Fever (Fever #1)

Fever (Fever #1)  by Dee Shulman

Paperback, 400 pages

Published April 5th 2012 by Puffin

My shelves: arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, cover-appeal, death, fantasy, historical, if-i-were-a-boy, read-in-2012, sci-fi, title-appeal, young-adult

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

A fearless Roman gladiator. A reckless 21st century girl. A mysterious virus unites them . . .

152 AD. Sethos Leontis, a skilled and mesmerising fighter, is unexpectedly wounded and lies dangerously close to death.

2012 AD. Eva is brilliant - but troubled. Starting her new life at a school for the gifted, a single moment in the lab has terrifying results.

An extraordinary link brings Sethos and Eva together, but it could force them apart - because the fever that grips them cannot be cured and falling in love could be lethal . . . Can love survive when worlds collide and threaten time itself?

My thanks go to Puffin for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

Once again, this book was a case of me being completely won over by the shiny, attractive cover - I  just thought that it looked gorgeous. I'm happy to say that the contents were just as pleasing as the cover as I was easily sucked into this story of a Roman gladiator, Sethos, a present day girl, Eva, and how a fever brings them together. This was a really enjoyable, well flowing story that I found difficult to put down.

It was really easy to get sucked into this story. I thought that I may have found it difficult to swap from reading about present day to Roman times, but it was surprisingly easy to go from chapter to chapter. I was very worried that the time-travel aspect would be confusing (as they often are), but thankfully this was super easy to follow, with the two settings being very different and the time periods clearly marked at the beginning of each chapter. The chapters were often short and action packed, which made the pace of the book brilliant. 

I loved reading about both Sethos and Eva as well as their environments. I personally found Eva to be the more interesting character of the pair, but reading about Sethos and his Londinium (Roman London) setting was really captivating. I felt as though I was there with Sethos, checking out all of the Romanesque architecture and feeling edgy during his fights. I did like him, but I found him to be a little compulsive and perhaps irrational at points. 

Eva is a very talented teenage girl (with a penchant for computer hacking) who has transferred to St Magdelene's, a private school on a full scholarship due to her intellect. Of course, she's not perfect though, she hates spending time at home with her mother's partner and she's never really had many friends, though she has no problem making them at her new school. I found Eva to be quite likeable and although she was portrayed as quite a shy, quiet person, she didn't seem to be reclusive - she did seem confident in herself at points, which was nice to see. I really liked her friendship with Astrid and it was interesting to see how she interacted with others at her new school.

I thought that the romance aspect of this book was a little disappointing, only because it happened too fast. I thought that the relationship between Eva and Seth felt a little rushed and that Eva 'fell in love' with Seth quite randomly - it was although it suddenly just clicked, after no real reasoning, that she loved him. I do realise that there is certainly potential to see their relationship develop in the next two books and I look forward to seeing how it all pans out.

Fever is just the start of what looks to be like a very promising trilogy from Dee Shulman. The story has only just really begun in this book and I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses in the rest of the trilogy. I think that this trilogy is sure to become a hit with a lot of young adult readers. 

Check out the book trailer for Fever: