review: fever - lauren destefano

FEVER
Lauren DeStefano
Release Date: February 21, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 341 pages
Source: bought

Rating: 3 out of 5

"Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Rhine and Gabriel may have escaped the beautiful prison of Wither’s mansion, but they are far from escaping danger. First they’re chased for stealing a getaway boat, and then the fleeing pair ends up in the eerie den of Madame, an old woman who collects girls and sells them to the highest bidders. Worst of all, Vaughn, Rhine’s sinister father-in-law, seems to be on her trail every step of the way. Rhine remains determined to get to her brother in Manhattan—but the road they are on is long and perilous.

Now that Rhine has finally regained her freedom, what lengths will she need to go to in order to keep it?"

Honestly, I was soooo excited to read this book as Wither probably has made it onto my list of favourites. I'm not sure if because I was SO hyped for this book and created unrealistic expectations, that it fell flat for me? I was pretty dissapointed! Lauren picked up immediately from where she left off, and I was excited to see where she would take this. However I found whilst reading the plot didn't really seem to go anywhere, and the pacing was really slow. I feel bad saying it, but this left me bored. It wasn't really an exciting read, as Rhine and Gabriel just seem to wander, with occasional exciting points.

I was dissapointed with the characters aswell, Rhine seems to have to carry the story. Whilst I connect to Rhine and find her a good main character, I was dissapointed at the lack of development in Gabriel. I was hoping we'd find out a little more about him but we don't really. However I did like finding more out about Jenna, and Rhine's realisation that she didn't know her aswell as she thought she did.

Another factor that dissapointed me was the lack of romantic development between Rhine and Gabriel, it felt like instead of there actually being feelings between them, they were just together by coincidence. Maybe this could easily be explained by what they go through throughout the book, but as I'm quite a romantic I was a little disheartened!

I will say the last quarter or so of the book was definitely the saving grace. There were interesting plot developments which completely gripped me. The reappearance of Linden was welcome, as I will admit I have a soft spot for him! I was practically in tears the last few chapters of the book, I just wish it had been the same throughout! The ending sets the way for an interesting conclusion to the triology, and despite the slight dissapointment I found Fever to be, I will definitely pick up the next. I would highly suggest if you haven't already, to read the first novel Wither, definitely a 5 out of 5 in my books (no pun intended!)