Fire and Flood (Fire & Flood, #1)

by Victoria Scott

[shannonmiz]

Full review here

I honestly contemplated DNFing for awhile. I never DNF. Ever. I have not finished maybe three books in my entire reading history. And I almost did it twice in one week (you'll have to see what the other is later in the week!).

Anyway, here's why: I did not believe a bit of this. I just could not get on board. First of all, no one, and I mean no one steals a car and drives hundreds of miles away to compete in what sounds like the most ridiculous scam known to man. Granted, Tella does question it a bit, which makes her at least have a bit of sense, but it goes out the window in a hurry when she decides to do it anyway. I get the desperation about the sick brother, but a race providing a "cure" complete with instructions given to you via some weird headset? Everyone would pass. Every. Single. Person.

Then, when we got to the actual race, I felt like I was reading about some strange love child that The Hunger Games had with The Testing. I was kind of feeling like I'd read this book before, many times. When I put it down for the night, at exactly 25% (thanks, Kindle!), I seriously wasn't sure I'd pick it back up.

But then.....

I could not put the book down. Could not. Because I needed to know all the things. Immediately. Things started picking up when Tella found some fellow Contenders. There was a lot of running around trying to survive, there were a lot of complicated relationships, there were Pandoras. Now, obviously, I can't go into great detail, because you don't really want me to tell you what happened, right? But suffice it to say, the action picked up and it was like no other book I've read. Gone were the similarities to other books, gone even was my disbelief with Tella going in the first place (though I still don't understand it, I no longer cared. I was just glad she was there, because I could read about it!). Some of my questions were answered, some were not. Maybe some never will be, but I assume quite a few will be. I'll be needing Salt & Stone immediately. Please and thank you. (Wait, next February? No. No. Just no. My poor Book Hangover can't take it!)

Bottom Line:

I want to give this ALL the stars, but I know that isn't really fair. There were some major issues in the beginning for me. But I would absolutely recommend this book, because I loved it, despite my early doubts. I am so, so glad that I gave this a chance!