Author:  Helen Douglas
Series: (After Eden #1)
Published: November 5th 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ)
Categories: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult
External Links: Book Depository • Goodreads

Synopsis: Eden Anfield loves puzzles, so when mysterious new boy Ryan Westland shows up at her school she’s hooked. On the face of it, he’s a typical American teenager. So why doesn’t he recognise pizza? And how come he hasn’t heard of Hitler? What puzzles Eden the most, however, is the interest he’s taking in her.

As Eden starts to fall in love with Ryan, she begins to unravel his secret. Her breakthrough comes one rainy afternoon when she stumbles across a book in Ryan’s bedroom – a biography of her best friend – written over fifty years in the future. Confronting Ryan, she discovers that he is there with one unbelievably important purpose … and she might just have destroyed his only chance of success.

Review: Time traveling in action packed form? Not my cup of tea. But time traveling in subtlety? Yes. Yes. Yes. I absolutely enjoyed this book. I really wanted to read this book ever since I first laid my eyes on its gorgeous cover and read the interesting summary.  Fortunately, I was given a chance to read it in advance and I can’t wait to own the actual book and reread it again.

Eden has a new classmate and his name is Ryan. Ryan was bit of an odd ball because there are things he wasn’t aware of, for example he doesn’t know who Hitler is. He doesn’t even know pizza and burger and that’s from a person who said he is from America. His outer appearance is quite normal but his actions are very strange to Eden. At first she thought he’s Amish or from some religious group. She even thought that he is from a cult. She wanted to rationalize his odd behavior. But he wasn’t any of those because he’s as normal as she is. The only difference is he is from the future and he is in her timeline because he is on a mission that has something to do with her best friend, Connor.

From the very beginning I was pinning for the answers, the summary already gave me the basic idea. I was intrigued, very curious as to what Ryan’s mission is all about. But that came a bit later in the story. In fact, the earlier parts took focus on Ryan and Eden’s relationship. Ryan wanted to get closer in hopes that he will learn more about Connor through her since she was his best friend. Or so I assumed that was the case. But it came as romantic development rather an afterthought of his mission. Good thing, it wasn’t that sickening budding romance and it was, for lack of better term, quite nice. I wasn’t really in love with them as a couple but I think they are good for each other. I liked that it didn’t play the love triangle angle that much, although I do love that angle, since her best friend likes her more than a friend. So romantically speaking, the romance department wasn’t overdone but it wansn’t completely developed as well. There are things that are rushed and did not make sense to me but overall it was very bearable.

Maybe the reason why All Our Yesterdays did not completely work for me is that it was very action packed so much that I lost connection to the characters. Now, this one I got to savor the characters’ personalities. Got to know more of them and on the process successfully connected to them. I’m a character driven reader and I concentrated on characters so it is important to me that I care for them. And I do care for them.

While Ryan’s mission was huge deal in the future the way I perceived his mission wasn’t on the grand scale. Like ok, all he needed to do is to stop this thing from happening. Like anyone can do it and not necessarily him, like I said the mission was just an afterthought and it was him and Eden and their relationship that was significant to whole time traveling plot.

I’m not a big fan of the ending and wish they stick through their initial plan. Not that I’m adversary of HEA but it was too clean and anticlimactic. Like it was expected to happen that way but I still wish for the opposite because I think it is more solid and intense that way. I don’t know, I’m not sure what I’m saying. But one thing I’m sure of, I did enjoy it!

I received an eARC from Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) via Netgalley. Thank you.

 
Preview Quote: “I think that, until we make a choice, the possibilities are infinite.”  — Ryan (from Uncorrected Digital Galley)