Teaser Tuesday (136)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers


Guernsey Retreat (43%)
    - Anne Allen

Louisa had only said that her hypnosis session had produced results, but from the excitement in her voice he guessed it was significant.

Sever

With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them.

Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and about the past her parents never had the chance to explain.

In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.

*Contains Spoilers*

Illusions and lies are revealed for what they really are in Sever, the final book in the Chemical Garden trilogy, by Lauren DeStefano. Rhine discovers unlikely friends in her former husband, Cecily, and Uncle Reed. She escapes the medicated clutches of Vaughn once again and continues her search for Rowan amid a sea of heartbreaking events. 

At the end of the second book, Rhine is caught by Vaughn and being tortured, once again, in the name of science. The reader/character connection is at its highest point because we don't want to lose the main character. Those feelings of worry, fear, and hope for survival carry over into the beginning of book three. When Rhine makes it to a safe place and resumes her plans to find her brother, readers are right beside her every step of the way. But when tragedies strike, one after another, it's hard to stay optimistic about the end of this book. Hope slightly wavers when it's revealed that Rowan has been working with Dr. Ashby the entire time Rhine has been missing. Rhine was a likeable character, and the novel's point of view made it easy to understand her perspective, but Rowan's right. She's too empathetic. Her empathy and understanding for even the villainous character made me feel as if my opinions were wrong and misplaced. Can't say she isn't loyal, though. She overflows with it. 

The plot of Sever begins with Rhine trapped in the basement. When she tries to surgically extract her tracking device with a piece of glass, Cecily and Linden find her and rush her to the hospital. Here Linden is introduced to his father's misdeeds. Linden promises safety in the form of his Uncle Reed, who is nothing like Vaughn. When the radio reveals that Rowan is bombing labs relatively nearby, Rhine insists that if she can reach him then she can stop him. But their reunion isn't what she's hoped for as she learns of Vaughn's hold over her twin. And then the illusions fall away, or so it would seen. Vaughn takes Rhine and Rowan to Hawaii, where the virus never existed and tells them that he has succeeded in making a cure which has already been administered to them. A promise lingers that Vaughn will watch over them every day at their home in Florida. That is, until he's shot and killed. Now, can I please ask, why didn't someone do that earlier? It would have saved everyone a lot of time. 

I had to finish the trilogy. I'm not the type of reader to just leave something undone like that, but it wasn't my favorite series. Wither was exceptional. Fever was creepy. Sever was a slap in the face. I enjoyed the plot; I liked the characters. However, the writing style became a bit repetitive after three books of Rhine's internal monologue. I guess what bothers me the most is that Rhine could never get out of Vaughn's grasp, Madame ended up playing more of a role than just a scarlet district carnival director (I did not like her), and then through all of this tragedy everything is suddenly tied up in a neat little bow after Vaughn is shot. A book with so many messy situations should be a little messy at the end of the day or else the ending rings hollow. 

Rating: 3/5 Cups

     

Photo Friday

Found on Pinterest
Art Print Available at: http://society6.com/product/read-l9o_print#1=45

I would very much like for this to adorn a wall in my future library.

Seriously, how cute? 

Fever

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.

*May Contain Spoilers*

Lauren DeStefano continues The Chemical Garden series with book two, Fever. The stakes, and temperatures, are high as Gabriel and Rhine travel from Florida to Manhattan. The fever comes in waves of hallucinations, nightmares, and lost time. Rhine struggles to hold herself together, determined to make it back to her brother, Rowan. 

After the end of the first book, readers had a pretty strong connection with Rhine. In a world full of fear and misery, experiments and death, it's hard to find someone worth trusting. To the readers, Rhine and Gabriel are the only characters that can be trusted. In the first half of Fever, the connection with Rhine begins to slip. When she's captured by a paranoid elderly woman who forces young girls into prostitution, Rhine becomes darker. She begins to lose herself to the smoke and mirrors, therefore causing readers to distance themselves from her. Though after the escape, the bond will slowly be rebuilt. Through Gabriel's sickness and the unexpected adoption of a seven-year-old girl, Rhine shows her loyalty and caring nature once again. 

The plot of the Fever follows Gabriel and Rhine after they've successfully navigated the boat to South Carolina. Unsure where to go, they stumble upon a carnival which turns out to be a prostitution ring. Held prisoner by guns, drugs, and electric fences Gabriel and Rhine attempt to create a plan. Eventually they do escape, but with a few mishaps. After stealing money, they purchase bus tickets and make their way to Manhattan where everything seems to fall apart, or fall into its correct place. Whichever way you would like to look at it. 

The first half of the book wasn't very enjoyable to me. But perhaps that was the point? I wanted Rhine and Gabriel to get out of there as soon as possible. My skin was crawling from the descriptions. The second half of the book was surprising. Information was discovered that was both creepy and heartbreaking. But even in the darkest place, there is a ray of hope. And that single beam of light will keep me reading into the third one. As quickly as possible. 

Rating: 3/5 Cups

Review of Book One in The Chemical Garden Series