The Woodlands - Lauren Nicolle Taylor

I found The Woodlands free on Amazon so I downloaded it.  I think it is also free on B&N and Smashwords.  I zoomed through this book pretty quickly.  It was an interesting take on a dystopian society.  It was not at all what I expected, but I still enjoyed it.

Rosa lives in a dystopian society where families are only permitted to have one child.  When that child reaches 18 years old, he or she is sent to the Classes to learn a trade and contribute to society.  Rosa's father left when she was young and Rosa's mother married a horrid man.  Unfortunately for Rosa, her mother and the step-monster became pregnant.  When she was 16.  Because the family could only have one child, Rosa had to leave for the Classes early.

Before Rosa left, she met Joseph, a hot older guy from her area.  She finds out that her father was actually Joseph's teacher.  She falls for Joseph despite knowing that two people from the same hometown cannot marry.  The government wants to prevent different "looks" (code word for races) to exist, so the government matches couples to mate so that their children will look similar.  I guess this is sort of like creating a super-race of people.  No diversity, no feelings.

In the Classes, things are not what Rosa expected.  She gets placed in construction, which seems odd to her, but actually, she enjoys building things and she is quite good at it.  Joseph was picked for medical, so she doesn't get to hang out with him anymore.  After dealing with that, something happens in Rosa's class and Rosa wakes up in a hospital underground and pregnant.  When she discovers that there are many girls who are pregnant, Rosa is determined to get to the bottom of what the government has done to her.

The remainder of the book takes place after Rosa and her friend Clara manage to escape with Joseph and some others.  They have to walk endless miles and survive without the amenities they are used to.  Tension is high because Rosa doesn't trust some of the people she is travelling with, as one of them was a nurse in the hospital that Rosa was trapped in.  When the truth comes to light, Rosa flips out and has difficulty dealing with things.

I found myself in a love-hate relationship with Rosa.  She has attitude and makes it difficult for anyone to like her.  She pushes people away and is snarky and angry.  This is why I loved her.  She is not the typical heroine in a novel.  She has been through so much in her life that I couldn't blame her for having the hateful attitude that she had.  On the other hand, sometimes I just wanted her to get over herself and be nice to the others for a change.

I was appalled at the situation where all the girls were trapped in the medical wing and pregnant.  These were underage girls who were artificially knocked up.  It was chilling to think someone could abuse a young girl that way.  I had a hard time stomaching the concept, but it made sense for a dystopian society.  Governments in these fictional worlds are harsh and this proved just how harsh they really are.

All in all, I enjoyed this book.  The end was a cliffhanger, so I will likely pick up the 2nd book in the series.