Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Seeker is a bit slow and dull in the beginning.  And by beginning, I mean 200 pages or so.  I found the four narrations to be quite scattered from each other and had a hard time drawing everything together in my mind. 

Making cohesive connections between Quin, John, Shinobu, and Maude was difficult for most of the book.  As a reader you have to sort through four pasts leading up to the point of intersection, and then through four perspectives of events after they join to become the same story line.  I had a hard time relating to any of them, but I am a fan of books in which I don't particularly like the characters.  So I kept going.

There weren't really an plot twists that I hadn't already been anticipating.  The writing, however, is solid.  The characters might be hard to relate to, but they are all dynamic, evolving people who push the novel forward.  I do think that Seeker would have benefited from being shorter (i.e., not including every tiny detail of everyone's pasts, making readers wonder when this story is going to continue, never minding where it's going).  I did like it, though.

Yes, I did like it.  The action, when it finally happens, is intense and quickly paced leaving us on a cliffhanger and wondering where the story could go in the next installment.  I"ll be keeping an eye out for the sequel. 

Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton: Get through the slow parts and it's definitely worth it.  Available from libraries and booksellers now.

Braving the Brontes (Carly Keene,Literary Detective #1) by Katherine Rue

I've read a lot of reviews of Carly Keene and the prevalent feeling is that Carly is that she too often lets her emotions lead the way during her time helping the Brontes.  Yes, Carly shouts to make her feelings known.  Yes, she throws tantrums once or twice in order to get people to listen to her.  More than anything, though, Carly has been transported from 2014 to 1846.  She's a twelve-year-old girl who is stuck in a place that doesn't place much value on being either young or female.  I think that would wear on me, too.  It's hard to go from being important and heard to being ignored and pushed aside. 

Braving the Brontes is excellently written, and is a great step into the literary world.  There is much to be said for a strong protagonist who doubts herself, but finds the courage to fight her way through unexpected situations.  Carly Keene provides a character to aspire to, no matter what the age of the reader- especially because she provides so many examples of literary heroines in her own story.

4 out of 5 stars.

Isaura by Ruth Silver

In the third installment of the Aberrant trilogy, Olivia finds herself trying to save Joshua, fending off advances from Henry, and keeping herself from being killed by Isaura.  This could have been so much better in so many ways. 

The writing was truly terrible.  The punctuation errors alone had me confused as to the emotional state of every situation.  The entire narration is awkward- not just the conversation. There are so many "plot twists" that they become tedious- time travel, reproduction experiments, telepathic communication, portals, blah, blah, blah.  Because of these, there are also so many holes in the story that one just gives up hope of anything making sense at all.

 Olivia comes across as a whiny narcissist who wants everyone to listen to her because she's the only woman left who can naturally conceive a child. At every confrontation I expected her to stamp her foot and shout "Because that's the way I want it!"  I was so annoyed with her by the end of the book that I almost didn't even care if she had resolved her internal issues with being able to have a child versus wanting to have a child.

Isaura, the evil villain of the tale, was ludicrous.  This ties directly in to the holes in the story.  I still have no idea what her actual motive was.  She hates Olivia.  Okay, but why?  And what is the purpose to everything?  There isn't one, as far as I could tell.

The ending was also overwhelmingly saccharine. Yes, I like a good, solid ending.  I even like endings that others might not find "happy."   Everyone was so happily wrapped up that I wanted to gag. 
I was disappointed in the conclusion of this trilogy.  It started out so well, and went downhill from there, ending with this pile of poorly put together words.

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.