Fever

I read Wither, the first book in the Chemical Garden Trilogy and enjoyed it. I don't think I can say the same about this sequel. It finds Rhine and Gabriel on the run from her husband and his maniacal father. In this society, the youth are dying at young ages so men are encouraged to have many wives in order to have more children to keep society going. Rhine is married to Linden, a nice, if weak man. His father Vaughn is experimenting on the wives and their children to find a cure for the virus that is killing everyone. So, back to this story. As Gabriel and Rhine make a run for it, they wind up at a twisted carnival in the scarlet district where they are held captive and drugged by the nutso Madame. When they finally escape, they are with a small girl they saved from the carnival. They find the child's grandmother and live with her for  awhile as Rhine tries to find her twin brother Rowan. When Rhine gets increasingly sick, they don't know what to do. Vaughn finds her and she slips off into the night with him so he can cure her. Of course, he locks her in his basement and starts experimenting on her. When Linden finds out, he whisks her to the hospital and she tries to tell him how evil his father is. Most of this book is spent with either Gabriel sick from drugs or Rhine sick from whatever Vaughn has done to her. It was really exhausting to read. Gabriel is not exactly a go-getter and Rhine seems to wander with no plan other than to roam around looking for Rowan. I actually found myself hoping for Linden to get involved which is weird as he is a kidnapper. So... all in all... not at the top of my list. I will probably finish the series eventually but it's not going to be on my top ten of anything list. Don't know what is next- so many choices. Happy reading my friends.