A violin, an astrolabe and a mission
Book review
„Passenger” - Alexandra Bracken
Title: Passenger (Passenger #1)
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Release date: January 5th, 2016
No. pages: 496
Cover: paperback
Publisher: Quercus Books
Synopsis:
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.
My opinion:
"You cannot fathom the distance I would travel for you."
I've waited to read this book for soo long and guess what? When I had it, I just put it on my shelves and it took me a while to actually pick it up and when that happened, it took me another while to be able to finish it. But I'm glad I did, because now I can read Wayfarer. Kidding, I enjoyed this volume too, but I still have mixed feelings about it. Let me tell you why.
I had kind of big expectations from this particular book and some parts of it were not exactly what I imagined they would be. For instance, there was way too much romance for my taste: the main characters are falling in love so quickly and, if in the beginning it was okay, later in the story they became somehow annoying.
The story line was actually good. Etta is a teenager living in New York, a well-known violinist who just cannot wait to play at her debut and start her career as a professional violinist. But things get a little ugly one night when playing at the Metro at some random, I'd say, event, she hears this really high frequency noise that basically ruins her performance and from that moment everything changes. She gets `thrown` through a passage and wakes up later in a totally different place and, strange enough, era. After learning a little bit about her actual family roots, she gets involved in a really messy business, which consists in her finding a very important astrolabe her mom hid. And so her journey through time and very different places around the world starts, but it's not obviously a simple one. She meets Nicholas and they become the annoying couple I was telling you about, but I chose to ignore that as much as possible.
For an almost 500 pages book, the action went somehow slowly, they begun to do something so late in the book, I was asking if this was actually just an intro for the second book. But they managed to get some things done and also mess some others until the last page. The final part was the most engaging and it really made me read faster and have that feeling of 'I gotta see what's happening next!'. And it also ended with a pretty ugly cliffhanger which I think is good, otherwise I don't know if I would've wanted to read the second book that much.
I really wanna give Alexandra another chance, because I enjoyed her writing style, I just think this particular story wasn't exactly my taste. For example, I really want to read The Darkest Minds *cough* now that is being made into a movie too*cough*, but also because the plot sound even better (not to talk about the movie trailer). Anyways, am I recommending this book? For sure! If you like juicy stories, romance books and time travelling, this is the perfect book!
"How do you fight against a mountain? How do you move it when you don't even have a shovel?
Maybe you don't have to move it. Maybe you have to climb it."
The story line was actually good. Etta is a teenager living in New York, a well-known violinist who just cannot wait to play at her debut and start her career as a professional violinist. But things get a little ugly one night when playing at the Metro at some random, I'd say, event, she hears this really high frequency noise that basically ruins her performance and from that moment everything changes. She gets `thrown` through a passage and wakes up later in a totally different place and, strange enough, era. After learning a little bit about her actual family roots, she gets involved in a really messy business, which consists in her finding a very important astrolabe her mom hid. And so her journey through time and very different places around the world starts, but it's not obviously a simple one. She meets Nicholas and they become the annoying couple I was telling you about, but I chose to ignore that as much as possible.
"I cannot help but think, it matters not who you love, but only the quality of such a love. And so what I wish to say to you is... a flower is no less beautiful because it does not bloom in the expected form. Because it lasts an hour, and not days."
For an almost 500 pages book, the action went somehow slowly, they begun to do something so late in the book, I was asking if this was actually just an intro for the second book. But they managed to get some things done and also mess some others until the last page. The final part was the most engaging and it really made me read faster and have that feeling of 'I gotta see what's happening next!'. And it also ended with a pretty ugly cliffhanger which I think is good, otherwise I don't know if I would've wanted to read the second book that much.
I really wanna give Alexandra another chance, because I enjoyed her writing style, I just think this particular story wasn't exactly my taste. For example, I really want to read The Darkest Minds *cough* now that is being made into a movie too*cough*, but also because the plot sound even better (not to talk about the movie trailer). Anyways, am I recommending this book? For sure! If you like juicy stories, romance books and time travelling, this is the perfect book!
"It's our choices that matter in the end. Not wishes, nor words,not promises."
Rating:
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