The Twenty (The Barronlands Trilogy #1) - Claudia Carozza

Imagine living in a time when infertility runs rampant and babies are no longer being born. The world is crumbling around you as people start talking about the end. This is the world Hazel DeSales grew up in. After her mother dies from a mysterious cancer, Hazel finds herself taking care of her younger sister Netty and alcoholic father. 

It's not until twenty women, known as the Elect, become pregnant all across the Barronlands when things start looking up. Hazel and Netty apply for jobs working as domestics in the Antioch Center where the Elect will be taken care of and protected. Hazel feels change in the air and her outlook for the future starts to improve. 

But she soon learns that change is not without consequence. Rumors are brewing about a government cover up and Hazel finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. So begins the unraveling of secrets that uncover things from her past and, threatening her future. Hazel is determined to seek the truth and promises herself to do whatever it takes to succeed.

Although the conflict in the storyline is different, my first impressions were that this book is really similar to The Hunger Games as it was set in a time when there are segregated 'wards' and classes of societies, a younger sister that leans on the older sister, and a group of oppressed classes that are trying to overthrow the wealthy 'officials'.

Doesn't really live up to The Hunger Games standard (but then again they are big shoes to fill) andI thought that some of the characters were really simplistic and lacked a little depth, but there was enough action and movement in the storyline to make it a good easy read while on the train commute to/from work everyday.

Being the first part of a trilogy I am interested enough to want to keep on reading the second one, but didn't think it was anything to rave about.