Review: Wither

• Reading level: Young Adult
• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; 1 edition (March 22, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1442409053

Summary: 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?

Review: They say don't judge a book by it's cover, but I saw the cover before I knew what the book was about and knew I wanted to read it. And it's a damn good thing too because I absolutely LOVED this book. I read it in one day because I could not put it down. I even had it open on my desk during class and was reading it while pretending to write notes. It's one of those books that you can not put down. There is a certain gross factor, as the man in the story marries and impregnates a 13 year old girl, but it was written so tastefully that you feel more sorry for the girl than you do grossed out. I automatically felt a closeness to Jenna and Rhine, and felt a part of their "sister wife" little circle. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of Cecily and her willingness to be married and have a baby, I felt so bad for her. She is still such a little kid in so many ways despite that she wants to be married and be a mother. Even an insignificant character Rowan, caught my affections and I can't wait until future books in the series when I can finally meet him for real. I have a love/hate relationship with Linden. From the start I viewed him as a semi-decent man, because of his love for Rose his first wife, and then his kindness towards Rhine and his obvious affection for her. I felt a sort of jealousy when it became clear he was sleeping with Jenna and Cecily. At first I didn't believe he was actually sleeping with Cecily, I thought it was Vaughn and he somehow made her believe it was Linden, but that wasn't the case. I would most definitely recommend this book, however, to a bit of an older audience as there is quite a bit of sex and intimacy.  14+ seems appropriate. I am so happy this is a trilogy and I can see what happens for Rhine and Gabriel in the future, I can not wait for the next two books! MUST READ!