Review & Giveaway: Article 5 by Kristen Simmons!

Hardcover: 386 pages
Published: January 31, 2012
Publisher: Tor Teen
Series: Article 5 #1

New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. have been abandoned.
The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.
There are no more police, instead there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior, instead there are arrests, trials and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.
Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren't always this way. It's hard to forget that the United States used to be different.
Life is no longer normal, but it's normal enough, until one day, Ember's mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings...the only boy Ember has ever loved. 

I am officially HOOKED onto this series!

Article 5 takes place in the U.S. at a time when all hell has broken loose - to put it mildly. The government has taken control over everyone and everything - instituting a one-world religion, curfews and moral statutes left and right. These moral statutes get stricter every day (without the public even knowing) and civilians find themselves being arrested for the most mundane things (like being caught reading a romance novel).

Ember Miller, our heroine, is placed in a Girls "Rehab" facility after her mother is arrested for Article 5 of the statutes. Even while being beaten and tested, Ember is determined to escape from the facility and find her mother. I love her character's determination and passion! I feel like the author, Kristen Simmons, does such a great job of balancing out Ember's desperation with her fear and her spontaneity. Ember wants to get out of that facility and she's damn sure going to try every method she can think of to do so. She is eventually saved from her prison by the one guy she's ever loved, Chase Jennings, who also happens to be a soldier.

We follow Ember and Chase throughout the entire novel as Ember is hell-bent on finding her mom. Their relationship is complicated but beautiful at the same time. I loved watching the two of them try to find themselves again after all the hell they have been through. Kristen Simmons does a fantastic job of making the characters authentic and real - to the point where you don't get annoyed by their back-and-forth relationship, but yet, you completely understand it. When they kiss and then argue, you completely get it. It's truly great writing.

Last, but of course, not least, we can't ignore the awesome action scenes in this book. Let me tell you how good Kristen Simmons' writing is: there is a scene where Ember is going to have to let someone beat her hands with a stick. The scene was written in such a powerful way (the sounds, the pain, the entire scene) that I literally felt I was there in the story, and I wanted to puke. You know how, in a movie when this kind of scene comes on, you can cover your eyes and pretend it's not happening? Well, you just can't do that in a book. You are forced to read the words and the images play out in your mind, and Kristen Simmons is so good at writing that I couldn't stop reading - no matter how gross it was, lol.  I seriously think that is one of the best scenes in the entire novel (writing-wise); it just sets you up perfectly for the rest of the book.

Please do me a favor and go pick yourself up a copy of this book and LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!!!

5 out of 5 stars!

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