Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Time travel, mysteries, romance and family drama, this book really had it all.
Abbi has just lost her grandmother, who had made her promise to find a baby she has no idea of. Now she started college, the last she expected was to end up in a constant travel to past, going farther and farther from her own time. The only person who could help her is a genius physics professor who, with each meeting, knows less about her. In the midst of loneliness, she meets Will, someone making the exact journey but toward the future.
I'm always excited for the time travel plot, especially when it brings something new. In this case, Abbi acquires a new identity (and a roommate) in each year where she ends up. Isn't that intriguing? Also the idea of always going back instead of combining or staying in one place gave the effect of a story told backwards. This was exciting; you had to keep reading to understand what had just happened. Planning and writing must have been hell.
Character-wise, I'll say this wasn't anything big. Abbi is... normal? I liked her feminist outbursts but they would usually feel more like the author speaking than the character. She'd sometimes make me feel anxious like with all the ditching classes thing. I'm sorry, but that really ticked me off. Nonetheless, that was my sole complaint about her, aside from me not falling in love with the character—which is a fact, and not a proper complaint. But I did like will and Professor Smith a lot. As well as their scenes with Abbi. These made me think of Doctor Who—and River Song, if anyone has watched the new-Who.
More about the boys, I found it impressive how she managed to renew their relationships with Abbi, because of course, she met them at different stages. Specifically for Professor Smith, the author knew to change his voice as the character got younger each time, and still make him identifiable.
I don't want to spoil things but while finding her later scenes with roommates enjoyable, they were basically interchangeable, even the last two. I was disappointed with the character-building there but at this point the mystery was in full scale, so it really didn't matter.
Talking about mysteries, the baby thing isn't the only issue. As I said, because Abbi meets people backwards, there is this and that you itch to know asap but you need to wait her to get to the right time of the happening. Will is the more obvious example, as the first time she meets him, they definitely have a long history together but why? Those teasers were quite exciting. I should note, however, that the plot twists were more on the predictable side. Even so, they were good and well fitting, which puts the book above many others.
Last, and again talking about Will—the romance in the book. This is my big issue with this novel. I think the writing was rushed in too many parts. This was quite visible in the first half of the story whenever the scene was supposed to become more emotional. I felt the author needed to take more time to develop it better. Because of that, it took me long to feel connected to Abbi's feelings, it was as if she were some sort of game avatar that only observed and described what she felt but never really showed it. This got better in the second half and I could properly fall in love with Will, so yes it's not that the author couldn't do it. Still, the writing in the beginning is almost like that of an amateur's, I feel it needed more editing.
But this book was surprisingly good! The cover, the beginning, everything made me underestimate the good time I ended up having with it. If you don't mind the issue above, I feel that you could enjoy ti even if YA is not really your genre. It won't be overwhelmingly good or change your life—this is more like a 3.5-stars book—but I look forward to reading more from this author.
Rating: 4 out of 5.
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