The Marriage Wars

Thank you to BookSirens and the author for an advanced copy!
First off, I want to say that I personally know the author and I was SO excited to hear she was publishing her first book! I IMMEDIATELY wanted a copy for myself.

The Marriage Wars is set in a near-future dystopian Sacramento, which is where I grew up. I knew every road, business, and landmark that Melissa mentioned in the book, and it made the story feel more real to me. At first, I was confused about the concept of the Nation, but over the course of the book, it started to make sense. California became the Nation and implemented its own government and started regulating who can get married and have children, in order to rebuild the population after the pandemic. The Nation also implemented a tier system to segregate its citizens by class.

Olivia mostly grew up on a compound, outside of the Nation, where such regulations were not in place. But to have a more stable income, she and her fiance Ethan moved back to the Nation, but their marriage application was denied. Sometime later, Olivia marries Thomas, who is in a higher tier, in order to get her sister cancer treatments.

Ten years have passed since Olivia and Thomas married, and Olivia decides to use her Challenge Pass. This is like a marriage hall pass, where they can go to a Nation Center to have sex with random people for three days, as a reward for being married and contributing to the Nation for 10 years.

I like this concept, it feels plausible, like this situation could actually happen in the future. It felt reminiscent of A Handmaid's Tale.
The plot and writing in The Marriage Wars is strong, but certain parts felt kind of slow. I wanted more action in the first half of the book. Around 70%, things really started to pick up and so much happened. There was one twist around 80% that I did NOT see coming.

Overall, a solid 4 stars.