Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Passenger by Alexander Bracken - ADVISABLE

Bracken, Alexander.  Passenger.  Hyperion Teens, 2016.  $17.99.  486 pages.  

Violence: PG-13.  Sexual Content: PG-13 (sensuality, a sex scene that isn’t graphic).  Language: PG-13 (94 swears).

Etta Spencer is about to debut on her violin in present day New York when she is literally dragged into another time period on a ship during the Revolutionary war.  She falls overboard and Nicholas Carter saves her life.  She is immediately drawn to him, but he has his own secrets.  He knows more about the Ironwoods who have paid to kidnap her than he admits, because his father was an Ironwood and his mother was a slave.  All he wants is the money for his own ship, but can he trust the Ironwood family?  Can he betray Etta?  Etta learns that her mother is a time traveler and has the last astrolabe and Cyrus Ironwood will do anything to get it, even kill her mother.  Etta and Nicholas set off on a journey through time to follow Etta’s mother’s clues to find the astrolabe.  

The book started off a little slow, Etta’s obsessive musicianship seemed hard to relate too, and she was a bit whiney.  But once kidnapped, she was a strong and fascinating character willing to go to any lengths to save her mother.  Nicholas is a complex character from a different time period caught between many different worlds.  The romance builds slowly and isn’t entirely resolved.  The plot ends on a cliffhanger, so expect sequels.    

HS-ADVISABLE.  Samantha Hastings, MA, MLS.   

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