could picture the setting, dresses, characters, etc - the big bad- vaughan actually gives you the creeps - you'll be wondering what is the mystery with the basement & what are they doing down there - secrets will be revealed cons: - looking for your sibling...been there done that - some dull moments in the book. i thought it wasn't going to go anywhere - it's pretty predictable overall i enjoyed the book. i haven't decided if i'm going to rush out and get the 2nd one, but it is on my TBR list. i think the series has potential. i really liked the sister jenna and ceciley. they help the story a lot.

Not a bad dystopian teen fiction, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under 16 years old. This deals with a future when men die at the ripe old age of 25 and women at 20, due to people messing around with genetics. Girls are kidnapped and sold into multi-wives marriages in order to breed a new generation. Our main character, Rhine, is one of those kidnapped girls, leaving her twin brother behind in New York as she is taken to Florida. All she wants to do is escape. I found myself sometimes sympathizing with some of the 'bad guy' characters in the novel. I find that often with teen books, that the main character isn't able to see situations from another point of view. You will know what I mean if you read this one. All in all, it was a decent read, I liked the main character and it has an interesting portrayal of a possible future.

This and other reviews can be found on http://readingbetweenclasses.blogspot.com/ Cover Impressions: At first glance, this cover falls into the category of "pretty girl in a pretty dress". However, upon closer inspection there are several elements that tell a lot about the story. These elements are tied together by lines and circles, the reader is enticed to follow. I am a big fan of covers that beg re-examination and allow for exclamations of "Oh!" as the text and the cover begin to meld together in a wonderful stew of symbolism. The Gist: Rhine Ellery's life is ebbing away. She knows that, like all young women born of her generation, she will die at the age of 20. No longer believing in the possibility of a miracle cure, she was content to live out her days struggling for survival with her brother, Rowan. However, the Gatherers had different plans. They swept her off the streets of New York and put her on display as a child bride for the wounded Linden. Now, surrounded by wealth and opulence, Rhine sees the damage and decay beneath the beautiful facade and begins her fight to escape and to live the meager years she has left, as she chooses. Review: On the surface, it appears that Rhine has found paradise. A sprawling mansion, a gentle and caring husband and fellow wives whom she grows to love as sisters. However, this world is based on an illusion, nothing on the surface is real and it is only when one ventures below that they finally see the sharks that have been circling their legs the entire time. Rhine must decide whether it is better to live (and die) in a beautiful illusion or to risk her life escaping to a world that is harsh and cruel, but real. Destefano does not allow for one dimensional characters and presents each of her creations as a unique individual with motivations and desires that are the reader can understand, even if we don't necessarily agree with them. Vaughn, in particular, is an incredible villain. He is singularly focused and willing to sacrifice anyone in order to further his cause. His every word is cold, calculating and dripping with double meanings. But, even in such a cruel an cunning man, we are able to see his motivation and to question what levels we might stoop to in the hopes of finding a cure. In Wither the plot does not explode like a firework but rather unfurls slowly but steadily, enveloping the reader and investing them in the lives of each character. Unfortunately, there is a lack of tension that tempers the excitement level. I adore books that leave the reader holding their breath, willing for fate to step in an ensure success for our heroine, this was not one of those books. There was simply not a strong enough sense of danger to make me actually fear for Rhine's life. This book is a strong opening to the trilogy. I look forward to seeing what other horrors this world holds. Teaching/Parental Notes: Age: 15 and up Gender: Female Sex: Spoken about but not described. Violence: Kidnapping, poisoning? Inappropriate Language: None Substance Abuse: Underage drinking Other Issues: Child brides, polygamy, pregnancy in a young girl and her giving birth

Reviews can be found at http://readingbetweenclasses.blogspot.ca/ Cover Impressions: At first glance, this cover falls into the category of "pretty girl in a pretty dress". However, upon closer inspection there are several elements that tell a lot about the story. These elements are tied together by lines and circles, the reader is enticed to follow. I am a big fan of covers that beg re-examination and allow for exclamations of "Oh!" as the text and the cover begin to meld together in a wonderful stew of symbolism. The Gist: Rhine Ellery's life is ebbing away. She knows that, like all young women born of her generation, she will die at the age of 20. No longer believing in the possibility of a miracle cure, she was content to live out her days struggling for survival with her brother, Rowan. However, the Gatherers had different plans. They swept her off the streets of New York and put her on display as a child bride for the wounded Linden. Now, surrounded by wealth and opulence, Rhine sees the damage and decay beneath the beautiful facade and begins her fight to escape and to live the meager years she has left, as she chooses. Review: On the surface, it appears that Rhine has found paradise. A sprawling mansion, a gentle and caring husband and fellow wives whom she grows to love as sisters. However, this world is based on an illusion, nothing on the surface is real and it is only when one ventures below that they finally see the sharks that have been circling their legs the entire time. Rhine must decide whether it is better to live (and die) in a beautiful illusion or to risk her life escaping to a world that is harsh and cruel, but real. Destefano does not allow for one dimensional characters and presents each of her creations as a unique individual with motivations and desires that are the reader can understand, even if we don't necessarily agree with them. Vaughn, in particular, is an incredible villain. He is singularly focused and willing to sacrifice anyone in order to further his cause. His every word is cold, calculating and dripping with double meanings. But, even in such a cruel an cunning man, we are able to see his motivation and to question what levels we might stoop to in the hopes of finding a cure. In Wither the plot does not explode like a firework but rather unfurls slowly but steadily, enveloping the reader and investing them in the lives of each character. Unfortunately, there is a lack of tension that tempers the excitement level. I adore books that leave the reader holding their breath, willing for fate to step in an ensure success for our heroine, this was not one of those books. There was simply not a strong enough sense of danger to make me actually fear for Rhine's life. This book is a strong opening to the trilogy. I look forward to seeing what other horrors this world holds. Teaching/Parental Notes: Age: 15 and up Gender: Female Sex: Spoken about but not described. Violence: Kidnapping, poisoning? Inappropriate Language: None Substance Abuse: Underage drinking Other Issues: Child brides, polygamy, pregnancy in a young girl and her giving birth

In Rhine's world society has been plagued with a deadly virus that kills women at the age of twenty years old, and women at the age of twenty-five. The population has decreased so much that teenage girls are taken at will by Gatherers to be sold to men who will take in a polygamous marriage. Rhine is one of these wives, a sister wife to Cecily and Jenna. Blond, and beautiful her eyes marked with one brown eye and one blue eye, she struggles to keep herself alive and sane while she is held prisoner at the mansion. She befriends a servant boy named Gabriel and together they plot to escape. This world is so bleak and depressing! Imagine no cure for a virus that automatically kills you! To have strength as Rhine does makes up for most of this slow paced novel. The relationships between the sister wives were just beautiful and it felt real. All of them being imprisoned in such a place where the rest of the world is bleak and hungry made their situation less frightening. I completely adore Rhine's strength of character. Her strong will to get out and find her brother is what moved the story along. The writing is beautiful and Lauren DeStefano is a great writer. I look forward to reading Fever. Rating 3/5 Quotes "Love is natural. Even the human race can't claim to be natural anymore."—Rhine (119)

In anticipation for book two, entitled Fever, I picked this one up to see what it was all about. I’m a sucker for pretty covers, and Wither’s cover composition is amazing! The model, dress and bird all make for a striking cover on its own, but it’s the subtle circles that link the head, wedding band clad hand (say that fast 5 times) and caged bird that pull together the theme of forced and trapped marriage. The story immediately starts with a bang, it throws you into a claustrophobic panic as we are introduced to Rhine who has been kidnapped along with a group of other girls to be sold off as brides to be baby making factories for the rich in order to try and save the dying human race. It’s a tense situation as selections are made, and the fates of the girls are decided. After the initial bustle of being kidnapped and sorted, we are introduced to Housemaster Vaughn - a scientist working on the cure for the virus and father to Linden Ashby who is the husband to be for Rhine, along with her impending “sister wives” Cecily and Jenna. After the marriage, the plot slows down and takes it’s time to explain the back story of Rhine and how she is coping with her new life, her interactions with the other wives, and what her plan is to get out before she spends the rest of her short life in a lavish mansion. Point is - the plot tends to linger here for awhile. Although this really reflects how little there was in the way of entertainment and freedoms for these girls in this marriage. We as the reader’s don’t get to see much outside of the gates of the estate, but the scenic areas we are exposed to are very poignant places. It does pick up after awhile and for the last leg of the story - once all the pieces have a solid foundation to work from, I couldn’t stop reading until I found out what happened next. Rhine is resourceful and very tact which serves her extremely well in the mansion in order to survive. I have to say I love how complex the character Linden is, on one hand he’s a creep for participating in these marriages (especially the consummating parts… read it, you’ll see what I mean), but the way he acts toward Rhine is completely different and they seem to be building a really meaningful relationship where he isn’t a villain at all. In fact at some points I was rooting for him. The dynamic nature of the wives kept things interesting in the household, each one had their own persona and purpose that fit into a specific role in the polygamous relationship. Housemaster Vaughn is an intriguing character, he’s that guy that immediately gives you the heebie-geevies (literally my skin crawled during every scene with him) because you just know there’s something off about him. My only real complaint is with the servant Gabriel who Rhine gets close to, and is supposed to be a love interest. There’s something there, but Gabriel just seemed like such a wooden character (likely due to his role as a servant) that their relationship doesn’t quite get to form. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I think most people will. I’m really looking forward Fever and seeing where Rhine’s story goes.

I was really impressed with this book. i really want to read the second one so badly

I didn’t want it to end! It was *that* good!! Wither has become my favourite dystopian novel. This book is a good lesson to show what can happen when scientists and geneticists try to play God: Their attempts to create a superior, disease-free race backfires when the offspring of the genetically modified individuals die prematurely, at the age of 20 years for females and 25 years for males. The first generation is determined to find a cure for the virus before the entire population is wiped out. To do so, they need more test subjects. Polygamy becomes the norm, and young girls of child-bearing age are snatched up by “Gatherers,” who round the girls up to be brides for the sons of the first generation. The girls are expected to have as many children as they can to ensure the future survival of the human race. Even if a cure is not found before the brides die, their children will be studied and tested in an effort to find the antidote. Rhine, a 16 year-old teenager, is one of the unlucky brides who have been abducted by the Gatherers. She, along with two other girls (13 year-old Cecily and 18 year-old Jenna), are brought to the estate of wealthy Housemaster Vaughn. The young ladies are to be the sister brides of Vaughn’s son, 21 year old Linden, whose first wife, 20 year-old Rose, is on her deathbed. Rhine realizes that the success of her intended escape depends on her ability to gain the trust of her husband and his domineering father. She must pretend to be enamoured by her husband and complacent with her lifestyle in the lap of luxury if she has any chance at all to flee. She will stop at nothing to find her way back to her twin brother, Rowan, the only family that she has left since their parents died. Rhine finds an unlikely ally in Gabriel, who is a servant in the mansion. I loved, loved, loved Wither! I found this to be a very dark and emotional read, because DeStefano touches on so many moral and ethical issues in the world that she has created: Genetic manipulation, polygamy, murder, kidnapping, teenage pregnancy, abuse. These are very mature topics for a YA novel. Vaughn was the perfect villain. Although DeStefano tries to create sympathy towards Linden by painting him as a victim of his father’s machinations, I could not think of him as anything but a randy young man who revelled in bedding multiple wives! I was particularly bothered by his sexual relationship with 13 year-old Cecily. That’s just...wrong. I found him nearly as loathsome as his father. Rhine is an intelligent, thoughtful, and gutsy young lady who knew that she had to play the game to get what she wanted. At times, I do not know how she managed to keep up the act of devoted wife. Her strength and determination are admirable qualities. And who could not help but love Gabriel? His innocence was heart-breaking, as well as his unswerving servitude to his masters. His moments with Rhine were so sweet, but I wanted more! The gorgeous cover depicting Rhine as the bird in the gilded cage was perfect. My fingers could not flip the pages of this book fast enough, and I reached the end to pause and reflect only for a moment before I dove into the next in the series, Fever. MY RATING: 5 stars!! It was superb! I loved it, and I will likely re-read it again in the future! You should definitely read it!

well i am gonna start of by saying that i picked up this book about 5 times before i bought it beacuse i did not think i was gonna like it at all but i must say that i 100 percent loved it it was one of the best books in a long time that i have read that was not part of the supernatural wolrd and i just bought the sec book tonight and i am gonna start it right now hehe i loved how it started with a bunch of girl traped in a van and then 3 were picked then they were forse to merry lienden i could not spell his name lol anyways and to find out that he was not the bad guy and she started to have feelings for him a little bit and how she loved her sisters wifes one more then the other and then there is gabriel who she is in love with but has not said it yet but we will find out in book 2 of fever give it 10 thumbs up

As part of my book buying ban of late December (i.e. We’re traveling, I should save money for traveling, instead of buying books), I found myself in Wal-Mart staring at their selection of books. Being that it was around the holidays, I had frequenting the store often, always finding myself staring at the same selection of books, over and over. But this day was different. This was the day I saw Wither, a book that was on my wish list, gracing the shelves! Naturally, I had to buy it, take it home, and read it immediately (ignoring the oh-so-many books on my TBR … uh … bookcase(s)). I’m going to say this first, that after I finished reading the book, I immediately flocked to Goodreads to read some reviews, to see what other people had to say about it because I absolutely loved it and I was taken aback by how many people were caught up in the SCIENCE of it all. What? Call me ignorant, but as I read the book and learned how scientists have genetically engineered people so much that now males die at 25 and females at 20, I thought nothing of it. Actually, that’s not true, I thought how COOL it was to have something different! I didn’t analyze the explanations for this future dystopian world that DeStefano laid out for me. Instead, I took in the fiction of it all and found myself completely absorbed in this crazy book where females were sold for marriage, not to be the sole bride of their captor, but instead live in a polygamous marriage for the end of their (short) life. Am I wrong to have enjoyed such a book and NOT analyze it completely? I don’t think so. In fact, I’ve seen movies with people who are constantly ripping apart the film saying, “Oh, this wouldn’t happen,” or, “This isn’t believable!” Of course not! It’s FICTION! I enjoyed it and that’s enough for me. I was completely transfixed of the story of Rhine as she’s waiting, basically, for her life to end. I can’t even imagine what that would be like, to have your life calculated to the year, knowing exactly when you’re going to leave this earth. Of course, with the end of Wither, the reader is not left without Rhine. Instead, the book is set up for a sequel, which–at least to me–is awesome because I need to get more of the action! I really look forward to reading the next book in this series. I feel that Lauren DeStefano has a winner on her hands and I have my fingers crossed that her books to come are winners, too.