Scribbling

I don't like Doctor Who.

I have watched every single episode because my sister is a HUGE Whovian and she wouldn't watch Supernatural until I watched Doctor Who.

That isn't to say I hate Doctor Who. I like Chris Eccleston and frankly, he's the best. I also like The Master and Rose. (I don't like Moffat's writing, ergo, I don't like much in the newer seasons.)

I don't like Doctor Who because I <i>loathe</i> time travel. Seriously. It doesn't make sense and I can't have it make sense in my mind, I've tried. I have tried and have been informed that Back to the Future does it well, but I've never seen it.

This book works because while it discusses time travel, and it's vital to the plot, it doesn't really try so hard to make time travel work. It pretty much just says 'Time travel works because it works.' I am fine with this because it didn't go too far out there with the concept, like my first kiss is your last kiss and memories and I don't even know with Doctor Who.

So the time travel works until it doesn't, which is the ending and that slip of paper. Because if you put those two things in with the other aspects of time travel that you've learned, they both cannot exist/happen.

REGARDLESS! Not bad for a time travel book.

(Though now that I'm typing this, less and less makes sense and I am questioning rounding the review down.)

The book is about Em and Finn 2.0 going back in time to kill James (that may be a spoiler, but it's a pretty fucking obvious one) so that the future they just lived through doesn't happen.

It's also about Marina (Em's 1.0), James, and Finn 1.0 living after James's brother was shot.

Pretty simple, and the plot moves along pleasantly well. There's not too many low points to put it down outside of the beginning.

The characters were pretty well done. I liked Finn the best, I think, because he definitely had the most going for him. The most layers to himself than Marina or James (in either timeline). I was sad when James's brother was shot because I also liked him and Vivianne. I liked Marina towards the end, but she was grating me in the beginning.

James would have been better if we had further developed the differences. Because two years? Not a very long time. Em and Finn's development are a lot more believable because of what they went through. James's? I get, but I don't really get it either.

There's also this really weird love triangle. It's not so bad, with Marina, but I thought after all Em had been through, she could grow a pair of iron ovaries and fucking call it, man.

But Em wasn't exactly weak. I just think that after fourteen different timelines that you know of, where fourteen different Marina's were tortured, you could probably pull the trigger.

Seriously.

Two minor problems though. One, this book says the word 'girl' like an insult and that's fucked up and I will not stand for that. Two, is it really too much to ask for a non-stereotypical minority maid?

The pacing worked extremely well because you know there's a time limit. Three days, tick tock. It gets even better towards the climax which is amazing.

Climax = Amazing. Ending = Nope.

I don't like the ending because A) Pretty obvious where it was going to go from page ten and B) It throws out your existing time travel rules.

Because I don't know how James managed to do what James managed to do. It's a whole new timeline, but in this new timeline, James wouldn't have known what James needs to know to do what James needs to do.

Get me?

Also, because you make the ending the way it needs to be and then the last paragraph. Really? REALLY?! You just threw the romance into overdrive and FURTHER killed your time travel rules.

Also, Cassandra? I need to know the reason behind that name. If it's not James's mother, I'm going to be pissed.

It's a good book though and it's good because the characters are good and the action is great.

I complain a lot in book reviews but this book really manages to be well written and engaging. I was reading it at work and trying to find things I could slack on so I could finish. When I got a new tablet to play with, I didn't do anything but read this on my Kindle app.

It's a really good book that makes a few missteps. Those missteps are small in most regards, but that ending knocked this book down a half star. The fact that it's being made into a trilogy also knocks it down.

I would recommend this book to people who like mysteries. Not necessarily Sci-Fi, because while the entire story revolves around time travel, it reads more like a mystery and a dystopian.

Overall, great debut and I will probably read the sequel if only for Finn.

(Definitely for Finn.)