Possibly the most underrated Austen novel of all time, “Emma” is basically a book about a bored rich girl who tries her hand at match-making. Also, Mr. Knightly > Darcy. #unpopularopinion #bibliophile #janeausten
I was tagged by the lovely and charming @mydeerfriend
I call it The Slanty Shanty. Things to know Shortie shouldn’t build.
Ok. My room is tiny this is my one bookcase that would fit and I have to share with my husband. Clearly I don’t share very well since these are 99% my books.
Clearly I am in the middle of clearly needing a new bookcase and ideally I won’t be putting it together.
Show me your shelves @seriouslywaldo @asthewheelwills @takemeawaytocamelot @sapphiresassenach @seren-pen @turtletot43
For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
(via theperksofbeingabookseller)
When I first saw Bracken’s Passenger on the bookshelf at Barnes and Noble, I just had to have it. The cover illustration was so captivating at first glance, and then upon further inspection I saw that one of my favorite authors, Sarah J. Maas had written a good word about the story, well say no more because I was sold. But even more so, the plot description was on point and definitely seemed like a story up my alley.
“THIS JOURNEY IS ONLY THE BEGINNING”
“ His gaze was so heavy, it felt like he had dropped his hands onto her shoulders and was holding on for dear life.
“Etta...” he began, his voice a rasp. “You...”
There was a movement just behind him, brown and black and white and gray-- three men booking it down the street. The men from before--- the one in tweed was pulling something out of his pocket---charging directly at them--small--silver---
Gun.
Etta shoved Nicholas, hard, into the brick wall beside them. He stared back, dazed, just as a bullet screamed by, slicing the air between them.
“Run!” Etta said, grabbing his wrist. “Run!”
Just in case this contains spoilers I’m not entirely aware I’m revealing, continue at own risk for background information regarding Passenger and Wayfarer.
Wayfarer
“THE ONLY WAY OUT IS THROUGH”
“ I have been orphaned by my time. The timeline has changed. My future is gone.”
So the run down: Etta is basically a music prodigy with the violin. She has a mentor, and her aloof mother, lives in New York. Everything all of a sudden changes when she’s made to time-hop, and ends up in a different century, aboard Nicholas’ ship who was contracted by his grandfather, Ironwood, who is trying to control all the time traveling and is the bad guy of the story, to bring Etta to him, because her mother had hidden an important object they need to be able to create new passages, the astrolabe. Etta was told by her mother to destroy the astrolabe after she finds it. Basically Passenger revolves around Etta and Nick trying to puzzle the timelines together, both whom have never really been taught how to time-jump, since Nick is a bastard child born of a slave, and Etta not knowing this about her mother or even herself.
The first story is everything you could hope it would be, suspenseful, creative, and of course shipping Etta and Nick and their conflicting views. Bracken does an incredible job linking all of these different eras of time into one. It’s really engaging, imagining what it would be like to be in Etta or even Nick’s place where you could one day be in WWII England or in the roaring twenties, or back in the early hundreds when Pirates ruled the waterways.
So basically, the first book of the series, loved it. Everything I wanted it to be. I was definitely eager for the sequel, Wayfarer, however, I have to admit that the sequel was a bit of a let down in certain regards.
First of all, the inside of the cover-jacket of the book, gives away a major plot point that I think would of worked better for Bracken if she had let it build up in the plot and then was finally revealed, which being, who was Etta’s father, Henry Hemlock, another competing time-traveling family. Every time I read a story synopsis that gives away a detail such as this, that wasn’t known in the first story, it just discourages me from reading, because I would like to have done some of the guess work of who this “Henry Hemlock “ could be before finding out he’s her father, Because it also made their relationship seem unbelievable. I kept waiting for the moment that it turns out Henry is a bad guy or just using Etta, because he was introduced so swiftly, and sorry to say but “cheese-ily” that I just wasn’t buying it. But no, it really was just that cliche’ that they meet and instantly form a bond, because apparently having a father you never knew about for say, 16-18 years isn’t alarming or off-putting when you guys first meet. Basically Etta is convinced by said father that her mom actually suffers from mental instability after witnessing her parents murder. Which wouldn’t be far fetched. But this really made her mother out to be the bad guy. Which wasn’t bad. but I mean your mother was with you for all these years and you instantly turn your back on her and side with your father whom you just met? So I was definitely looking for that plot twist. There wasn’t really one though.
Another complaint has to do with that Etta and Nicholas were apart for basically the whole book. Like, 95% of the story, they are traveling different era passages. This wouldn’t have been so disheartening if maybe it was only for half the book, instead of the majority. But basically no development of their relationship whatsoever.
Furthermore, on the topic of Etta’s mother, her mental instability is actually due to the fact that she discovered what is called, if I remember correctly, Shadows, who are apart of this secret underground original time jumping family. So basically, Bracken tries to tell how time traveling first came about, and it started with one family, who eventually turned on each other, they each had an astrolabe that ended up being consumed by one brother and by the end, you find out the sister of the said family is also still around. But the brother is a creepy old dude who’s trying to live forever by consuming the power of the astrolabe, so he is also chasing it, like Ironwood is, however no one ever believed Rose, Etta’s mother, that these so called shadows exist, until they start chasing Nicholas and Etta.
I think this addition would of been really good, if it hadn’t been so rushed and chaotic. Basically towards the end the shadows and creepy old brother guy are easily defeated, as if they weren’t a contender all along. Like I guess I wish there was more development there, where there could have been maybe another book to the series. But instead this was just thrown at you and expected to go “oh okay...I guess” and then it nice and neatly gets all wrapped up in the end when Nicholas was able to absorb the astrolabe, however it “orphaned” everyone back to their own timelines and all the passages destroyed. So ultimately Etta goes back to New York alone, and is there for a year or...more alone, since her mother is stranded elsewhere, same as her father and Nicholas. Nicholas discovers he has the power to create passages so long as he has an artifact from that time period. He decides to do so, rounding up everyone he knows and then they go and find Etta in the modern world, and that’s where it ends. Though there wasn’t a detailed journey of Nick’s trying to get back to Etta and everyone else.
So I know this was lengthy, but I guess I just have a lot of turmoil of this story. Both books are gorgeous, but the sequel just seemed rushed and trying to fit too much to end it quickly. I definitely wouldn’t have minded waiting longer for a third book to come out that would of gave all the plot points sufficient time and explaining.
I would still say to give the series a go, if them being separated in the sequel doesn’t bother you. The idea of all the different time passages really is a marvelous one.
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