Dividing Eden

In all honesty, I thought this story was just... flat, and unbelievable. I didn't care for any of the characters and all of the conflicts seemed too cliché, too glossed over, and just too many. Here's a list of some of the conflicts in the book, which are thrown at you with hardly any explanation:

-Carys and Andreus' supposed 'close' relationship that is anything but.
-Their family, for some reason or another, kicked out the previous ruling family and there's worry that the surviving members of the old family will come to take back the crown, and apparently quite a few people wish that would happen. Why the old family was kicked out? Good question, and one that does not get answered.
-The twins' father, the king, was a pretty worthless ruler, causing more problems with his ineptitude.
-Andreus can't keep his pants zipped.
-There are supernatural (?) creatures that threaten the city and its people every winter. And guess what? Winter is coming. (I kept imagining the White Walkers from Game of Thrones every time these things were randomly brought up.)
-Unnecessary character flaws that don't make any sense.
-The treatment of women fluctuates. It starts as a misogynistic world, but then they don't accept the last living male of the late king as the true ruler, so they make him and the princess fight for the crown, which means they would accept a female as their ruler, but yet they don't let females do hardly anything in their world, so more confusion there.

The book makes it known very quickly that there is something wrong with Andreus, that he is cursed, with what appears to be a simple case of asthma. In this world, if you are sick, you're 'cursed' and will be killed on site.

According to an old prophecy, a cursed child will cause the downfall of Eden. Carys and her mother are the only two people left alive who are aware of Andreus' affliction, so Carys has spent her whole life protecting her brother and making sure his secret stays just that: a secret. This means that Carys has been beaten, verbally abused, shunned, laughed at, and had to give up her life in order to keep Andreus safe, and she does this out of pure love for him. She even became addicted to a drug (cocaine? meth? something similar) because of him and her hateful mother.

Instead of being a loving brother and thanking his sister for sacrificing her life so that he can live his, he takes advantage of her at every turn. He draws too much attention to himself from his crazy antics, he goes around sleeping with every woman he can get in his bed, including his brother's fiancée, he chooses a night of pleasure over helping his sister after she took yet another beating to save him, and then he claims that she's the untrustworthy one. If I could have killed Andreus off in the first chapter, I would have. The relationship that Carys and Andreus should have had, the one that the book jacket made it seem they had, and their actual dynamic were two opposite ends of the spectrum. If Andreus had acted like this their entire life, Carys wouldn't have cared so much for him or given up so much to save him, and she shouldn't have. Even after SPOILER he blatantly tries to kill her in front of hundreds of their people, she still wants to try to save him. I'm sorry, but no.

Another thing that really got me, beside all the forced conflicts, unlikable and flat characters, and the fact it took almost half the book to get to the thick of the plot, is the forced use of supernatural powers.

When Harry Potter found out he was a wizard, there were steps taken to show people that he did, in fact, have something strange going on with him from the very start of the book, even besides Dumbledore and McGonagall's little visit in the prologue. But in this story, it's thrown on at the very end, like something you see at the grocery store that you throw in your cart that you know you'll never eat, but it's there and looks interesting.

Now imagine if J.K.Rowling had written a book about all of Harry's childhood with the Dursley's, where he was still locked in the cupboard under the stairs, still treated like a piece of moldy bread they can't throw away, and is still the sweet little boy we grew up with, but he never shows any sign of having magic, ever. Then, at the very end of the book, Hagrid shows up and says, "Yer a wizard!" Of course, Harry will deny it and say he's not, and Hagrid will ask him if anything weird or explainable ever happened to him, and Harry would say, "No. I have lived a very normal life and have never seen anything or caused anything that could be considered 'magical' to happen." Then Hagrid just tells him to go with him to Hogwarts, and suddenly Harry has all of this power and is like, "Yes, I had I feeling that this is something I could do and I am not surprised by it at all." That's basically what happens here.

Honestly, I would have loved to read a book about loving twins who are insanely protective of each other because of the secrets they must keep hidden, who have to work together after losing their whole family to keep each other alive, all while people are plotting against them and trying to tear them apart. Instead, I got a story about twins where the sister claims to fiercely love her brother, even though she has every reason to just ignore him, and a brother who treats his sister that has saved his life dozens of times like a lukewarm bath: you only get into the tub because it is the only one available to you and your girlfriend won't let you in her pants until you bathe.

All in all, I was disappointed with this book. I felt there was a lot of wasted potential with this story. There's going to be a sequel, and I'm not sure if I'll be getting it. Joelle Charbonneau's story wasn't the worst I've read, but it's not one I'll be recommending to friends, either.

I have never been more frustrated with a character than I have with this book. Don't get me wrong, I loved this book. It had a slow go at first but it did pick up the pace. Throughout the second half of the book I wanted to jump in and shake some sense into them. I know I cannot be the only one that feels that way. He will probably be at the top of the list of most frustrating characters I've read.

I love this writing style and just the general way this was written I suppose. I don't think I can call this an easy read, because it wasn't. Not in the sense that it was difficult or long winded. But that you really had to be on your toes the entire read. Really there was no way to predict what was going to happen. Which happens a lot in this genre anymore. I can safely say that this book really impressed me. I cannot wait for the next book to come out. So much DRAMA!

Actual rating 3.5 stars

When I saw Joelle Charbonneau was writing a new series/duology, I immediately added it to my TBR pile. I was a big fan of her previous series, The Testing, and I liked her writing style so this was an automatic must-read for me. Fortunately, I enjoyed it just as much! While very different from Ms. Charbonneau's previous trilogy, Dividing Eden will hook you just the same. I honestly never wanted to put this book down because I was that intrigued! While it was a bit predictable, it definitely didn't disappoint.

This story follows Carys and Andreus, a brother and sister team who will go to great lengths for each other and know each other better than they know themselves. I loved the dynamic they had in the beginning of the story. However, 2 unfortunate deaths begin to drive a wedge between them that slowly grows wider and wider as the story progresses. As Andreus spirals further and further into madness, Carys is left wondering what has become of her brother and is desperate to find a way to bring him back to her. While the plot of the story is relatively simple, there are many layers to this story that have yet to be discovered. This was a great introduction to the world while still keeping an excellent pace. There was never a time when the story felt bogged down by too much detail. Ms. Charbonneau begins to hint at a magical element that will be incorporated into the story, which I'm greatly looking forward to! This aspect will just add yet another awesome layer to this duology.

I truly loved Carys as one of our lead characters. Told in alternating POVs between Carys and Andreus, I feel like Carys is the automatic standout. She is willing to do anything to ensure her brother's safety. She has no desire to sit on the throne (even though she has just as much of a right as Andreus does), but she wants to be by his side while Andreus is there. When the competition starts, I loved that she came up with a plan to guarantee each siblings' safety...but alas, plans don't always work out. I was rooting for Carys the entire novel, and it broke my heart to see her affected as much as she was as she watched Andreus become a person she never thought possible. Andreus' POV was very interesting as well, but for a different reason. While I didn't particularly like his character (which you really aren't supposed to haha), I found his perspective fascinating. I feel like there is more going on with him and maybe he even has some magical powers himself that are being manifested as his mysterious "illness." Imogen, a seer for the kingdom (who may or may not be a fraud), got under his skin and personally I was hoping something would happen to her character because I hated her.

One of the things that did make me lower my rating was that I wish the magical element would have been incorporated a little more in this novel. It's hinted at several times throughout, but nothing is fully confirmed (with the exception of 1 scene). I know that this will obviously play a larger role in the next novel, but I wish it was a bit more fleshed out now. Additionally, unless I am right and there is something more going on with Andreus, his "madness" seemed to be a bit too sudden. It honestly was like one scene he was okay and then the next he was cruel and merciless. I hope this will be explained more in the next book as well, but for now it seemed too drastic of a change in a short period of time.

I would highly recommend this book if you are a fan of the fantasy genre or Joelle Charbonneau. I thought her writing improved from her previous series, and she has crafted an excellent new world. ...one I never wanted leave. She has set up the next book (or perhaps even the rest of a series) perfectly, and there is plenty of room for world-building and characterization in the upcoming novel/s. I am very intrigued as to where Carys and Andreus' story will go!

Happy reading :)

I'd give this 3 1/2 Stars
The things I liked - The story is original from a lot of the YA books I read. I liked that it's from a brother/sister point of view. It did a good job of holding my attention. It was a quick, easy read.
The things I didn't like - The story was fairly predictable. I could see where it was going at every turn, but this is YA so I 'll give it a small break here. The relationship between the brother and sister works in the beginning, but ends up being one of the things that bothers me most about this story. They are built up at the beginning as being extremely close with an unbreakable family bond, then all of a sudden one of them is manipulated so easily that it made my head shake back and forth wondering how any character could be so stupid. I had already guessed this rift would happen, and I understand the story needed the conflict, but it's so poorly done that it doesn't ring true.
I will probably still pick up the next book because I am interested to see where the story goes.

[[VIDEOID:89f239510de4461b98a1d06c3bc18fc9]] These were a total cover buy for me. I can’t remember if I even read the synopsis prior to purchasing but I love the covers!

The story was engaging and the premise was unique so I was curious how it was going to play out. It follows a royal family where two twins have to compete in trials to become the new leader. It is full of deceit, mistrust, treachery, and betrayal. Plus talk about a completely disfunctional family! The biggest question in these books is who can you trust? The world-building was fantastic as well. Definitely recommend these YA books.

I already knew I liked Charbonneau's writing before I started this book, but this one sucked me in even more quickly than I expected. I had to force myself to put it down at night so I could go to bed, because I just wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen next. The characters are great and you never truly know what side anyone is on. I can't wait to get my hands on the second book!

A fun but simple fantasy world, intricate laws of royalty, interwoven plots, deadly secrets, and more. Love it.

story was interesting.
unfortunately one of the main characters was unlikable almost from the start. I couldn't get past my dislike for the character.

Masterful book with a captivating plot and characters. This book is filled with twists that keep the reading jumping at every turn of the page!

This book is AMAZING! so well written! I definitely favor Carys but I think you're supposed too haha but all the characters are well written! At times there was a bit of too much mystery and I didn't want to be strung along for too long but the thing is the writing was just so amazing and the wait was totally worth it. I'm an aspiring writer and reading books like this is what gives me inspiration to write. My only wish is that I had found this book later so that I wouldn't have to wait so long for the next book!!