Book Review: Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott + ARC giveaway!

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
Series: Fire & Flood #1
Published by Scholastic on February 25, 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Sci-Fi, Suspense, Young Adult
Pages: 320
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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A modern day thrill ride, where a teen girl and her animal companion must participate in a breathtaking race to save her brother's life—and her own.

Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything.

Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.

The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?

‘If you’ re hearing this message, you are invited to be a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. All Contenders must report within forty-eight hours to select their Pandora companions. If you do not appear within forty-eight hours, your invitations will be eliminated.
The Brimstone Bleed will last three months and will take place across four ecosystems: desert, sea, mountains, jungle. The winning prize will be the Cure—a remedy for any illness, for any single person.
There will only be one champion.”

Erin’s Review

If you were given the chance to save a loved one from dying, would you do it? Even if you had to enter a contest where YOUR chances of survival might not be great? Imagine entering the Hunger Games..only you have to endure more than one type of terrain…. and you have a time limit to get to your destination. The Brimstone Bleed is like Hunger Games meets The Amazing Race. Only instead of a friend or a loved one as a partner, you have a PANDORA as a partner.

The Brimstone Bleed: A 3 Month long competition that goes across 4 different ecosystems. One winner will receive THE CURE.

Pandora: A genetically engineered animal. Each Pandora has special capabilities that will help their human companion make his or her way through the Brimstone Bleed. In order for a contestant to receive a Pandora the contestant must attend the Pandora Selection before the start of the Brimstone Bleed and choose their pandora.

This book is thrilling and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Tella gets invited to join the Brimstone Bleed…and she enters against her parents wishes to keep her out of it. You see, Tella’ s brother has come down with a  disease that no one can diagnose and it looks like he won’ t make it much longer.  The creators of the Brimstone Bleed have the cure and the winner of the competition will receive the cure for their sick loved one. Tella loves her brother, and just like anyone who is willing to do what they can to save their family, she is willing to sacrifice herself and enter an insane contest where the prize is a guaranteed cure to her brother’ s illness.

Tella gets the very last Pandora..Unlike other contestants who just refer to their Pandoras by what must be their serial number of sorts, Tella actually NAMES her Pandora.  She does this before it even hatches. She forms a connection with her pandora, Madox(yes, that’ s his name!), and treats him like a pet and not a weapon, where as the other contestants in the brimstone bleed only use them as a weapon. I think this works in Tella’ s favor, because as most of you know…Pets are LOYAL to their  owners. If you feed and love your pet, it will love you back and stick to your side. LOYALTY is one thing you definitely NEED from your Pandora as you make your way through the Brimstone Bleed.  Your Pandora IS YOUR COMPANION so love it as you would any other companion you have in life. Do that, and it will always have your back.  The other contestants don’ t seem to realize this and in the end.. well.. you’ ll just have to read FIRE & FLOOD and see for yourself.

Tella Holloway is one of those characters that starts off by annoying the crap out of you, but she’s a teenage girl..that’s to be expected. Once she enters the Brimstone Bleed, that all starts to change. Her character has a purpose and she’s determined to save her brother and soon she grows on you and then you’re rooting for her.

Regina did a cast of F&F in her review and I don’t know the name of the person she casted as Tella, but when I read Fire & Flood that’ s not who I pictured as Tella. For some reason, Anne Hathaway circa The Princess Diaries (before the makeover) is what popped in to my head when Tella was describing her hair. So Anne’ s face stuck with me the entire book.. Even after she cuts all of her hair off…

 

 

 

 

Guy Chambers….Is one of the first people to HELP Tella out..and then after that..He’ s in competition mode, focused on his mission and is kind of a douche. Eventually Guy and Tella become allies..He’ s very closed off and determined to WIN this competiton, though it seems as though maybe he knows more about what’ s going on then he’ s telling people.. Eventually he starts to open up to Tella and we learn some interesting things…
Oh and he’ s HOT. HOT HOT HOT HOT. There’ s totally some romantic feels happening between Tella and Guy and I can’ t wait to see what happens between them in the future!!

I would cast Guy, but I just can’t find anyone that I feel is a good Guy Chambers. BOO! So we’ll go with Victoria Scott’s vision of Guy..Who, now that I’m looking at him again…WORKS OUT JUST FINE. 😉 HAAAAAY GUY!!

 

Madox is the most badass Pandora you’ ll ever meet. What he can do is AMAZING and I think that Tella has a really good chance of winning this race if she makes it all the way through with Madox at her side. Thanks to Regina’ s early Review of Fire & Flood that she posted before I got my chance to read the book…I pictured Madox as this little dude that Regina casted for him:

 

For the first couple of days Tella tries to make it through the Brimstone Bleed on her own.  Eventually she meets up with a gaggle of characters  and soon alliances are formed. These characters are all unique and bring twists to the story line that you DO NOT see coming.

While I am pretty sure this book is NOT  of the Dystopian genre, I think that fans of Dystopian will still enjoy this book. Once this book got really going it kept you on the edge of your seat and now I cannot WAIT to read the next book. I have to see where Victoria will take us on the next leg of the Brimstone Bleed. 

Giveaway

 I am giving away my Fire & Flood ARC to one of our lucky followers! Winner must be located in the US (sorry to our international fans!) Please enter via the Rafflecopter below!

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