Revealing Eden by Victoria Foyt

Rating: ☆☆☆ [really like a 3.5?]
Release date: Jan. 10, 2012
Publisher: Sand Dollar Press Inc
Format: ebook
Source: netgalley
Pages: 320
Series: Save the Pearls (#1)
Challenge: ebook
Summary:

In a post-apocalyptic world where resistance to an overheated environment defines class and beauty, Eden Newman's white skin brands her as a member of the lowest social class, the weak and ugly Pearls. Doomed unless she mates soon, Eden hopes a Coal from the dark-skinned ruling class will save her. But when she unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, perhaps mankind's only hope, Eden is cast out-into the last patch of rainforest and into the arms of a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction to him. To survive, Eden must change-but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty-and of love. Along the way, she receives some beautiful insight from her virtually adopted aunt Emily Dickinson.

To be honest, this book was pretty odd, but it worked. In Eden's world, people with the darkest skin color are considered beautiful while the paler people are the outcasts. Even though it's so different compared to our culture today, I feel like this could really happen. The way the book presented the setting made it seem very plausible, as if this could one day happen to us if we don't stop messing with the environment. I really liked how it was different yet not extremely outlandish to be completely unbelievable. The setting was really one of my favorite elements of the book.

The pacing was awesome. It didn't take a long time to get exciting, even with all the explanations of Eden's world. There wasn't much downtime, and it really kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next.

The romance going on between Eden and her love interest was kind of strange. It was kind of like she hated him, but then she didn't. I felt maybe there was a little bit of "instant love", but it didn't bother me too much, since it took a bit for the guy to come around. Other than that, there were still lots of moments where I could see growth in Eden's character as she realizes that maybe the world she grew up in isn't right.

I wish that there had been more of a description of Bramford. While I was able to picture everything else clearly, I found it hard to see him in my mind. Hopefully, with the next book, it'll solve all of that.