Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott

Fire & Flood by Victoria Scott
Synopsis:
Time is slipping away.... 
Tella Holloway is losing it. Her brother is sick, and when a dozen doctors can't determine what's wrong, her parents decide to move to Montana for the fresh air. She's lost her friends, her parents are driving her crazy, her brother is dying—and she's helpless to change anything.
Until she receives mysterious instructions on how to become a Contender in the Brimstone Bleed. It's an epic race across jungle, desert, ocean, and mountain that could win her the prize she desperately desires: the Cure for her brother's illness. But all the Contenders are after the Cure for people they love, and there's no guarantee that Tella (or any of them) will survive the race.
The jungle is terrifying, the clock is ticking, and Tella knows she can't trust the allies she makes. And one big question emerges: Why have so many fallen sick in the first place?

When I first picked up this book I thought it would be a copy of The Hunger Games, and in some ways it was similar but in others it was totally original and creative. Before Fire & Flood I had never read a book by Victoria Scott so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, and boy was I in for a surprise. I really loved this book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, as its such an exciting, compelling story with an interesting plot and fantastic characters.

Tella, the main character, enters a race called the Brimstone Bleed, where the winner receives a cure for any illness which could save her dying brother. All the contestants in the race have a ‘Pandora’ which is some sort of animal with cool super powers that aids them throughout the different ecosystems they have to race through. In Fire & Flood the characters battle through two of the four environments that make up the race, the jungle and the desert. Both of these settings were brought to life and were incredibly vivid, making it so easy to envision and feel like a part of.

Tella is a typical teenage girl to start out with, she isn't much of an outdoors women but she’ll do anything to help her brother and that’s why she enters the Brimstone Bleed. Throughout the book you get to see her grow and become tough but at the same time she stays relatable. We meet a lot of other characters in this book as loads of people are given the opportunity to participate in the race. All the supporting characters were well developed and real, I enjoyed reading the interactions the characters had and reading about those that Tella befriended or fought along the way. I especially liked watching Tella's relationship with Guy, the love interest in the story, change and grow.

Whilst reading this book I was completely immersed in the world, constantly turning the page to find out what happens as it keeps you in suspense from the beginning to the end. I'm super excited to read the next book in the series ‘Salt & Stone’ which comes out next year as a lot of questions still need to be answered.

Overall though Fire & Flood was a fast paced action packed read with just the right amount of humour and romance that I highly recommend!