Passenger

2.75/5 stars“There are rules, but rules may be rewritten if only one hand holds the ink.” Warning: There may be some unmarked spoilers. Confession time: I don't love Alexandra Bracken. While I have plans on giving the series another try, [b:The Darkest Minds 10576365 The Darkest Minds (The Darkest Minds, #1) Alexandra Bracken https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1343178841s/10576365.jpg 15483434] was one of my least favorite reads last year. I picked up Passenger mainly because Alexandra seems like such a great person and I so desperately want to love her books. While I did like Passenger , I just didn't love it as much as I wanted to. I did like it more than the Darkest Minds , but way too often did I find myself starring at it with no desire to read, there wasn't one character I felt a strong connection to, and the romance was a little to insta-lovey for my taste. Overall, I was disappointed. I've had like two, maybe three American history classes in my life. I've also been listening to Hamilton non-stop for months. Because of this I like to pretend I'm quite the American Revolution historian. So, because I am a self-proclaimed historian, I feel like I am qualified to make the following statement: love-interest Nicholas wasn't from the 1770s. You might be saying, “Wait, Emi, of course he is! Alexandra Bracken wrote him that way!” Which is true. I can't argue with what is written in the book, but the character himself wasn't convincing. From his dialogue to his actions to his interactions with protagonist Etta, I struggled to accept his birthdate. I would believe he is from the mid 1800s, maybe even early 1900s, but I couldn't believe he was from 1776. Also, when we are on the subject, as an actual Millennial (and not just self-proclaimed) I am kind of doubting that Etta was from this century. I understand she had interests that differ from that of a ordinary 21st century teenager. Still, part of me was still expecting her to bring up something about Alexander Hamilton when she was stuck in 1776. You know I would have. Okay, so obviously I'm joking and just really wanted to reference Hamilton twice in this review. While I did feel like Etta was kind of a old-soul, I don't feel like that effect her character any. It was actually a beneficial trait for all the crap she had to go through. I'm not quite sure how to describe the plot, but here we go. So Etta, also known as Henrietta Spencer, is a 17 year old violin prodigy. She's about to perform at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art when everything goes wrong and she's thrust into a world of time travel. She's taken to 1776 by a girl named Sophia, who's kind of a bitch. Sophia intends to take Etta to her “grandfather” who is even a bigger bitch. She meets her love interest Nicholas, a free black man who she falls in love with way too fast. Events happen, and soon Etta and Nicholas have to endeavor through a time travel scavenger hunt. This book seemed to be built upon some really fortunate (unfortunate?) coincidences. There's a time travel portal that opens up to the Met in 2015 that an evil time travel takes? The exact place where Etta's mom, an ex-time traveler works? Where the evil time traveler opens a newspaper and reads an article about Etta? Just woah, how lucky is that ? Also at the very end when Etta messes up the timeline so badly she disappears, but don't worry she is still alive! And Julien, who died in the prologue, is probably alive too. Wow, even luckier. Obviously, there are things I did enjoy about this book. I love history (I wouldn't be a self-proclaimed historian if I didn't!), and this book was such a great history lesson. Every place they traveled, I was on my phone google searching the setting and the time period. I wanted to know everything about the region, the culture, and the people of the time period that Etta was currently stuck in. I had never heard of Damascus, but suddenly I was on a Wikipedia page soaking in as much information as I could. In fact, all the settings were so grand, that I now want to travel there by myself. The second book, [b:Wayfarer 20983366 Wayfarer (Passenger, #2) Alexandra Bracken https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1460655052s/20983366.jpg 40360388], comes out in January 2017. I do have plans to read it, but I don't think I'll be picking it up the moment it comes out. I'll wait until I can filter all the reviews and set my expectations just right. I am excited to see where Alexandra will take us in Wayfarer (the description says Imperial Russia! I want to travel to Imperial Russia!). Hopefully, Wayfarer will be the book that lets me fall in love with Alexandra.

3.5 Stars

I'm struggling with how to rate this. On the one hand, the first 150 or so pages of this book were a huge struggle. I enjoy Alexandra Bracken's writing and the idea of this world, but I was so lost and confused and just plain bored for the part of the book.

Once the story had a clear direction and Etta and Nicholas were on their journey, the book really picked up.

The second part of this book was fantastic, I loved the direction the story, the growth of the character's relationship and the people they met along the way. There were even some twists and turns that I did not see coming.

That being said, you need to go into this book aware of the fact that the story will most likely not hook you until around 150 pages in. But don't give up, once it does pick up it is a great tale of different worlds and different times. I really hope Wayfarer picks up where Passenger left off and continues the tale without the slow beginning.