The Forever Contract by Avery Sawyer

**I won this eBook novella from the author through the LibraryThing Member Giveaway free in exchange for my honest review.**

For years now, there has been a drought that has not let up.

Water is timed per month - if a household uses too much water in a month they will lose their water until the first of the next month. Instead of having water bottles to drink, they have gel packs to conserve water.

Food is bland and nothing tastes well. No citrus food at all.

Clothes are dusty and heat stroke is a very common way to die if people aren't carefully when they are outside during the day.

Fortunately, there is a way out of this miserable life. At the age of 17 or older, anyone can sign the Forever Contract, where they get to live in their own virtual world. Wherever they want to live - in the city, country, beach, small town - they will be able to go there in a blink of an eye.

Water and food are there with the very thought of what you want. You will not want anything in Forever - it is a virtual heaven.

Casey is turning 17 soon. She wants to sign the Forever Contract and join her older brother, Ben, who went there a few years ago.

Casey's boyfriend, James, is forbidding to sign the contract. He says that no one is living in this virtual world. They are actually dying in this world.

James knows things that Casey doesn't about the Forever Contract. Things that will make him try to keep her from signing it no matter what the cost is.

But will James stop Casey in time from joining the Forever Contract world? Will anybody listen to James's pleas? Read The Forever Contract by Avery Sawyer to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Wow. I didn't think I would enjoy this story as much as I did. There have been a lot of dystopian novels coming out this summer and it's starting to be a "too-much" topic for me to keep reading, but Avery Sawyer really hooked me and got me sucked into this futuristic world!

(Also, side note, it wasn't hard to be sucked into this drought world because this summer has been the driest I've been through, so I could definitely see this occurring in the future! At least right now, when it's 100 degrees every day!)

This story was told by both Casey and James, so we got to see why each character chose the path that they wanted.

Casey is a fighter, and I love tough, strong female characters. She also listened to James even though she disagreed with his viewpoints on the Forever Contract.

James is a smart, nerdy guy but also very attractive and easy going. He was determined to get Casey to listen to him, even if it meant breaking a few laws to get his point across!

There were a few grammatical and punctuation errors that I found while reading this 33 page novella, something I've come to expect when getting either 1) an electronic copy or 2) an early reader copy. Not too many errors, just enough for me to notice while flying through this novella.

Overall, I thought this was a great novella! I did have a problem with the abrupt ending and I'm hoping that Sawyer will continue this story either with more novella's or with regular length novels. I need to find out what happens to James and Casey!!!

I would definitely recommend this novella to everyone - guys and girls since there are narrators of both genders. This goes along with the dystopian genre that has grown popular this past year, but is unique in it's own way to make it stand out from other novels being published.