Review of Once Was a Time by Leila Sales

Title/Author: Once Was a Time by Leila Sales
Publisher/Date published: Chronicle Books, April 5th 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley, thanks!

Goodreads summary: In the war-ravaged England of 1940, Charlotte Bromley is sure of only one thing: Kitty McLaughlin is her best friend in the whole world. But when Charlotte's scientist father makes an astonishing discovery that the Germans will covet for themselves, Charlotte is faced with an impossible choice between danger and safety. Should she remain with her friend or journey to another time and place? Her split-second decision has huge consequences, and when she finds herself alone in the world, unsure of Kitty's fate, she knows that somehow, some way, she must find her way back to her friend. Written in the spirit of classic time-travel tales, this book is an imaginative and heartfelt tribute to the unbreakable ties of friendship.

I LOVE Leila Sales' writing, so there was a LOT of pressure on this book to be awesome. And while I did like it, it didn't blow me away.

I'm always intrigued by timetravel and was curious to see how it would work out in this MG novel. And it was a very interesting concept, the thing is that it never really gets explained how the timetravel works and why Charlotte is able to travel while her dad's been spending his whole life loooking for the answer and never really getting it. And I guess I just sorta needed that explanation, because at one point it seems like we're getting it, but then NOPE, sorry!

I was really feeling for Charlotte, she went through a very traumatic experience and then ends up in the future all by herself, trying to make sense of the world that is all of a sudden filled with internet and all of the electric appliances that we now have basically everywhere. All by herself without her best friend and her family, she totally rallies though! She finds her safe place: the library (AWESOME) and things start to happen from there.

Charlotte seems like a nice girl, but she sorta loses herself in the drama that's a mean girl phase at school. And the figuring out of the whole timetravel thing gets put on the backburner until she finds a clue and then we're back in business! I felt that the ending was a bit bittersweet, but I did like it. The thing is that I was never fully emerged in the story and while I did like the way Leila Sales wrapped it up, I still have so many questions!

It was cute though, just not the amazing that I've come to expect from Leila Sales.

My rating: 3 stars

Mini-Reviews (12): The Earl Next Door, Burning Glass, Into the Dim

So sometimes I fail at writing reviews for the books I've read, and 2016 has me failing spectacularly (as did 2015). And because it's been AGES since I read these, I'm just gonna do mini-reviews of them, so as to clear my need-review shelf (cause it's humungous, it's not even funny anymore).

Title/Author: The Earl Next Door (The Bachelor Lords of London #1) by Charis Michaels
Publisher/Date published: Avon Impulse, March 1st 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley, thanks!

I'm sorry to say that I did not very much care for The Earl Next Door. I think I finished it because I was waiting for things to get better and for the romance to grab me and because I REALLY wanted to like it, but it fell a little short of my expectations. The main reason for this is that with my historical romances, I kinda need to cheer for the couple to get together and with Piety and Trevor, I was basically wondering what in the world they were doing with each other. I mean, I felt a bit of insta-love, at least from Piety and Trevor wouldn't admit it, but I think it was there for him as well. And there's just lots of awkwardness and REALLY annoying family member and Piety's mother who for the life of me I cannot understand, because WOW you just cannot try to do that to your daughter. So much wrongness.

I did like Trevor's dry humor and the lady across the street who keeps meddling in everything, but the romance wasn't really what I was looking for.

My rating: 2 stars

Title/Author: Burning Glass (Burning Glass #1) by Kathryn Purdie
Publisher/Date published: Katherine Tegen Books, March 1st 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley, thanks!

This is another one of those instances in which I wonder why I finished it. And it's probably because the premise is interesting, but then the execution failed to deliver. I mean, Sonya's ability to sense what other people are feeling puts her in a pretty special position and in this case puts her right beside the emperor. The fact that she also takes over whatever other people are feeling makes that I'm still wondering about her personality, because all I could see was what was projected on her by other people and that bugs me.
The other thing that was a major issue for me was the romance. I'm ALL about the romance, but in this one it really annoyed me because HELLO love triangle and Oh, the country is in danger, but WAIT I can't get my priorities straight because I have lusty feelings for both brothers. UGH. Sonya just acted so impulsive and immature and irresponsible, I just could not get myself to like her.

My rating: 1,5 stars

Title/Author: Into the Dim (Into the Dim #1) by Janet B. Taylor
Publisher/Date published: HMH Books For Young Readers, March 1st 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley, thanks!

I'm always down for a good timetravel story and after seeing some mixed reviews on Goodreads, I was a bit hesitant, but it turned out ok. So this books is over 400 pages and for pretty much the first 100 or 150 nothing much happens. At least, nothing exciting. And the heroine seems a bit clueless, cause she only really seems to have booksmarts and not stuff she can actually put to use, like how to tell if someone is being creepy. But I got over this when they went back into the past to save Hope's mother, which she's determined to do, having to overcome some fears while doing so. I liked that they went back to the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine, because she's such an interesting historical figure! So that was entertaining. The things that I liked less at this point were the romance, because I wasn't really feeling either potential love interest and the mindless cruelty of the villain. I mean, there's not really a point to her evil and I like it when I can actually understand what drives the people working against the main characters.

My rating: 2,5 stars

Review of The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Title/Author: The Girl From Everywhere (The Girl From Everywhere #1) by Heidi Heilig
Publisher/Date published: Greenwillow Books, February 16th 2016
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley, thanks!

Goodreads summary: Sixteen-year-old Nix Song is a time-traveller. She, her father and their crew of time refugees travel the world aboard The Temptation, a glorious pirate ship stuffed with treasures both typical and mythical. Old maps allow Nix and her father to navigate not just to distant lands, but distant times - although a map will only take you somewhere once. And Nix's father is only interested in one time, and one place: Honolulu 1868. A time before Nix was born, and her mother was alive. Something that puts Nix's existence rather dangerously in question...

Nix has grown used to her father's obsession, but only because she's convinced it can't work. But then a map falls into her father's lap that changes everything. And when Nix refuses to help, her father threatens to maroon Kashmir, her only friend (and perhaps, only love) in a time where Nix will never be able to find him. And if Nix has learned one thing, it's that losing the person you love is a torment that no one can withstand. Nix must work out what she wants, who she is, and where she really belongs before time runs out on her forever.

The mention of time travel always pulls me in, as do pirates (because I have a thing for pirates, I cannot help myself), so this seemed like a golden combination. And I did like The Girl From Everywhere, just not as much as I'd hoped to.

There's a set of very complicated characters and Nix is a decent main character, but I'm still not entirely sure about her, but that might be because she herself isn't sure what she wants and who she wants to be. There's a restlessness about her that I felt throughout the novel and it made me itchy a bit myself.
Aside from Nix, there's Kashmir, who was an obvious instant like for me, because hello suave thief with lots of banter! I also really wanted to push him and Nix together and be like 'ok, now kiss'. I loved some of the moments between them, but aside from their banter, there's such a lack of communication! OMG, I just wanted to scream at them to just TALK to each other instead of constantly skirting around the subject and UGH!

But this is basically one of my main issues with The Girl From Everywhere: nobody communicated. Seriously. Or maybe it was just that Nix doesn't really communicate with anybody. Not with Kashmir, and also not with her father, which leads to lots of unnecessary difficulties and I mean, I know that without some of it there wouldn't be much of a plot, but I very much dislike when the plot revolves around people not being sensible enough to just talk to each other.

The other thing that was a bit jarring was that sometimes there would be jumps in conversation or scene or a time lapse and it made me wonder if I'd skipped over some part or if there was a page missing in my egalley, but it usually did flow in the sentence, so I'm guessing it was how it was meant to be, but that pulled me out of my reading flow.

I did very much like the idea of being able to travel to places and times based on maps and I loved all the use of mythology! Some of the time-line logic towards the end made me go cross-eyed a bit because of all the loops, but the author made it work. The ending felt sort of abrupt, in that something happened that felt out of character to me, but it does make me wonder what will happen next! There's so much build up in this novel and there's also some action, but I'm guessing we'll see lots more of it in the next book.

My rating: 3 stars

Review of Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins

Title/Author: Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins
Publisher/Date published: Sourcebooks Fire, November 3rd 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: They exist in two different centuries, but their love defies time

Cassandra craves drama and adventure, so the last thing she wants is to spend her summer marooned with her mother and stepfather in a snooty Massachusetts shore town. But when a dreamy stranger shows up on their private beach claiming it's his own — and that the year is 1925 — she is swept into a mystery a hundred years in the making.

As she searches for answers in the present, Cassandra discovers a truth that puts their growing love — and Lawrence's life — into jeopardy. Desperate to save him, Cassandra must find a way to change history... or risk losing Lawrence forever.

I was SO hoping to love this book, and while I did enjoy it, it wasn't all that I'd wanted it to be.

I'm a sucker for time-travel romance, there's just something about the whole idea of going back in time, I'd LOVE to be able to do that. So I was a little disappointed by the fact that Cassandra and Lawrence really only meet on the beach. I mean, it owuld have been so much more interesting if they'd be able to visit each other's homes and the beach pretty much looks the same 90 years later, so... And somehow I would have thought that there'd be more to work out manner-wise between a girl from 2015 and a guy from 1925. I mean, lots of things about what is appropriate and what's not and manner of speech and everything, but I wasn't feeling that this was really an issue aside from a casual mention of it every now and then.

I liked Cassandra and how she's not immediately like OMG you're so hot, so it's totally cool that you're on this private beach that you should not be anywhere near when she meets Lawrence for the first time. She's suspicious and hesitant and I liked that. I kinda didn't like that she's also being pressured by her mother to date this other guy and she goes along with it. I felt that she was leading him on and it was just not very nice. I also really had a problem with her mother's behaviour, I mean come on, Cassandra does a stupid ass thing at the beginning of the novel, but she's not a bad kid in general and I felt her mother was being too hard on her and pushing her in directions that I didn't really get.

So Lawrence is basically a good guy, but I never really got a very good feel for his character beside that. He says all the right things, but at the beginning of the book he's a bit of a pushover and that's not very attractive. I did like that he writes poetry and that's secretly a career that he wants to be pursuing instead of being a lawyer.

I did like Cassandra and Lawrence together, but I was never really shipping it. And I was having a WTF moment towards the end when Lawrence says that Cassandra is 'the love of his life', I mean, SERIOUSLY??? You're what, 17? And you've known each other for a month? REALLY??? That is just. Wow. I mean, NO. Just NO. I cannot deal with this and it's probably what soured my opinion about the rest of the book because it left a really bad taste in my mouth.

I feel like I'm sounding really negative about Until We Meet Again and it definitely had it's flaws for me, but I did like seeing how Cassandra and Lawrence were trying to figure everything out, though I felt that Cassandra was fighting harder for Lawrence's life than he was himself. There's a whole lot of shenanigans going on and I did not see coming how it would all play out in the end.
So Until We Meet Again was an ok read for me, but I feel that it could have been so much more and the 'love of my life' bit was just not working for me.

My rating: 2 stars

Review of My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century by Rachel Harris

Title/Author: My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century (My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century #1) by Rachel Harris
Publisher/Date published: Entangled Publishing, September 11th 2012
How I got this book: bought it :)
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: On the precipice of her sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf Cat Crawford wants is an extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother-to-be and well-meaning father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence, Italy, is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers. But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits . . . right into Renaissance Firenze.

Thrust into the sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of contraband future items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra and protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat realizes that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an unwanted suitor full of creeptastic amore.

Can she find her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian forever?

Guys, I LOVED THIS BOOK!! It was so cute and YAYYY!!! :D I read it on a very sunny afternoon spend at the lake near my house and it was just perfect!

So Cat has parental issues. Her parents have split up and now her father is engaged to another woman, who Cat liked at first, but now she's really getting on her nerves. I thought Rachel Harris handled this situation really well, I mean, I could feel Cat being unsure because of all of the drama going on there and you know, this does have an impact on someone and I like that it's not something that just functioned as background noise. It's a true part of the story and I like that.

So Cat goes exploring and ends up at a gypsy tent after which she's POOF transported to the sixteenth century. Yeah, I would have been a bit surprised at that as well if I'd been in her position. Cat actually deals with it pretty well, she someone figures out that she's probably supposed to learn something and after that she'll be sent back. So she goes with the flow and tries to figure out what it is she needs to learn. And while this is going on, she gets to stay with an amazing loving family and meet a sixteenth century hottie! I'd say that's a pretty good deal :)

I really liked Cat, she's trying so hard to hide her insecurities behind this game face she puts on and it was really good to see her opening up when she's in the sixteenth century! I mean, she doesn't really have any friends because she doesn't trust anyone and isn't willing to put herself out there and that's really sad. I loved that she had such a passion for art and wouldn't it be awesome to travel back to the Renaissance and actually see these people in action? I mean GAH!

And guys, I REALLY loved the family Cat meets in the sixteenth century! They are warm and loving and welcoming and just good people. I love that Cipriano is instantly a protective older brother to Cat as well as his sister Alessandra. And Alessandra is AWESOME! Seriously, that girl is so sweet! I just wanted to hug her! So their parents definitely have different views on marrying and how much a girl has to say in the choosing of the groom than people nowadays, but this added some brilliant conflict and I can imagine things going down that way in the actual time period.

And then it's time to talk about the boy: LORENZO. Say it with me: LORENZO. Doesn't just saying his name make you think of warm summer sunshine and a beautiful Italian boy? Oh, and really good icecream. But that could just be me. Lorenzo is insanely swoonworthy with this artistic soul and beautiful personality beneath that pretty-boy-veneer. He's passionate and gorgeous and romantic and just *SWOON* I can totally get Cat falling for him.

So there's a lot going on and it was just wonderful to see Cat actually learning the lesson she was sent to the past to learn. She really does grow as a person and I love that she really does something with what she's been taught. And seriously, THE ENDING! It made me SO EXCITED for the next book, A Tale of Two Centuries!! I cannot wait!

My rating: 5 stars

Made me crave: cookie dough icecream

Review of Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle

Title/Author: Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle
Publisher/Date published: Delacorte BFYR, August 14th 2012
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "Miranda has Shakespeare in her blood: she hopes one day to become a Shakespearean actor like her famous parents. At least, she does until her disastrous performance in her school's staging of The Taming of the Shrew. Humiliated, Miranda skips the opening-night party. All she wants to do is hide.
Fellow cast member, Stephen Langford, has other plans for Miranda. When he steps out of the backstage shadows and asks if she'd like to meet Shakespeare, Miranda thinks he's a total nutcase. But before she can object, Stephen whisks her back to 16th century England — the world Stephen's really from. He wants Miranda to use her acting talents and modern-day charms on the young Will Shakespeare. Without her help, Stephen claims, the world will lost its greatest playwright.
Miranda isn't convinced she's the girl for the job. Why would Shakespeare care about her? And just who is this infuriating time traveler, Stephen Langford? Reluctantly, she agrees to help, knowing that it's her only chance of getting back to the present and her "real" life. What Miranda doesn't bargain for is finding true love... with no acting required."

I was fully expecting this to be a fun, cute timetraveling story. And luckily I had been warned by some reviews that this might not be the case after all, otherwise I would have been more disappointed than I was now.

My problems started when I couldn't really connect to Miranda. To be honest, I thought she was annoying and seemed rather spoiled and just one of those girls I would have avoided in high school. Then within a couple of pages, Stephen GRABS her and takes her to the 16th century. After which she just sort of submits to what he wants and doesn't seem to really have a backbone. She was constantly in tears because Stephen was not being a gentleman and pushing her to do the thing he brought her there for. I just wanted to shake her at times.

And can I just say that I was really annoyed at all the mandhandling going on? I mean, I know that women didn't have much say in things in the 16th century, but men used to have a modicum of respect for them, right? Stephen just drags Miranda everywhere, I would have kicked him in a special place if he did that to me.
Also, the working her modern-day charms on Shakespeare in the summary is code for seducing him. I was rolling my eyes at this solution to all the problems, cause it seems like such a guy thing to want to solve everything with physical intimacies. Because of course it's much better than just talking about stuff. Yeah...

Minor spoiler, but of course Stephen serves as an alternate love interest and I could just not get into this storyline. He blows hot and cold and is just not really nice to Miranda most of the time and well, HE'S FORCING HER TO HAVE INTERCOUSE WITH SOMEONE ELSE. To me that would be a major deal breaker. But Miranda seems to be ok with this. I thought Shakespeare was a much more charming character and it would have seemed more likely that she would fall in love with him for real instead of just trying to seduce him.

A lot of the religious struggle in England of the 16th century comes into play and this adds a pretty dark factor to the story. I think I kept reading to find out how they would turn events about and because while I very much disliked the main characters, Pamela Mingle does weave an interesting story and it might also have to do with my stubborn streak in not wanting to give up on this book.

I love a good timetraveling romance, but this was just not all that romantic and spineless main characters aren't my favourite to read about. I do think it had a lot of potential, it was just a bit too convoluted to really take off.

My rating: 2 stars