Passenger by Alexandra Bracken | Review

Title: Passenger
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Pages: 486
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Goodreads rating: 3.88 Stars
Published:  January 5, 2016
Source: Audiobook/Library, as well as Hardcover/bought

Description

Passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever.

My Thoughts

I mostly listened to the audiobook for this one, just reading the few times I curled up in bed with it.  So I had a difficult time getting into it because of the narrator's voice {very gravely/rough, and I was picturing something much different for a young girl, especially one musically inclined}.

Etta is very interesting.  She comes across a little naive and at the same time very stubborn.  She is comstantly saying how she can take care of herself, but then turns to Nicholas.  While I'm all for the damsel in distress or the heroine who can hold her own, Etta as a character seemed a little confused as to which one she wanted to be.  Or maybe she just thought she wanted to be the latter and kept finding herself in situations that made her more of the former {being tossed out of one's time period and landing in the middle of an ocean centeries apart could do that to anyone}.  Thankfully, Nicholas is there for her in both situations {usually}, so she can be either one she chooses.

Nicholas himself is used to time travel and moving between passages of time much more than Etta {she just discovered it when she walked through one with another girl}.  While Etta was completely ignorant of her ability to travel through various portals and passages to different times and places, Nicholas had been trained to do so.  He's there to navigate and show Etta how it's done while they're on a quest looking for a missing item the master of the time travelers wants.

The book took a couple unexpected turns, and the ending had me literally exclaiming "what? No!" very loudly in bed {thankfully my husband wasn't asleep yet}.  I have really enjoyed Alexandra Bracken's writing, and I get sucked into the worlds she creates each time {despite narrators with gravely voices}. I would definitely suggest picking this one up and giving it a go... or maybe just wait until next year, so you're not torturing yourself in anticipation for the next book like I am now!

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon | Review & Giveaway!

Title: Outlander
Author: Diana Gabaldon
Pages: 870
Publisher: Dell
Goodreads rating: 4.13 stars
Published: January 1, 1991
Source:Paperback/Bought, Audiobook/Borrowed

Description:

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon--when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach--an "outlander"--in a Scotland torn by war and raiding Highland clans in the year of Our Lord...1743.

Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into intrigues and dangers that may threaten her life...and shatter her heart. For here she meets James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, and becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.


Before I get started on the review, I just want to that YES, this is a giveaway on my blog!! The very first! I'll be doing a separate post for the giveaway, but it will be posted right after posting this review!

I think I may have been avoiding all the good books the last few years.  This is my year of awesome book discoveries.  Diana Gabaldon is a fantastic writer, and my only regret with this book is that I didn't pick it up sooner!

Outlander follows the story of Claire Beauchamp Randall, a 27-year-old English woman, at the end of World War II.  It starts with her firmly 1945, with her husband Frank Randall, finally being able to spend time together after being separated most their marriage due to the War.  We get a good description of Claire and Frank's relationship {getting to know each other again after so much time apart}.  Not too long into the story, Claire finds herself suddenly transported to 1743 Scotland after touching one of the standing stones in Craigh na Dun {a fairy ring}.  One of the very first people she runs into is her husband's direct ancestor, Jack Randall, and what the run in!  From there on out, the story really builds.  Diana Gabaldon's writing is so descriptive you will get transported by Claire's side, fall in love with {and be terrified of} 18th century Scotland and her countrymen.

I know a lot of people have issues with Claire being married when she's still technically married to Frank.  Because her husband isn't even alive in 1743 and she marries to save herself from a fate worse than death {seriously}, it seems to be a bit of a gray area to me.  Yes, she begins to fall in love with Jamie, but put yourself in her shoes!  She was offered to marry someone when she had nothing to her name, and with that offer of marriage came the protection against those who sought her to do her harm.  She has no way to get back home, as she's watched like a hawk from all the Scottish clansmen of her new husband.

If I say much else, I'll be giving away the story, so I'll stop there.  But, you guys, you really should read this!  And, if you don't want to go out and find your own copy, you can enter my giveaway for a chance to win the first two books!

Have you read the Outlander series?  What did you think of the first book?

The Time Traveler's Wife, part two

Oh. My. Goodness. I didn't think it was possible to think a book wonderful and awful at the same time, but it is. Its beautifully written, I'd come to love the characters, the perseverance of Henry and Clare's love and how it withstands time (and time travel). The book is the story of their love, more than anything else. Yes, it shows Henry and how he's tried to control his time traveling, and how he most definitely cannot. But you also read about 1/3 of the book through Clare's perspective. Young Clare at first, then Clare as she ages. You follow the struggles they go through, both "regular" and in relation to Henry up and disappearing. My goodness, it is a masterfully written book, but be prepared to cry like a little sissy for the last couple chapters... and at random points throughout.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, part one

Description:

A dazzling novel in the most nontraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger's cinematic storytelling that makes the novel's unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant.

I'm going to be doing this review in sections... I'm reading several books right now, as I seem to have book commitment issues. So far, I'm about 150 pages in, and I'm really loving this book. It starts out with Clare and Henry describing what Henry's involuntary time travel is like for each of them. After that, it gotten to be fairly chronological. For Clare, anyway. She meets Henry at the tender age of six... Time traveler Henry is 36 (I believe). It mainly begins following Clare's encounters with Henry throughout this time, until they meet at the respective ages of 20 and 28 (Henry is a bit older than Clare). The author makes it very clear when its "Time Traver Henry" and just regular Henry, as he seems to pop up quite a bit as Time Traveler Henry (heretofore known as TT Henry).

One thing that is interesting to see is the relationship between TT Henry and Clare as Clare gets older. Clare falls in love with Henry at this point, and Henry is married to Clare in his future. Which creates almost a love triangle, but not quite (I'm sure I'll discover later whether or not this actually becomes an issue between regular Henry and regular Clare). When he is TT Henry with past (late-teens) Clare, they both refer to him as her boyfriend, which is slightly odd as he's married to her in his present. As far as I can tell, nothing scandalous happens between TT Henry and teenage Clare, other than a kiss.

Another interesting fact is that Henry refuses to tell Clare anything about himself that might help her find him, both in the present and the future. She never knows his last name, where he's from, date of birth, what he does, anything personal like that until they meet up in the present. I'm not sure if this has something to do with how he can never change things that happened in the past (for some reason he travels back to the car crash that killed his mother when he was just a boy, and he can never do anything to save her, no matter how early he gets there).

So far, its interesting to see the point in both Clare's and Henry's lives when they are both getting to know each other. Clare, of course, knows the older Henry from all of his travels to see her in their meadow. Henry has no idea who she is, other than this gorgeous young woman enamored by him, and somehow in love with him even though according to him they haven't met (they won't until he's older).

Henry is somewhat a mess when Clare meets him. He has no one to talk to or confide in about his time travels, as anyone would think he's crazy. But he gains that with Clare, which, from where I am in the book, is starting to help him get his life back on track...

I will write again once I've finished the book, but wanted to write some now because I always manage to leave out the good stuff! In the meantime, you should pick up a copy or download it for free from this site.