"Eden's Root" by Rachel E. Fisher

I was genuinely surprised by how much I enjoyed Eden's Root by Rachel E. Fisher.  I'm not really the target audience for this novel but it was really interesting.  Granted, it did take awhile for the story to get going and I felt that ending was a bit drawn out, the majority of the novel was pretty awesome.

Set in the future, Eden's Root follows Fi Kelly as she learns that the food her family and the rest of the world has been consuming is slowly killing them- and is running out.  When her father (who is dying from the Sickness) informs her of the likely future of the planet, Fi begins to plan for the moment when everything will change.  Even though she is young, it will be up to her to lead her Family to the safety of Eden.  When the military begins to take over their town's resources Fi and her family sneak into the forest and begin a journey that will change all of them.  The responsibility of feeding and caring for the Family rests on Fi's shoulders, with the help of her best friend and almost brother, Sean.  Together the two begin to raid cities on their journey to provide for the Family.  They face overwhelming obstacles on their mission to reach the safety of Eden.

This novel has a little bit of everything.  It's a dystopian that contains very realistic elements, action, a little bit of romance and a very intriguing story.  I felt like I was reading a novel that could actually happen in real life. I am definitely going to be reading the sequel, Seeds of War.  I can easily recommend this book to fans of dystopian novels.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Happy Reading!
-Melly

"Perfect" by Ellen Hopkins

As always, Ellen Hopkins has written a captivating book that I found nearly impossible to put down. I won and ARC from a contest offered by Fire And Ice back in July. I pretty much danced around the post office when the book arrived (a rather common thing for me in libraries, bookstores, the book aisle in grocery stores...) and had to suffer through an afternoon of waiting to get off work to rush home to read. And read I did.

Perfect is a companion to Hopkins' Impulse. If I had to select my favorite of Hopkins' books, Impulse just might be at the bottom of that list. However, I absolutely loved Perfect. The novel centers around four characters (I often find myself forgetting who's who when there are multiple leads, but Hopkins always handles this well), Cara (the sister of Conner from Impulse), Kendra (Conner's ex-girlfriend), Sean and Andre. I was instantly swept into the lives of these characters.

Hopkins, as always, captures the emotions of her characters and in the process creating something more. I do not feel as though I am simply reading a book when I read her work. By starting the book, I am with the character until the end. Often no one is aware of the character's delima until they are too far gone. Because of this I find myself wanting to scream at those who could help, “pay attention!” It is often to hard to remember that these characters are fictional, Hopkins paints them in such a realistic way. In case you haven't guess, I heavily recommend this (and all of her other books) to just about everyone!

Check out Ellen on LiveJournal, Twitter, and Facebook!

And check out Fire and Ice on Twitter!

Happy Reading!

-Melly