Tempest

Tempest by Julie Cross
Hardback, 432 pages

Published January 17th 2012 by St Martins Griffin

My shelves: arc-or-review, books-i-own, cover-appeal, let-down, read-in-2012, sci-fi, series-or-companions, supernatural, title-appeal, young-adult

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.

That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.

Desperate to somehow return to 2009 to save Holly but unable to return to his rightful year, Jackson settles into 2007 and learns what he can about his abilities.

But it’s not long before the people who shot Holly in 2009 come looking for Jackson in the past, and these “Enemies of Time” will stop at nothing to recruit this powerful young time-traveler. Recruit… or kill him.

Piecing together the clues about his father, the Enemies of Time, and himself, Jackson must decide how far he’s willing to go to save Holly… and possibly the entire world.

My thanks go to Pan Macmillan for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

With it's beautiful cover and interesting title, I was really eager to get my hands on a copy of Tempest by Julie Cross. Unfortunately, I didn't find the contents to be as pleasing as the dust jacket. That's not to say that the book is completely bad - I can see the appeal of it to others, but it just wasn't for me.

The premise is certainly an interesting one as our protagonist is a teenage boy, Jackson, who can time-travel. I love the idea of time-travel but it can also be quite confusing. This, teamed with flashbacks took me a while to get into. Cross does her best to explain Jackson's time travelling to us, but it did take me some time to understand. Time travel is certainly intriguing and some of the moral questions that Jackson asked himself made me think - unfortunately, he seemed to disregard these questions quite easily, not really considering them. I think that there was a slight lack of thought and that the time-travelling was too easily accepted by others.

I felt as though most of the characters in the book were superficial, the aspect of time-travel taking the main stage. We weren't really given any background information at the beginning concerning Jackson or his friends and so I found it difficult to connect with them or like them. I also found Jackson to be a little immature. As the book progressed, I did get a better idea of Jackson, his girlfriend Holly and his best friend, Adam, but there was still not very much depth. I still don't have a very clear view of Holly. There is of course room for development in all of the characters in the next books in this series. There are certainly the makings of strong villains (Enemies Of Time) in this series.  

The one relationship that I found extremely interesting in this story was the one between Jackson and his (now deceased) sister, Courtney. It was moving to learn about his relationship with her, especially when he saw her in the past, knowing her fate. The genetics aspect of this book was probably the most interesting aspect for me, and hopefully this will be explored even more in the next book.

I started to get into the book at around page 200, the half-way point. After this, I started to enjoy the book and find it easier to read, but it did seem dragging before this, with some time changes feeling a little pointless. Once the time changing slowed down a bit and was less flitting, the whole story felt steadier. Near the end, a lot of things began to unravel - it became fast paced, action packed and a whole lot more entertaining. 

There are a lot of intriguing factors in Tempest and near the end, I could see a lot of potential for the story to develop and become a lot more complex. I did enjoy the second half of the book a lot more than the first, but it took too long for me to get to the point where I was being entertained. This book wasn't for me, but I believe that it will appeal to many other young adult readers and so I wouldn't not recommend it to others who like the idea of it - this was just not for me.

 

In My Mailbox (7)

In My Mailbox (IMM) is hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren

In My Mailbox is a place to showcase your new books,

whether you obtained them through the post or otherwise.

I'm very happy with all of the books that came into my house this week! I received Saving Daisy (reviewed here), Tempest (currently reading), Fracture, This Is Not Forgiveness and Under the Never Sky as ARCs for review, so look out for reviews of all of these coming soon!

 As I'm sure you can all understand, I was so excited when my signed pre-ordered copy of The Fault in our Stars came to my door! I can't wait to read it, but I have a couple of review copies to get through first. Torn also arrived through the post as I ordered it with a gift card I received for Christmas. I was elated when I found Working Stiff in a bookstore for only £1.99 - I've been wanting it for a while as I love Caine's Morganville Vampires series. I also bought A Valentine's Kiss as it was only £1 and it looks like a good light read for near Valentines day! 

 Three swaps this week - Perfect You, Dark Angel and Wonder (which is also actually an ARC). I received another lovely RAK from Vickie over at ComaCalm too, so thank you again, Vickie!

Saving Daisy

Saving Daisy by Phil Earle
Paperback, 288 pages

Published January 5th 2012 by Puffin

My shelves: arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, contemporary, mental-health, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, self-harm, series-or-companions, title-appeal, young-adult

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Losing love, fighting guilt, seeking hope.

Daisy’s mum is gone. Her dad refuses to talk about it and as far as Daisy’s concerned, it’s all her fault…

Saving Daisy is a powerful and moving story that follows the life of Daisy Houghton who first featured in Phil Earle’s critically acclaimed debut, Being Billy.
As Daisy struggles with misplaced guilt over her mother’s death, she turns to extreme and violent measures and soon her life starts spiralling out of control. This leads to tragedy and suddenly Daisy finds herself left all alone. But sometimes the kindness of a stranger can turn things around. A stranger who desperately wants to save Daisy – if she’ll only let herself be saved. 

My thanks go to Puffin for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

The first thing that I'm going to say about this book is simply 'Wow'. I didn't know much about this book when I picked it up, only that I liked Daisy's character in Being Billy, Earle's debut novel. I could see a lot of potential and depth in Daisy from her appearance in Being Billy and this book certainly reached and topped that potential. This is a sort-of prequel to that, though it is a standalone, and so it's not necessary to read Being Billy before you pick this one up.

It is very clear from the start that Earle has had experience in the children's care sector of work. He has worked as a carer in a children's home and also in a therapeutic community. His  experience allows him to portray an extremely raw and realistic tale of a very troubled girl, Daisy. Although she is only fourteen for the most part of the book, she is very developed in her complex thoughts and feelings, even if they aren't positive ones. For this reason, I think this book would appeal to adults as well as older teenagers. The setting for this story is mostly in Bellfield, a therapeutic community and a very frank, good representation of life there is given. A lot of different mental health care aspects are explored, from fitting in with others, medication side effects, the positive affect of charities and the need for trust with any therapists.

The general atmosphere for our protagonist is set straight away. From the beginning, the novel is full of mystery and intrigue. It is clear from the first lines that Daisy is not just a two dimensional character, but much more complex. I was drawn to her and wanted to know more. We get to see the reasoning behind some of her thoughts quite early in on the book, though there is certainly a lot more to learn about Daisy, and the people she meets, throughout. My attention was completely captured by her mental health issues. Earle deals with emotional and behavioural issues such as self harm in an experienced, tactful manner. He shows how methodical it is for Daisy and gives the reader a real idea of what it is like for someone who self injures. Daisy has a huge weight burdening her and she has done for all of her life. I often felt as though I was sharing this weight with her and at a lot of points, it was very difficult to read. 

Daisy has a lot of important relationships - with her father and with Ade, her key worker, in particular. I loved Ade - she was so connected to Daisy, so caring and managed to put me at ease - there was definitely an air of confidence and security about her. Naomi and the several other characters she meets whilst in the therapeutic community also play important roles in her life. Everyone who is introduced has a unique personality and it was fantastic to read a book in which people with mental health issues weren't stereotypical. 

There are several twists and turns in this book which made it compulsive reading, though I often did have to put it down as some of the subject matter was very difficult, emotionally, to read about. There are an abundance of subjects tackled, from student-teacher relationships, self harm, friendships and differences, grieving, love and loss. Different coping methods are explored, as are the difference in our thought processes. The action and change in this novel is almost non-stop which makes it a real page turner. I think that Earle does manage to, despite all the difficulties, give us a real sense of hope. This is a very touching, sad but inspiring story that I'm very thankful that I read. I can't wait to see what Phil Earle has to offer us next. 

Follow Friday (3)

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee & Alison Can Read

The question that everyone was asked this week was:

Many readers/bloggers are also big music fans. Tell us about a few of your favourite bands/singers that we should listen to in 2012.

Okay, anyone who knows me will know that there's one musician that I am totally in love with, and that is....

The extremely eccentric, hugely talented and beautiful Kate Bush!

I love every single album that this lady has produced, but my favourite would have to be Hounds of Love, especially The Ninth Wave section, based on a poem by Tennyson - there are a whole load of references to literature in many of her songs.

My favourite songs by Kate are Under the Ivy and This Woman's Work.

However, this being a book blog, I'll have to share with you the song that started off my love for Bronte's Wuthering Heights!

My second favourite singer would have to be Amanda Palmer (Also of The Dresden Dolls). I also like bands/singers such as The Script, Darren Hayes, Marina & The Diamonds, Gwen Stefani, Placebo, Florence & The Machine and more!