Review - Fever - Dee Shulman

FeverTitle: Fever
Author: Dee Shulman
Genre: Young Adult, Time-Travel
Publication: April 5 2012, Puffin
Pages: 400 pages, Paperback
Source: Thank you so much to Penguin Books South Africa for giving me Fever in exchange for a honest review! :)
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?
Fever had a really interesting concept. Time-travelling by having fever, some how reincarnating to a different a person living in a different century and loving someone who is lethal to your health. It was a good story yet there were a few distractions that had my attention elsewhere.

First off, I LOVE the cover. The way they are holding hands shows how they are united by this curious virus that threatens their life. I also love how the electric sphere surrounding their hands looks  scientific and a lot of the content in Fever is based on scientific fact. It's a bright, sparkly cover that is well suited to the story within.

The story gripped my attention in the beginning and most of the way throughout the rest of the book. There were quite a few parts that had me skimming the pages and didn't hold my interest. The pacing was quite slow at times but picked up in other parts during the story. I felt that sometimes the story went into detail without actually letting the reader know exactly what was going on, so I was reading all this detail yet the author wasn't quite explaining what I needed to know. It felt like while there was detail in the book, we were skimming over it, not delving into it like we were suppose to.

*SPOILER IN THIS PARAGRAPH*

I also don't think the pacing was laid out satisfyingly enough. A lot of the events in Fever seemed monotonous and the romance between Eva and Seth developed a bit too quickly, but then again it didn't because Eva was somehow Livia, so her and Seth did actually know and love each other. I was also quite perplexed with Eva being Lydia in her past life and the author didn't explain  as to why this had occurred. 

The plot was interesting, it flowed nicely and there was a decent amount of surprises scattered throughout the book. Like I said in the previous paragraph, some of the events were monotonous, such as Eva being admitted to hospital every couple of chapters and Seth running and researching every day. It was an addictive read and I did find myself unable to put it down. :)

I really liked Eva. A lot of people have stated that they thought Eva was too perfect. I didn't think so! I have known people who are like Eva, gorgeous, talented and smart. There are people who are close to perfect but everyone has flaws. Eva had a devastating illness that she kept failing to recover from and she almost died, I'd rather be super healthy than gorgeous, talented and smart - wouldn't you? :) I also enjoyed Eva's chapters more than Seth's. She had more going on in her life and was a more interesting character than Seth, I thought. I also loved how Eva loved science, I'm a lover-of-science-geek myself! :)

Seth was a Roman gladiator, and it was really a wake-up call seeing how they used to suffer and be treated like slaves. When he lost Lydia I was crying along with Seth and you could really see the way her death changed him, you could feel the turmoil, anger and over-whelming sadness crashing down on him.

Fever was a satisfying read that I could not put down. A new take on time-travelling that will leave you stunned as well as having a million and one questions flitting through your head. It was an interesting time-travel novel with sweet romance, however the pacing was a bit temperamental at times and I feel that the a lot of the questions were left unanswered and I was quite a bit confuzzled at times. A scientific read that will make you think about the thought of time-travelling. I look forward to the next book in the trilogy. 

I give it: 3 CUPCAKES!