Pages


Thursday, March 27, 2014

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares


The Here and Now
by Ann Brashares
Released |April 8th 2014 by Delacorte Press|
Edition |eARC|
Source |Netgalley|
Add to Goodreads
Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.
This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins.
Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth.
But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves.
The Here and Now was a book that took me awhile to get into. I've never read a book that deals with time travel before, so I was curious about this one when I first found out about it. I wanted to check it out, but unfortunately this book did not do it for me. I felt as though a lot of things were lacking and a lot of things, sometimes, just didn't make sense to me. I didn't connect with the two main characters. I didn't really like Prenna at all. She did a lot of reckless things throughout the book and I found it to be annoying. Ethan wouldn't have been so bad, but I didn't feel a connection to him either. I wanted to like Ethan because I gave up on Prenna after awhile, but I will say that I like him more.

I was extremely disappointed because this was my first 'official' travel book and I've been wanting to check out a book like this for quite some time. My issue is there wasn't much about the actual time traveling except that there was a shimmer in the air and she appear by a pond or lake or something like that. Did she step into a machine or was it a portal? How was it created? After awhile I found myself skimming through paragraphs just to make it to the end to see what would happen. The ending wasn't exciting and to be honest it was kind of bland. I did finish the book pretty quickly though. It was probably because of the skimming, but I was curious to know what started the virus and how things would end. So that was pretty interesting. I did find some parts of the book to be interesting, but not enough to make me rate the book higher.Overall, the book was okay at times, but I had too many issues with it.

14 comments:

  1. My only time travel book that I've read is The Time Traveler's Wife and that book broke me so bad. Unlike some fans I enjoyed the movie too O.o Anyhow, your review. Yeah, when not explained thoroughly time travel can be very confusing, plus since you didn't really connect with either of the characters and felt annoyed by the girl? Yeah. I'm planning on reading Ruby Red by Kirsten Gier and Tempest by Julie Cross since I own them in physical form so I hope that these have more time travel in them and more explanations. I've hard that the Julie Cross one is very detailed and plot-driven and the male POV is one of the best so perhaps you could try that one? I'm sorry you didn't enjoy this that much though :( Great review, Janina!

    Haha, and I can't leave without mentioning that I like what I see under your currently reading tab :D I hope you enjoy Connor and Rose's story :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen the movie for the Time Traveler's Wife and it was so good! And I have Ruby Red on my shelf so I'll be giving that one a try. Hopefully it's better and I'm curious about Tempest as well. Loved Conner and Rose's story and One more day until Hothouse Flower :D

      Delete
  2. Seems like this books isn't really good. :P I've seen other review that are rather negative too so I don't think I'm going to read this one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a free download on Netgalley which is why I decided to give it a try.

      Delete
  3. I am skipping her novels - I didn't like My Name Is Memory at all and I know that this one won't work out for me too.
    Great review.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This was my first book by the author and I wasn't really that impressed so I probably won't be reading another by her.

      Delete
  4. The premise of the Here and Now sounds so interesting but its so sad to see that the books were such a disappointment. Hope you're next read it better :) Thanks for sharing!

    Janhvi @ The Readdicts

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The premise is why I decided to pick it up! Thanks so much for stopping by :)

      Delete
  5. I have yet to read one good review for this book. All I've heard is that everyone has had problems with it lately. Apparently it's not what everyone expected so I think I'm going to stay away from this one. Thanks for the review! Hopefully your next read is one that works for you!
    Lily @ Lilysbookblog

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't think I've read a time travel book either...I am curious about them, though I'm sorry this wasn't that interesting. It sounds like there weren't a lot of answers given.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There weren't enough answers given about the time travel aspect which was really disappointing. But I still want to check out more books in the genre :)

      Delete
  7. I am so disappointed, this isn't the first negative review that I have read of this one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yeah, I've been seeing that this book isn't really THAT great. You're really better off with other books that touch the same subject. Nothing really comes to mind at the moment about books like that (there IS the Amazing Race though ? haha). How about time traveling? Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux is the bomb in that case :P

    Faye at The Social Potato

    ReplyDelete