Review: Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

Article 5 by Kristen Simmons
Release Date: January 31, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 362 pages
Publisher: Tor Teen
Series: Article 5 #1
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
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The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.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. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It's hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her 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 originally grabbed this book for two reasons: one, because the spine looked cool, and two, because I had remembered seeing this book at B&N and it looked like it'd be fun to read. So I had something like zero expectations going into this book. I mean, yes, I was really excited to read it, but that was based off of the ten seconds I took to read the inside flap of the dust cover. This said, I am kicking my own little booty right now for not having been more excited about this book and reading it sooner.

Let's suffice it to say that I LOVED IT.

I will admit that the beginning did feel a little boring to me, but that was only because I was waiting for Chase Jennings to get his butt into the story. Still, the pages where Chase WASN'T around held my full attention. The story moved at a perfect pace and plunged forward to get to where I wanted it to be--with Chase Jennings.

After the first hundred pages (give or take), this story REALLY grabbed me. Seriously. Like, up until somewhere-around-four-AM-while-I'm-supposed-to-be-sleeping reading happened because of this book. It was THAT hard to put down. And that's a lot to say, considering I am a sleep addict. There was suspense, there was angst, there was a whole lot of on-the-move events that kept me riveted through and through.

Character Rundown: Ember. Oh, Ember. I'm not going to say I loved Ember, but she was okay. I liked her more than a lot of other main characters, so that's something. I just didn't agree with a lot of her way of thinking. Mostly where it regarded Chase. And especially around the end. She did some things I wanted to slap her for. But she was okay, because she dealt with it and we're all moving on now. And Chase. Chase. Flipping. Jennings. OH, CHASE. I have a thing for love interests who are soldiers. Or, at least, the good ones. Not the boring ones. I adored Chase. He has a big, kind heart. The sad part is that he won't let himself believe that. But it's true. I know it is. This boy...he's one of the good ones.

Ah, the sweetness. A majority of this book is Ember and Chase not being together as a couple. Still, there are those sweet moments that always come up when pairing up just cannot be avoided. It was nowhere near cheesy in this book, so I was all right with it. They had a history, so it wasn't insta-love. It was just...I want to say "heart-breakingly sweet," but that's not right. More like heart-fixingly sweet. Either way, if I were Ember, I'd hold on to that Jennings boy. (See, my obsession with soldiers...Daemon's still my #1, though!)

The ending. As I said, Ember made some horrible choices. Well, it was actually one bad choice which led to a terrible situation, but I'm being judgmental of her right now and making it sound worse than it really was. And I have to admit, Chase didn't handle his situation all that well, either. I forgave him, though, because his little situation was such a complete mess, I'm not even sure how I would have handled it. He did his best. But Ember...that girl simply did something stupid. I must give her credit for fighting her way out. Anyway, the ending was good. Makes me want the next book so bad, but it wasn't a heavy-duty cliffhanger, so I'm not going to rant about that.

Overall, you should read Article 5. Right now. Go do it. It's an exciting book that is so completely sweet and upbeat at the same time. Okay, go read Article 5 now. Have fun!

♥Jessica(: