The Edge of Forever by Melissa E. Hurst
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Release Date: June 2nd 2015
Rate: 4 out of 5 stars
In 2013: Sixteen-year-old Alora is having blackouts. Each time she wakes up in a different place with no idea of how she got there. The one thing she is certain of? Someone is following her.
In 2146: Seventeen-year-old Bridger is one of a small number of people born with the ability to travel to the past. While on a routine school time trip, he sees the last person he expected—his dead father. The strangest part is that, according to the Department of Temporal Affairs, his father was never assigned to be in that time. Bridger’s even more stunned when he learns that his by-the-book father was there to break the most important rule of time travel—to prevent someone’s murder.
And that someone is named Alora.
Determined to discover why his father wanted to help a “ghost,” Bridger illegally shifts to 2013 and, along with Alora, races to solve the mystery surrounding her past and her connection to his father before the DTA finds him. If he can stop Alora’s death without altering the timeline, maybe he can save his father too.
First of all... THAT COVER. Oh I love it. To be honest, I'm impressed when covers aren't just naked guy's chests because let's be real, those are pretty common now. But I digress. I love this cover because it's so different to any I've ever seen before.
The first 25% of TEoF were slow, I'll admit, but once I got past that... OH MY GOODNESS. Once I got in to it a fire blazing through my house couldn't have pulled me away. I was flipping pages like a mad woman til the end. But yeah, the beginning was slow and a little hard to fully immerse myself in.
I liked Alora's character. Alora, even through her inner turmoil and confusion, wanted to be a good person. At one point she was lying constantly to one person who meant the world to her and you could really see the struggle in her heart. She was headstrong and brave even from the beginning. I do wish there had been more character development with her but there's time for that in the sequel. I'm positive she'll impress me even more there.
"Trevor is so used to getting everything he wants, but it's time he realizes I'm not a prize for him to win."
Bridger was sort of the same in respects to the headstrong and brave traits. The difference was that he was brought up to be like that but in times of need he didn't falter and always, always put other people first. That's something I wish I saw in more fictional characters. There's always someone worse off than you and I feel like Bridger personified this saying, 100%. He didn't moan and whine and bitch he just did.
"For the first time since that whole mess on Monday, Alora really smiles. It's beautiful, lighting up her whole face. I love it.. I stare at her lips. I want to kiss her more than anything."
The whole host of secondary characters were so diverse. I didn't care for a good portion of them because they're crappy people but the others were so wonderfully whole as human beings. Alora's Aunt Grace for one. She took everything in stride and I really liked her character.
I also liked the split point of view chapters. Both were equally interesting and the chapters were perfect in length. I was never bored of one POV but I did appreciate the constant switch to keep me interested.
Now, romance is such a fickle thing in books. It can be perfect and heart-stopping but it can also be in-your-face and icky. It call fall flat or it can conquer. What I LOVED about the romance aspect in this book was that it didn't overshadow any part of the story. The main story lines were carried out and the romance was a sort of back drop that I liked looking at every once in a while.
"I focus on holding her and how her body fits perfectly against mine. How she smells of lavender and rain. The heaviness in my chest begins to lessen."
I had SO many theories when reading this story. Like a ridiculous amount. But even towards the end I was kept guessing and I was genuinely surprised by some of the twists and turns.
One of the reasons I don't tend to pick up time travel books is because they can be so confusing and really hard for me to keep up with whether that be because there's too much going on at once and I can literally feel my brain turning to mush or because whatever is happening is so far out there it's difficult to believe. Hurst did an incredible job of weaving the two main character's worlds together and I can easily say she's a genius within the time travel genre. It's not often I find a time travel story that doesn't make me want to rub my temples to make the headache go away.
I found myself gaping sometimes at how well the whole thing was intertwined because there were parts in the beginning that didn't make sense and then BOOM, I'm shown the relevance of the scene and by the end I had the urge to go back and read it all over again now that I knew the crazy that is Alora and Bridger's lives. I've never been so happy to be so confused. Seriously. I tend to shy away from time travel novels because the constant switching between time periods is inevitable and the dates can get confusing if not done right. I think the author did such a good job here and I can't praise her enough for this. The back and forth ran smoothly and interconnected so perfectly. There were no faults there whatsoever.
"My life could be the plot of a movie. The only thing missing is an evil madman and then it would be perfect."
Now in terms of content warnings there are almost none. I mean there's no sexual content whatsover, the most we get is a kiss, maybe two, I can't remember exactly... But that's the steamiest it gets. The only thing to watch out for is the language, especially during Bridger's chapters. I don't remember any major swear words but there are a few minor ones in there. Bridger actually uses, what I assume, are swear words more common in his own time that insinuate harsher ones from our time. Like he uses 'fure' a lot opposed to f-bombs.
But you guys, let's talk about something serious here. IT happened. Every reader's worst nightmare. That one line that just pops up out of nowhere in tons of books across all genres. It doesn't matter which way it's worded, it's still as painful and a little piece of my heart leaves with every mention of this sentence.
"I blow out the breath I didn't realize I'd been holding."
*Intense shuddering* WHY?!
Overall a wonderful read. I still have a ton of questions and there's a lot of material to cover here but hey, that's what sequels are for. This has such potential and I really hope the second book shines just as much as this one did for me.
The ending was a good one. Enough of a cliffhanger to keep me interested but not so much that I'm left in a dark corner to rock as I wait for the second book... I'm still hoping I wont be waiting too long though! If anyone finds out the release date for the second book do leave a comment for me!
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Melissa lives in the southern US with her husband and three kids. She writes YA science fiction and fantasy, which means she considers watching Star Trek and Firefly as research. She dreams of traveling around the world and maybe finding Atlantis one day. You can usually find her with a book in one hand and a Dr. Pepper in the other. Or consuming lots of chocolate.
THE EDGE OF FOREVER is her debut novel.
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