The Here and Now by Ann Brashares

The Here and Now gives us a story of time travel, love, and saving the world. This is a netgalley title and will be honestly reviewed.

 Even though there is no arguing that Brashares writes well, some of the character interactions ring false.  Every conversation is oddly formal, with few contractions and words that today's teens might not necessarily use in everyday language.  This is an excellent element for Prenna, who is from the future where formality reigns supreme and physical affection is held in check.  At the same time, though, it's hard to reconcile with the "time natives," the people from 2014 with whom those from the future must blend.  Although it doesn't quite work, it's not hard to overlook. The overall story is good, and Prenna and Ethan provide strong protagonists. 

Prenna writes letters to her brother Julian, which are presented between chapters.  They're short, chatty letters of a girl who misses her brother and wants him to know about her new life, even though he never will.  These give us excellent glimpses of the future from which Prenna comes, illustrating the effects of global warming, the disappearance of fossil fuels, and the world views the time travel group brings with them to 2014.  All of this lends support and a more firm grasp of the world events Prenna and Ethan want to prevent.

The relationship between Prenna and Ethan is a little odd- and not just because she's seventy years older.  He first sees her when he's fourteen, but they have precious little interaction for the four years between that meeting and their senior year of high school.  It's not exactly the insta-love that everyone so abhors these days, but it does have that feel at times.  Until they begin their clandestine phone calls and meetings, they'd barely spoken to each other at all.  Everyone has to start somewhere, though, so it's rather easy to gloss over this element, too, for the sake of diving further into the story.

I'm not sure if this will end up with a sequel, or as a series.  Brashares gives us a definite conclusion, but it maintains the potential to be expanded.  I don't want to give away the details, but I believe  that even though all issues are resolved on the surface,  many questions remain.  I wouldn't be upset to see a sequel, but I'm not sure there's enough story to spin out into a trilogy or a series.

One Tiny Lie by K A Tucker

I was expecting something more dramatic, with this sequel to Ten Tiny Breaths. It just goes to show that you can't judge a book by its predecessor.

As the protagonist and narrator, I found Livie to be incredibly one-dimensional. Following the advice of her therapist, she engages in behavior that is out of the ordinary for her, but I don't feel like it added anything to her growth. I don't think she actually grew as a character at all. She just started drinking so she wouldn't think about her hang-ups.

Ashton and Connor were equally unimpressive. One automatically assumes that the bad boy will have secrets that make him more attractive and loveable, while the good guy will inevitably make sure the protagonist doesn't really want to be with him. I could see all of these secrets coming with Ashton from a mile away, which made him kind of dull. Connor appeared so infrequently and was so disinterested in getting to know Livie that I forgot he was even a character sometimes.

Raegan and the other guys from the crew team could have been interesting background fillers if they had shown up more often. Even the characters who appeared in Ten Tiny Breaths became flat and less appealing.

The story itself was decent, but would have been better if the cast had been more developed and slightly less predictable. I had no emotional attachment to anything that happened to Live, especially where the guys were concerned.

Given the detachment from everyone in this part of the series, I'm not sure I want to read the next installment.