#103 Crossing In Time

Crossing In Time by D.L. Orton 

I was kindly approached by Noly (@theartsyreader) to take part in a blog tour (my first ever one) run by the lovely Dave (@TheWriteReads) for the sci-fi romance book 'A Crossing in Time', i love sci-fi so i jumped at the chance to read and review this book and for full disclosure i received an e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

Summary: 'When offered a one-way trip into the past, Isabel sacrifices everything for a chance to change the rapidly deteriorating present and see her murdered lover one more time. When she arrives twenty years in the past, buck naked and mortally wounded, she has 24 hours to convince a stunned but enraptured nineteen year old to change their future. Definitely easier said than done, as success means losing him to a brainy, smart- mouthed bombshell (her younger self), and thats a heart breaker save the world or not.

A Crossing in Time follows Isabel and Diego predominantly but the book is told in multiple POV which allows for a well rounded view of the story. At the beginning of the story the two per-chance meet and through a series of crazy events become connected. The first 40-50% of the book is a straight up romance novel which i dont typically care for usually although i must admit i did enjoy that it wasn't your typical run of the mill romance and they experienced a lot of hardship during their relationship which makes the reader really root for them.

The sci-fi elements didnt properly kick off until around 60% and at that point i could not put this book down, it was very reminiscent of Blake Crouch's Recursion and had all the same smart science elements that i love. The world is experiencing a pandemic (which i only mention as this can be triggering for some people due to the current state of the world but i must mention this book was written long before this happened so the author is not drawing parallels to our current situation) scientists have found that the only way for the world to be saved is for Isabel to travel back in time to a younger Diego and explain to him how to save the world.

The time travel elements were well written all be it a little confusing at times but i must admit i read from the 60% mark in one sitting, i just needed to know if Isabel was able to save the day or not and what would become of the world if she did or did not succeed. This book has pleasantly surprised me and im so glad i was approached to be a part of this blog tour. I cant wait to read the other books in the trilogy. I have left the links to purchase the book (currently free on kindle) below as well as its goodreads page for more info.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25398303-crossing-in-time

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crossing-Time-Sci-Fi-Story-Between-ebook/dp/B00TL8KXIG/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=crossing+in+time&qid=1592163212&sr=8-1

About the author:

DL ORTON, THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR of the BETWEEN TWO EVILS series, lives in the foothills of the Rockies where she and her husband are raising three boys, a golden retriever, two Siberian cats, and an extremely long-lived Triops.♂‍

In her spare time, she's building a time machine so that someone can go back and do the laundry.

Website: http://www.DLOrton.com.

#102 The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken 

Here i am reading yet another hyped YA book from 8 years ago, i was never really interested in reading this one when it came out and i know now after having read it that i would have loved it back then. It had that same vibe as many of the original 'YA classics' as i like to call them such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, Throne of Glass etc.

The Darkest Minds follows Ruby when she is 10 years old and epidemic breaks out that affects children aged 7-14. A lot of children didnt survive the virus outbreak but the ones who did were left with abilities. The government steps in and gathers these kids up and brings them to concentration like camps in order to keep the rest of the population safe. They are sorted into colours based on the abilities they have. All the reds and oranges are deemed more dangerous and are round up and shot. Ruby is an orange but lies during the testing and doesnt get found out and is put into the camp. The beginning of this book is a little confusing and takes a while to get going.

This book had a very interesting concept, not completely unique but interesting all the same. It reminded me a lot of Monument 14 (a trilogy i loved back in the day which came out just a few months before this book did) very representative of YA dystopia of that time (2011/2012). The reasoning for my rating of 3 stars is that i enjoyed the story, it was fast paced and interesting but its fall down was the characters, i couldnt connect with any of them really and if i cant connect with them enough to care about them then it just falls flat for me. Ruby was interesting, i enjoyed her internal conflict about her abilities and not wanting to get to people incase she hurt them and/or erased their memory. Liam was very two dimensional stereotypical teen boy in a YA book which centres around a female character, he was too nice and not very realistic, Chubbs was slightly better in the fact that he questioned things constantly, made mistakes and was very teenage like in his decision making. Zu was mildly interesting, i was hoping for more insight into what happened to her and why she didnt speak, this wasnt really explored as much as it could have been. That only leaves Clancy, which i knew from the first page he was introduced that he was bad news, he gave me 'The Governor' from The Walking Dead vibes in that he pretends to be nice and has created a safe haven for everyone when in reality he is an evil dictator who is controlling everyone. I presume that him being evil was meant to be a 'big reveal' which i saw straight through which was a bit disappointing.

The ending was interesting as it ended sort of like a stand alone but some what left open for there to be a sequel, not sure if this was purposeful at the time (i know its now a trilogy) i was very confused by the sequence of events, it sort of takes the whole 'if you love them let them go' a bit far like that scene in HP with Hermione and her parents except Hermione had good reason for doing what she did, Ruby not so much.I dont think ill bother with the second two books just purely based on the characters which is a shame but i do see why so many people enjoy this book. I also wouldnt be opposed to watching the film adaptation for this as i know theres a diverse cast and that sounds pretty cool and worth checking out.