All Our Yesterdays by Christin Terrill

Em has tried everything to stop the creation of Cassandra, a time machine that will destroy the world.  Each time she goes back ends in failure and lands her in the same military prison.  Em has one last chance, and one last thing to try.  She can't fail.

I enjoyed this.  And I appreciated how Christin Terrill got around the tricky situations that time travel causes.  In this version of time travel, traveling in time creates "paradoxes," things that won't change even if other events are altered.  For example, you shouldn't be able to go back in time and shoot your own grandfather.  But in this kind of time travel, you could.  You would cease to be with the death of your grandfather, but a remnant of you would always be there to shoot him.  Time travel can get super confusing, and many writers don't take the time to work out the rules of their time-traveling world.  It's science fiction, and if the rules of the world are established, I am willing to suspended my disbelief.  So well done there.

The book goes back and forth between Em and Finn, who have gone back in time to stop the creation of the time machine, and Mariana, James and Finn (yes, same Finn, just different version) who are living in the time Em and Finn go back to.  Mariana and Em are our two main characters, although both Finns and James play a large part.  Mariana has been in love with James for a while now, but James, who is a genius and at 19 is already working on a Ph.D. thinks of her as a friend and is far too focused on his work.  Mariana will do anything for James.  She finds Finn, James' friend annoying and doesn't like James' focus taken from her.  Em is tough.  She and Finn have been through hell, and they are fiercely determined to fulfill their mission, even though that once they achieve their goal they will cease to be. 

I don't really want to say much more about this one.  I would hate to give anything away.

 I was surprised to realize that All Our Yesterdays is the beginning of a series.  I was surprised because the ending didn't seem to leave much to continue.  I'm sorry that it is a series, actually.  It does well as a stand-alone.

All Our Yesterdays comes out September 3, 2013.

Scorched by Mari Mancusi

One night, at her grandfather's museum, Trinity hears a voice calling to her from the strange egg her grandfather claims is a dragon egg.  The voice is asking Trinity to save her.  Connor has a single focused mission: destroy the egg and the save the future of the world.  He knows what the future looks like, that's when he's from.  His twin brother Caleb has also come from the future, but his goal is to save the dragons at all costs.

It reminded me a lot of The Terminator.  Someone has come from the future to change the past which will save the world.  Someone else from the future has also come back to the past to make sure the future still happens.  It wasn't exactly like that, but the situation was similar enough that I was thinking about it from the very begging.  Trinity actually remarks how things are getting to feel a bit like The Terminator.

Trinity spends much of the book trying to figure out whom she can trust.  She meets Connor first, and after what he tells her and shows her, she's pretty sure he's right; the egg must be destroyed.  It's the egg or the world.  But when she meets Caleb, things start to get confused.  Caleb doesn't seem evil, but he wants to save the dragons.  The connection between Trinity and the egg are growing stronger and stronger, and she wants to protect it.  The Dracken is an organization that wants to save the dragons, and they want to help Trinity with the egg, but at the same time, she's a prisoner there.  Trinity doesn't know who's telling the truth, who's just trying to use her and who, if anyone, is really evil.

Time travel is tricky.  It's hard to be consistent with the world building and make sure things make logical sense when you throw in time travel.  Things can get confusing.  There were a couple of things in particular that confused me.

Spoilers

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

Gwen's family has been waiting in anticipation for her perfect cousin Charlotte to elapse. Most of the women in Gwen's family has some sort of special ability, but it has been prophesied that a girl from their family will have the ability to elapse back in time and be the final key to the secret society that her family has been a part of for centuries. But as Gwen starts having dizzy spells, and eventually elapses several times, she is thrust into events that she is completely unprepared for (and partnered with a snooty hottie who thinks she's beneath recognition). She must decide who she trusts and if the society's ultimate goal is something she wants to be a part of.

I really enjoyed this book, as in I'm super excited for the sequel like I was excited about the Lux series by Jennifer Armentrout. Rock star. Here's thing though, it really reminds me of Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough. The idea of a girl who grows up in a relative's shadow and then discovers that not only is she extraordinary but also the penultimate power. Perhaps a bit heavy handed, but both were so well done that you can't but forgive the similar themes.

The first book is a lot of set up, there are many different plot devices that are being set up and characters to introduce. Count Saint-Germain seems super creepy, Gideon seems a bit smarmy, and I love the twist on who Lucy Montrose is and how she plays out her part. The characters are complex in Ruby Red, and you're never quite sure whose side a person is on. I'm not sure if it's because Kerstin Gier is German, but this book has a great complexity and pace that you don't see much in young adult books.

I have to apologize, Ari and I were up late last night preparing a paper for possible publication. I meant to do a better job with this, but am having a hard time completing thoughts. This was an excellent book, which I thought you should all know about. I'll come back soon and see if I can't flesh it out to tell you how awesome it was.

The sequel Sapphire Blue comes out Oct. 30.

Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle

Miranda has grown up in the shadow of her famous Shakespearean actress mother. After a terrible performance in The Taming of the Shrew, Miranda's frustration leads her to rethink acting all together. But just as she is about to call everything off, the mysterious fellow student Stephen propositions her. He wants her to come back to the Elizabethan Age and ensure that Shakespeare becomes a brilliant playwright instead of becoming a priest. Miranda now must navigate the cultural and political intrigues that hinder her budding relationship with William Shakespeare, but also her quickly developing feelings for Stephen.

Shall we first discuss the elephant in the room? What is up with this cover? Yes it's pretty, but it really is no reflection at all of the story. If Miranda is in the 1580s, why would she be showing off her shoulders and have her hair down? Pretty... I guess, but I think it's rather insulting that a pretty cover is what's needed to draw people in. But we here at Wandering Librarians have grumbled a bit about the vapidity of covers.

Let me state that there's a theme with the rest of the review. Build up and let down. I felt that there was a continuous build up of a theme or information and then was let down with the follow through. I had such hopes for this, perhaps too high, and I thought that I would love it but didn't.

I liked the fact that Pamela Mingle chose The Taming of the Shrew to kick start the story, as we are supposed to see Miranda conform her modern views to the traditional Elizabethan age. Except Miranda never really comes off as the strong feminist that Katherine does. She comes off as arrogant, credulous, and a bit lacking in the personality department. She cries over almost anything that has to do with Stephen and her intense feelings for him, yet continuously goes along with his plan to seduce Shakespeare without thinking of alternatives. She finds herself in the middle of a religious and political conflict and yet doesn't really think to make a concentrated investigation of it.

I thought that the descriptions of the historical elements were very well done. The little details about dress, food, religion, were all so fascinating. But the details that made the story somewhat tolerable were pretty infrequent, and generally were overridden by the sad storytelling.

I thought that there would be this great dramatic ending (Spoiler alert), obviously Miranda wouldn't actually end up sleeping with Shakespeare but I thought there'd be at least so sort of deep conversation about what he wants in life and why priesthood wouldn't be right for him. I didn't thin that Miranda would just kiss him a couple times and then he would declare that he'd already decided he wasn't going to become a priest. It just kind of showed that Miranda had no real purpose. It probably would've been fine without her, therefore this story never needed to be written. Sad.

Not well done. No real point and and very disappointing ending. I read some other people's requests for a sequel, but I think it would be best to let dead dogs lie. It had potential, but never really went anywhere.

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Emerson Cole has a little issue, one that no one thus far has been able to help her with. Her brother and sister in law want to help her and gone through dozens of 'experts' that say they will cure Emerson of her problem. Emerson sees visions of dead people, or at least that's what she thinks they are. They're people from different eras that have a tendency to pop up at inopportune times and pop out when Em touches them. When Emerson is booted from her private school because her scholarship runs out, she must move in with her brother and try to readjust to life at home. This time her brother has another guru set up to fix Emerson. A young man, Michael, who says that he understands what she deals with because he has the same ability. As he helps her come to terms and understand the ripples in time, that allow them to see into the past and in Michael's case into the future, it seems that Michael has his own agenda for getting close to Em. This along with the mysterious ghostlike Jack, leaves Emerson confused and unsure of what her next steps are. The only things she is certain of is that she is ridiculously attracted to Michael who is off-limits, her abilities to see the past is getting stronger, and she is the only hope for a man that died six months ago.

As I read the summary I just wrote I have to admit that I think it's total trash. So I'm posting the GoodReads summary as well:

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.

So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.
Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

OK. I feel better now. I really liked this book. As in I kept trying to read it between my classes coming into the library good. It was completely atmospheric and the lore behind Emerson and Michael's abilities was well thought out. I liked that even though their romance seemed a bit 'fated,' it also developed realistically to a point where I could see why they cared for one another. Also the entire focus wasn't on their relationship, it was also about helping Emerson deal with her parents' deaths and how grief changed her.

In other words I thought that this was a well thought out and fully developed book, which I have to admit surprised me since Myra McEntire is a debut author. I am not an optimistic reader for debut authors. This surprised and delighted me. Well done Myra McEntire, I am quite excited for your next book Timepiece. I do have to ask why there needs to be a love triangle though, I just don't find them to be satisfying plot devices. Could you please change that?

The Time-Traveling Fashionista by Bianca Turetsky

Louise Lambert loves vintage clothes.  When she gets a personal invitation to a traveling vintage fashion show, she's thrilled.  It will be the perfect place to get a dress for the 7th grade dance!  Much to Louise's surprise, when she tries on a beautiful pink dress she finds herself back in the time-period of the original dress owner.  Now Louise is on board a ship in 1912, and everyone thinks she's a movie star.  Louise is having a great time, until she discovers she's on board the Titanic...

This was very cute.  At first, I thought it was going to be another book about a tween or teenager yearning after expensive clothing and lots of brand name dropping.  It wasn't though.  Louise like vintage clothing because of the uniqueness of each individual piece.  She doesn't want to shop at the mall and buy a dress that hundreds of other people could also get.  She wants to search and find something special and think about what went in to making it and who the person was who wore it first.  So it was kind of nice.  She wasn't after what was the fanciest of most expensive.  Louise cared about the individuality and the story.

We do get some vintage clothing history, and learn some names of designers.  On board the Titanic (actually, she was really there) was designer Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon.  Louise gets to meet her and is very excited since she's read about her.  Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon is famous for saying to her secretary, as she watched the boat sink from a lifeboat, "There is your beautiful nightdress gone."

Louise has fun wearing beautiful clothing and hats from the early 1900s and having people think she's a movie star, but she learns that really she just wants to be herself.  Louise gets off the Titanic safely, don't worry.

This is going to be a series.  In the next book Louise will be going back to the French Revolution.  How far back does "vintage" go?  Louise taught me that it starts in 1980, but didn't say where it ended.  Aren't we getting into "antique" by the time we hit the French Revolution? *

The Time-Traveling Fashionista will be available April 5th.

*Fashion-Era.com tells me that "vintage" is anything that is between 20 years to 100 years old.  Anything older than that is "antique."  If it's more recent than 20 years, it's not vintage yet.