Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken


Title: Passenger 
Series: Passenger 
Author: Alexandra Bracken 
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
 Release Date: January 5, 2016




Passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever.






“It matters not who you love, but only the quality of such a love. A flower is no less beautiful because it does not bloom in the expected form. Because it lasts an hour, and not days.” 

I was hoping for a more interesting story.

The first few chapters were slow, painfully slow. Later on, the story picked up but it never made me ahh in amazement.

Passenger is a time-traveling novel. The heroine Etta Spencer lives in the current millennium and her only goal is to continue to play the violin as a professional. On the day of her debut, she is forced to learn her family's secret. She can time travel. Next thing she knows, she's back on a ship in the eighteen hundreds. She has been taken there by Sofia Ironwoods, whose grandfather has taken a monopoly of all the families who are able to time travel.  Etta is forced to travel and search for an object or her mother will pay for it. In an unexpected set of events, Etta will have the company of Nicholas Carter through her mission. Nicholas had stopped traveling after an unfortunate event and was content living his life at sea until he was pulled to do this job. He has a dual reason for taking the task. One, he doesn't want Etta doing it alone. Two, Ironwoods possess the ability to give Nicholas what he desires the most.

I did like both Etta and Nicholas. What I didn't like was the insta-love. Nothing turns me off faster than an insta-love situation. I was hoping for a different outcome. I liked that Nicholas was African American, and I liked the question the author raised in regards to their relationship if it were to occur in the past.

I do enjoy time-traveling books (hello Outlander <3) and that's something which didn't deter me from reading Passenger. The last third of the book was the most entertaining and with sufficient action. The cliffhanger was a killer and it does make me want to read the second book. Hopefully, it is better than this one.

Cliffhanger: Yes

2.5/5 Fangs


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