- Hardcover: 390 pages
- Publisher: Egmontusa (14 Jun 2011), Paperback May 2012.
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1606841440
- ISBN-13: 978-1606841440.
This book review is LONG LONG over and i really do apologise. I finished it well over a week ago. If i would have done this earlier, i feel the content would have been of a higher quality, so again i apologise.
I read this book in paperback version, which i purchased myself! I had received Timepiece (the sequel to this) for review, and loved the sound of it so i knew i had to get this version. I could not get it anywhere; library, supermarkets, bookshops. The only place was Amazon UK (I live in the UK) and it is the most i have ever paid for a single paperback EVER! I could not get it on the kindle either, much to my disappoint.
Book Description.
One hour to rewrite the past . . .
For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn't there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents' death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back. So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.
Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he's around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?
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Review.
First, let me just talk about the cover. I always mention covers and since i bought the paperback i need to talk about it. I loved the actual texture and feel of the cover, it was bizarre, sort of like a waxy effect that left fingerprints and smudges on it and it was one of those 'soft' books where it just flops open and no breaking the spine---FAB! No the cover is just odd, at first i was like, is she trying to walk through a door?, has she walked through a door backwards?, is she pregnant? I had NO clue, after a while of reading the book and looking at the cover i realised she is actually walking on the walls and what i thought was the door is actually the floor and i felt incredibly stupid! I don't get how this cover relates to the story, may be in ways (no spoilers give) but then maybe the attraction element of the cover it due to how crazy it looks.
From how naive i am, i didn't realise from the blurb that story was about time travel! If you read the comments on the book from 'famous reviews' then apparently it is mentioned but i never read those. I never read a full review before reading a book, i don't want to be swayed with anything. I am sleepy whilst typing this so I'm sorry for any typos or general rambling rubbish (like now). I was hooked on this book within the first couple of chapters and i have to say my naivety thought she was seeing ghosts as such and i thought it was to do with the after-life. When i finally released it was about time-travel, i was not disappointed in the slightest, i just felt slightly dumb for not releasing beforehand. Has i was saying, i was completely hooked almost immediately and really didn't want to put it down. For almost half the book i had no idea where this story was taking me but when the pieces clicked together it was like, wow! I don't like to go through the whole book description again within the review as it is above and it is very easy to give away spoiler information so i try to be careful.
The storyline is written really well, in a way to keep the reader interested constantly, dropping bits of information but not fully explaining, so it leaves questions and you wanting more. I kept having so many questions throughout the book and i wish i would have jotted them down as i read because i am not sure they were fully answered. One major thing which involved past,present,future and characters and is a theory in the book,, a principle (i won't name it but it begins with an Nov-you will know if read the book), which characters knew/learnt 1st, it really is like the age old question- which came 1st, the chicken or the egg? If you have read the book you will know what i am on about (i hope haha), if you haven't read the book, you'll be skipping this thinking she is crazy. But honest, read the book, because it will do this to your brain. Praying this is all answered in 'Timepiece' . That is the thing with novels which aren't stand alone ones, when there is going to be a series, questions can be answered later on, not within that novel and people forget that.
The concept of time travel can be complex and confusing, if someone would have said to me, "here read this time travel novel" i would not have because i thought it was sci-fi! This isn't a sci-fi book in my opinion. We learn about time travel as the main character Emerson 'Em' learns about it, and therefore throughout the book we are spoon-fed information to ease us in and to be honest it's quite simple in this book. So, while Em's head's explodes about it all, ours isn't. The book has so many uncertainties because you just don't know exactly where it is heading, situations aren't predictable, the anticipation is in overload mode and the ending was a complete wow moment for me as it was a bit of a shocker! It definitely makes you want to read 'Timepiece.'
There isn't too many characters to confuse the plot and each are explained and their purpose for being within the storyline. There is Thomas and Dru (Em's brother and sister-in-law) they aren't explained too much, but they are there and serve a purpose and the other being Lily, she's Em's best friend, which we find out a 'secret' about but not much more is really touched upon in any depth at all regarding this 'secret'. The other characters play a bit more of an important role. The narrator of the book is Em, therefore in 1st person, which worked perfectly for learning new information, it was then told through her and we were told how she felt and what she thought. I really felt like i was warming to Em, i felt sympathy for her, she had gone through so much in her young life (only 17 years old) but at times she really did grate on me. This was probably her whiny attitude and the lusting after the other main character 'Michael'. Now, yes she is a teenager, but the drooling, swooning and lusting she did was a bit more than enough. There is only so many times you can hear how 'hot' someone is before it drives you crazy. All this and Michael's body and muscles!! seem to be mentioned almost every time Michael was, now I'm not sure if it's because teenagers can get a bit obsessive around the opposite sex and all that but argh it drove me crazy! There were some really inappropriate comments/thoughts in there given the situation she was in. Now i would understand if it was just Michael, with him she has a 'connection' but when another male is on the scene who is 'hot', she's swooning after him and goes off with him. Tut Tut. Also, this special connection with Michael- relating to electricity, really didn't work for me, i mean please. A hundred times i heard that too and i get it. Right sorry being a grump there! Love a bit of romance but this wasn't. Michael, lovely guy, really BUT almost all the way through, i didn't know whether i could trust him, was he dodgy?, did he just want Em's ability to use it? I just didn't know. I did begin to trust him though and Kaleb, i didn't know whether to trust him and i was just edgy really. Maybe i was protective over Em.
One hour to rewrite the past . . .
For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn't there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents' death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back. So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.
Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he's around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Review.
First, let me just talk about the cover. I always mention covers and since i bought the paperback i need to talk about it. I loved the actual texture and feel of the cover, it was bizarre, sort of like a waxy effect that left fingerprints and smudges on it and it was one of those 'soft' books where it just flops open and no breaking the spine---FAB! No the cover is just odd, at first i was like, is she trying to walk through a door?, has she walked through a door backwards?, is she pregnant? I had NO clue, after a while of reading the book and looking at the cover i realised she is actually walking on the walls and what i thought was the door is actually the floor and i felt incredibly stupid! I don't get how this cover relates to the story, may be in ways (no spoilers give) but then maybe the attraction element of the cover it due to how crazy it looks.
From how naive i am, i didn't realise from the blurb that story was about time travel! If you read the comments on the book from 'famous reviews' then apparently it is mentioned but i never read those. I never read a full review before reading a book, i don't want to be swayed with anything. I am sleepy whilst typing this so I'm sorry for any typos or general rambling rubbish (like now). I was hooked on this book within the first couple of chapters and i have to say my naivety thought she was seeing ghosts as such and i thought it was to do with the after-life. When i finally released it was about time-travel, i was not disappointed in the slightest, i just felt slightly dumb for not releasing beforehand. Has i was saying, i was completely hooked almost immediately and really didn't want to put it down. For almost half the book i had no idea where this story was taking me but when the pieces clicked together it was like, wow! I don't like to go through the whole book description again within the review as it is above and it is very easy to give away spoiler information so i try to be careful.
The storyline is written really well, in a way to keep the reader interested constantly, dropping bits of information but not fully explaining, so it leaves questions and you wanting more. I kept having so many questions throughout the book and i wish i would have jotted them down as i read because i am not sure they were fully answered. One major thing which involved past,present,future and characters and is a theory in the book,, a principle (i won't name it but it begins with an Nov-you will know if read the book), which characters knew/learnt 1st, it really is like the age old question- which came 1st, the chicken or the egg? If you have read the book you will know what i am on about (i hope haha), if you haven't read the book, you'll be skipping this thinking she is crazy. But honest, read the book, because it will do this to your brain. Praying this is all answered in 'Timepiece' . That is the thing with novels which aren't stand alone ones, when there is going to be a series, questions can be answered later on, not within that novel and people forget that.
The concept of time travel can be complex and confusing, if someone would have said to me, "here read this time travel novel" i would not have because i thought it was sci-fi! This isn't a sci-fi book in my opinion. We learn about time travel as the main character Emerson 'Em' learns about it, and therefore throughout the book we are spoon-fed information to ease us in and to be honest it's quite simple in this book. So, while Em's head's explodes about it all, ours isn't. The book has so many uncertainties because you just don't know exactly where it is heading, situations aren't predictable, the anticipation is in overload mode and the ending was a complete wow moment for me as it was a bit of a shocker! It definitely makes you want to read 'Timepiece.'
There isn't too many characters to confuse the plot and each are explained and their purpose for being within the storyline. There is Thomas and Dru (Em's brother and sister-in-law) they aren't explained too much, but they are there and serve a purpose and the other being Lily, she's Em's best friend, which we find out a 'secret' about but not much more is really touched upon in any depth at all regarding this 'secret'. The other characters play a bit more of an important role. The narrator of the book is Em, therefore in 1st person, which worked perfectly for learning new information, it was then told through her and we were told how she felt and what she thought. I really felt like i was warming to Em, i felt sympathy for her, she had gone through so much in her young life (only 17 years old) but at times she really did grate on me. This was probably her whiny attitude and the lusting after the other main character 'Michael'. Now, yes she is a teenager, but the drooling, swooning and lusting she did was a bit more than enough. There is only so many times you can hear how 'hot' someone is before it drives you crazy. All this and Michael's body and muscles!! seem to be mentioned almost every time Michael was, now I'm not sure if it's because teenagers can get a bit obsessive around the opposite sex and all that but argh it drove me crazy! There were some really inappropriate comments/thoughts in there given the situation she was in. Now i would understand if it was just Michael, with him she has a 'connection' but when another male is on the scene who is 'hot', she's swooning after him and goes off with him. Tut Tut. Also, this special connection with Michael- relating to electricity, really didn't work for me, i mean please. A hundred times i heard that too and i get it. Right sorry being a grump there! Love a bit of romance but this wasn't. Michael, lovely guy, really BUT almost all the way through, i didn't know whether i could trust him, was he dodgy?, did he just want Em's ability to use it? I just didn't know. I did begin to trust him though and Kaleb, i didn't know whether to trust him and i was just edgy really. Maybe i was protective over Em.
I have to say that i really really did enjoy this book, i loved it all except the point i mentioned above and for me, that is why it lost a rating. I was just hooked, i was blown away and i cannot wait to read the next book 'Timepiece' (released 12th June 2012) (i am already reading it but shhh it doesn't add to this review, but let's say it's gooooddddd!! shh). I really do recommend this book so read read read, you have too. From a debut author, wow, impressive.
This gets an impressive 4 out of 5 ladybugs/ ladybirds in my ratings system.
I can't wait to read this one, I love time travel books lol. Awesome review, made me want to get to it even more!
ReplyDeleteThank you :) I really appreciate your comment. Yep you definitely have to read it :) The next book after this 'Timepiece' is superb too!The 3rd book comes out in 2013.
DeleteEnjoy, you will love it :) x