Release Date: November 3rd, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre(s): Young Adult, Science Fiction, Time Travel
Pages: 336
Edition: E-ARC
Source: Publisher
Rating:
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.
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 received a review copy courtesy of the author/publisher. This does not affect my opinion or views regarding the book whatsoever.
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Review
A Love That Defies Time
If only we could manipulate time and cheat death to save the ones we love.
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Time travel is one of my favorite concepts to read about. It's one of those concepts that can be poked and probed, divided and multiplied, but can still equal an unique outcome. The aspect of time seems to be a hot trend within the YA genre this year, and of course I can't complain, especially when stories like this have been birthed from the idea.
Until We Meet Again made me feel alot like a tightrope dancer. For majority of the book, I teetered on an invisible string, the flaws of the story hitting me like a gush of wind threatening to push me over, yet the writing and plot strengthened my balance, allowing me to fight against the wind gracefully. I swiftly moved with the words, elegantly prancing along until a plot twist pulled the string from under my feet, forcing me to dangle mid-air as the story took a terrifying turn. I'm a bundle of mixed emotions, desperately hanging on to such a promising concept, but the ragged mishaps of this tale is causing the string to slowly slip from my grasp.
Cassandra. An older sibling fresh out of a divorce between her parents, finds herself spending the summer with her mother and stepfather at a rented beach house in Massachusetts. It wouldn't be a YA novel if she wasn't miserable, finding the shore town with the Great Gatsby-esque atomsphere, full of rich people who threw lavish parties to be a complete snooze. She was oddly rebellious, breaking into her neighbors backyard at 2am, or pulling immature antics in hopes to punish her parents for her circumstances. In the beginning, I struggled to connect with Cass and her childish behavior, until a walk down to her private beach changed everything.
Lawrence. A beautiful boy with an an old soul. He was a handsome outsider, who had the swag of a poet, and the lingo of my great-great-great grandfather. He proved to be much more than just a misfit, and thanks to a dual-perspective, I was brilliantly able to travel from our current year of twenty-fifteen, to the luscious year of nineteen-twenty five.
Until We Meet Again made me feel alot like a tightrope dancer. For majority of the book, I teetered on an invisible string, the flaws of the story hitting me like a gush of wind threatening to push me over, yet the writing and plot strengthened my balance, allowing me to fight against the wind gracefully. I swiftly moved with the words, elegantly prancing along until a plot twist pulled the string from under my feet, forcing me to dangle mid-air as the story took a terrifying turn. I'm a bundle of mixed emotions, desperately hanging on to such a promising concept, but the ragged mishaps of this tale is causing the string to slowly slip from my grasp.
Lawrence. A beautiful boy with an an old soul. He was a handsome outsider, who had the swag of a poet, and the lingo of my great-great-great grandfather. He proved to be much more than just a misfit, and thanks to a dual-perspective, I was brilliantly able to travel from our current year of twenty-fifteen, to the luscious year of nineteen-twenty five.
Of truth and sea, her eyes become bound, endless in the vast beyond. And morning starlight's milky shine reverberates her soul in mine.
but·ter·fly ef·fect
noun
Taking a page out of the 2004 film The Butterfly Effect staring Aston Kutcher, Collins crafted more than just a time travel novel for us readers. Both characters reside in the same beach house, Cass in our current year, Lawrence 100 years in the past, both discovering that their private beach isn't just a place to escape reality, but indeed a loop hole in time. The moment they start interacting, the butterfly effect kicks in, allowing our characters to not only bend time, but to change the inevitable . . . Lawrence's fate. However, while this sounds all fine and dandy, the effect wasn't executed as smoothly as it should've been. We were given a bunch of causes that didn't have effects, completely scattering the domino effect I was looking for. This major flaw heavily changed some dynamics, the execution of the ending being one of them, but I wouldn't run the other direction just yet.
If this story was drowning, the writing was surely there to rescue, life jacket and all. It flowed with precision, beautifully meshing two centuries into one, while seamlessly weaving an unorthodox romance into the mix. I was hooked from the very beginning, completely mesmerized by Lawrence's perspective, captivated by his era of the 1920's. I was completely smitten with their relationship, and while the bittersweet ending wasn't entirely satisfying, I still found myself shedding a tear . . . or two. Okay three whatever. Until We Meet Again might not be perfect across the board, but it's definitely worth the read. The concept of time travel and the butterfly effect, writing, and the romance, will surely assist you with jumping over those hiccups, allowing you to still experience the beauty of what the author managed to create.
Just don't blame me if you hate it
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