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bluejaybooks's review against another edition
4.0
This was a great light read to pick-up between the dense epic fantasy novels I’ve been reading and the additional ones I’m planning to read in the future.
That said, the novel itself contains several common time travel tropes. Having consumed my share of time travel related media, the world-building and plot twists, for the most part, weren’t all that surprising.
The heart of this novel was instead the characters and its addictive nature. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump as of late, but I found this to be a hard to put down read.
While I do stand by what I said about most of the plot’s elements being ones I’ve seen before, there was one plot-twist that surprised me. This has more to do with this twist introducing tropes from a sub-genre that I didn’t expect to be incorporated into this novel than anything else.
Still, mixing sub-genres is a legitimate strategy, and the details of this twist fell into place once the author explained it.
Returning my attention to the characters, they have a great dynamic that only tends to come about in third-person-multiple point-of-view novels (which this is). Funnily enough, this is a characteristic I’ve noticed also reoccurs in novels centering around a heist. This novels characters also happens to be thieves. I don’t know what it says about fictional criminals that they have such great group dynamics.
This novel is one of those hard to pull off cases where the many points of view remained distinct and never got confusing despite the several main characters and the frequent shift in perspective.
This leads me to another great aspect of this novel: it is easy to follow. So many time travel novels have timelines that are difficult to keep track of. I didn’t have that problem at all with the main story here. I remained clear on what was happening in the story itself even throughout times when the characters weren’t sure themselves.
The other greatest aspect of this book was that the main characters have a domesticated red panda. Too bad domesticated red pandas don’t exist. The rest of us will have to keep observing from afar.
That said, the novel itself contains several common time travel tropes. Having consumed my share of time travel related media, the world-building and plot twists, for the most part, weren’t all that surprising.
The heart of this novel was instead the characters and its addictive nature. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump as of late, but I found this to be a hard to put down read.
While I do stand by what I said about most of the plot’s elements being ones I’ve seen before, there was one plot-twist that surprised me. This has more to do with this twist introducing tropes from a sub-genre that I didn’t expect to be incorporated into this novel than anything else.
Still, mixing sub-genres is a legitimate strategy, and the details of this twist fell into place once the author explained it.
Returning my attention to the characters, they have a great dynamic that only tends to come about in third-person-multiple point-of-view novels (which this is). Funnily enough, this is a characteristic I’ve noticed also reoccurs in novels centering around a heist. This novels characters also happens to be thieves. I don’t know what it says about fictional criminals that they have such great group dynamics.
This novel is one of those hard to pull off cases where the many points of view remained distinct and never got confusing despite the several main characters and the frequent shift in perspective.
This leads me to another great aspect of this novel: it is easy to follow. So many time travel novels have timelines that are difficult to keep track of. I didn’t have that problem at all with the main story here. I remained clear on what was happening in the story itself even throughout times when the characters weren’t sure themselves.
The other greatest aspect of this book was that the main characters have a domesticated red panda. Too bad domesticated red pandas don’t exist. The rest of us will have to keep observing from afar.
mllejoyeuxnoel's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting time travel romp. Three stars because I wasn't crazy about the writing. Too many sentences were stilted and awkward, making the descriptions and metaphors difficult to digest. The characters were also only so-so for me. But I do love both a) women with no hair, and b) women with rainbow hair, and this book had both. So... yay!
Also, I freaking HATED the faux curse words created here. They all felt so contrived. Some books pull off the endeavor of inventing futuristic curse words well... in my humble opinion, this one simply missed the mark entirely.
Also, I freaking HATED the faux curse words created here. They all felt so contrived. Some books pull off the endeavor of inventing futuristic curse words well... in my humble opinion, this one simply missed the mark entirely.
votesforwomen's review against another edition
3.0
I have so many mixed feelings.
After Wolf by Wolf, I was pretty sure I'd love anything Ryan Graudin wrote; after all, that was one of my favorite reads of 2017. I picked this one up with simultaneously no expectations and high expectations. I didn't know anything about it, other than that she was the author.
And that's not to say there's anything wrong with it, just that it's not as good as I'd hoped.
Eliot, for example. I absolutely adored her. She felt very much like one of the Wolf by Wolf characters. A history-hopping, time-travelling, alternate-universe-spinning girl with no hair and penciled-on eyebrows she writes secret messages into? Who collects ridiculous curses from other languages and uses them often? Who's out to save the multiverse before it completely falls apart?
I seriously wish she'd been the protagonist. I would have followed her to the ends of the multiverse. Eliot is easily the best thing about this book.
The other characters shine too, but only to various degrees. Empra's story wasn't as compelling as I'd hoped at the beginning. Farway is definitely a unique protagonist, and I enjoyed him, but not as much as I'd been expecting to. Normally I love the cocky pilot boys so I'm not sure why I didn't this time. Priya was sweet and complex but still kind of boring; Gram was just kind of there. Imogen was definitely my second-favorite character. Her eternal sunny outlook (I love optimist charries!), her crazy rainbow hair, her sense of humor, her love of gelato, her adorable red panda....I loved it. Eliot and Imogen were the best part of this book for me.
Otherwise, meh. It wasn't a bad book, don't get me wrong, and perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if my expectations weren't sky-high after reading Blood for Blood. But there it is.
The time travel aspect was cool. It got confusing and I didn't always understand what was happening, but it was still nice that this one wasn't /quite/ as mind-boggling as a lot of time travel/alternate universe books.
Graudin's prose is absolutely gorgeous as usual, and the romance shines. The plot moves quickly all over history, which I loved.
Overall? I wanted to love this one so much. I didn't, unfortunately. I still recommend it, though.
After Wolf by Wolf, I was pretty sure I'd love anything Ryan Graudin wrote; after all, that was one of my favorite reads of 2017. I picked this one up with simultaneously no expectations and high expectations. I didn't know anything about it, other than that she was the author.
And that's not to say there's anything wrong with it, just that it's not as good as I'd hoped.
Eliot, for example. I absolutely adored her. She felt very much like one of the Wolf by Wolf characters. A history-hopping, time-travelling, alternate-universe-spinning girl with no hair and penciled-on eyebrows she writes secret messages into? Who collects ridiculous curses from other languages and uses them often? Who's out to save the multiverse before it completely falls apart?
I seriously wish she'd been the protagonist. I would have followed her to the ends of the multiverse. Eliot is easily the best thing about this book.
The other characters shine too, but only to various degrees. Empra's story wasn't as compelling as I'd hoped at the beginning. Farway is definitely a unique protagonist, and I enjoyed him, but not as much as I'd been expecting to. Normally I love the cocky pilot boys so I'm not sure why I didn't this time. Priya was sweet and complex but still kind of boring; Gram was just kind of there. Imogen was definitely my second-favorite character. Her eternal sunny outlook (I love optimist charries!), her crazy rainbow hair, her sense of humor, her love of gelato, her adorable red panda....I loved it. Eliot and Imogen were the best part of this book for me.
Otherwise, meh. It wasn't a bad book, don't get me wrong, and perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if my expectations weren't sky-high after reading Blood for Blood. But there it is.
The time travel aspect was cool. It got confusing and I didn't always understand what was happening, but it was still nice that this one wasn't /quite/ as mind-boggling as a lot of time travel/alternate universe books.
Graudin's prose is absolutely gorgeous as usual, and the romance shines. The plot moves quickly all over history, which I loved.
Overall? I wanted to love this one so much. I didn't, unfortunately. I still recommend it, though.
victorsvales's review against another edition
4.0
totally different from what I expected, but I loved it anyway! found family truly is one of the best tropes, and add it to time travel? boom, excellence
andrew1987clarke's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
bluedaisygirl's review against another edition
3.0
Maybe a 3.5 star book for me. I'm conflicted because I liked it, but it also had a lot of things that I wish were better or different. I feel like it didn't live up to its premise because time traveling thieving is only a very small part at the beginning of the book, and then it goes in a whole different direction.
Other people have mentioned lack of character development, and depth. I have to agree. I didn't feel really emotionally connected to them and not a real sense of suspense or urgency.
Other people have mentioned lack of character development, and depth. I have to agree. I didn't feel really emotionally connected to them and not a real sense of suspense or urgency.
labunnywtf's review against another edition
4.0
My book loves did not love this book. If you look at the chat, you will see that every time someone said they didn't love it, I took a sip.
I took a few sips. I am quite tipsy. That's okay, though. I'd say the average rating between the lot of them is a 3, and I'm okay with that. More liked than disliked. Though I think they were being nice because I was having the vapors in the chat.
I did re-read it, I do still love it. Though on re-read, I read it from the perspective of someone who hadn't fallen in love with it on the first read, and I can see plenty of flaws. For one thing, I genuinely wish Graudin had spent more time on the heists. We're rushed through them, and so much time is wasted before we get to the meat of the story. I think if this had been even a duology, where the first book focused on the heists, successes, near misses, and then the second book dealt with the multiverse aspect, a lot of the complaints about the book would've been diminished.
I do still adore this book, I do still want my TV series based on it. But I'll deduct one star, because I can see where complaints could be made.
::goes to pour another glass of wine::
I took a few sips. I am quite tipsy. That's okay, though. I'd say the average rating between the lot of them is a 3, and I'm okay with that. More liked than disliked. Though I think they were being nice because I was having the vapors in the chat.
I did re-read it, I do still love it. Though on re-read, I read it from the perspective of someone who hadn't fallen in love with it on the first read, and I can see plenty of flaws. For one thing, I genuinely wish Graudin had spent more time on the heists. We're rushed through them, and so much time is wasted before we get to the meat of the story. I think if this had been even a duology, where the first book focused on the heists, successes, near misses, and then the second book dealt with the multiverse aspect, a lot of the complaints about the book would've been diminished.
I do still adore this book, I do still want my TV series based on it. But I'll deduct one star, because I can see where complaints could be made.
::goes to pour another glass of wine::