Series Rating: 4/5 Stars

Type of Book: Young Adult

Synopsis:Ninety-five days, and then I’ll be safe. I wonder whether the procedure will hurt. I want to get it over with. It’s hard to be patient. It’s hard not to be afraid while I’m still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn’t touched me yet. Still, I worry. They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness. The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t.

Review:
This book takes place somewhere in the future where love has been declared “the most deadly of deadly things”. The government requires that all citizens undergo a procedure where basically their feelings are removed and they are matched with a ‘mate’  based on their tests they take; their whole future is mapped out for them.

Though the book revolves around the concept of ‘love’,  it wasn’t just a love story. We were able to see how other relationships were affected without love, including friendship, and family, thus making this dystopian book feel  real.

Lena, the narrator, can be very frustrating at times. I really liked how determined she was, but at times I felt like she was doing the whole ‘damsel in distress’ thing. Reading from Lena’s perspective was a very easy read and it flowed very well. You couldn’t help but to feel bad for Lena because of everything that is coming to the surface as this book progressed.

One of the things I loved to hate was the ending of this book; I simply wanted more. I felt like maybe there were pages missing from the book because I couldn’t imagine it ending the way it did. It reminded me of Romeo and Juliet. It was an unexpected turn of events and I think it would make some of the readers want to go to read the next book.

The reason why I didn’t give this book a full 5 star review is because I didn’t really connect with the characters the way that I would’ve liked. There were also some things I found to be a bit repetitive as I delved further into the book. I also took away ‘points’, so to speak, away because I didn’t want to automatically jump into the next book as others have made me.

With that being said, it was an overall good book! It wasn’t my favorite, but don’t let that stop you from reading this series – I plan to eventually.