Welcome to my stop on the 15 Minutes blog tour and scavenger hunt! Today I have my review of the book along with an excerpt to share with you. Don't forget to scroll to the bottom of the post to enter the giveaway!
15 Minutes (Rewind Series #1)
Author: Jill Cooper
Genre: YA Science Fiction/Thriller
Release Date: June 15, 2013
Buy Links: Amazon
Description:
I have 15 minutes to save my mother’s life….15 minutes is all the Rewind Agency gives you in the past, but for Lara Crane it’s enough time to race through the city, find her mother, and stop her from being killed in a mugging that happened over ten years ago.
But that’s not how it happened. The story she’s been told all her life is a lie and when Lara takes a bullet meant for her mother, her future changes forever.
The love of her life acts like a stranger. Her simple life is replaced with a giant house, glamorous clothes and a new boyfriend.
Except someone knows her secret. And he will try to stop her at every turn as she races against the clock to unravel a dangerous conspiracy.
15 Minutes is an edgy high octane YA thriller that can be described as Back to the Future meets Inception where the people Lara trusts change in an instant. She is in a timeline she doesn't understand, and is about to make one fatal mistake as she faces an enemy so familiar, he’s family.
Chapter One
I have fifteen minutes.
"Lara Crane?"
Standing in the sterile waiting room of the time travel agency known simply as Rewind, I turn towards the voice. A redhead technician with a tight ballerina bun offers me a handshake. I've met her before. Her name is Delilah.
I should be in second period lab class, but instead I cut. I have something more important to do than completing junior year chemistry.
"Nice to see you again." After a glance over my shoulder, I follow her through a tiny hallway and into a secure room. I crinkle paper brochures in one hand, and with the other repeatedly tuck my hair behind my ears.
Her lips perch together in a tight smile. "You too, Ms. Crane. One of my favorite return visitors."
I sit down in the overstuffed black recliner, and when she lathes the door, the metallic boom makes my heart skip a beat.
This is it. Turning back is not an option.
The stark white walls, sparsely covered with posters, make me feel like a trapped rat. Time travel has rules, the posters warn, and I plan on breaking every one. A daughter will do anything for her mother.
I have one chance at this, and with my heightened blood pressure, it's clear my body knows it. Once you travel back to a specific time, it's cataloged as off limits. Frequent travel to the same moment, in the same space, causes a rut in space, like pacing across a worn floor. If I fail, if I can't do this, my mother will remain dead forever.
The technician is wearing all white, and her shoes squeak against the shiny silver tiles.
She straps the belt around my lap, and my knees bounce up from my bottled-up tension. The clustered nerves in my gut grow larger. I swallow to settle them, but bile rises in my throat.
Delilah sits at her computer a few feet in front of me, probably checking the records for my time travel history. This is my tenth trip, thanks to the frequent visitor discount card Delilah sold me on my second visit. I've been time travelling to plot my route and improve my sprinting time through the city.
She slides over to me on her desk chair. Her eyes search mine, and they glint with distrust. "We checked out the date and location," Delilah says. "It seems like a happy memory. How old were you?"
She's scoping me out. I try hard to keep eye contact. I've worked too hard on this to get found out now. It took every penny I had to pay for this final trip. "I was five. I sang in front of the mayor. My dad was there. It was a big deal to me then."
Delilah slips a standard white hospital-issue heart monitor on my finger and clamps it tightly, catching my skin. With a deft movement of her foot, the chair reclines like the one in the dentist's office, and I'm peering up at the glass ceiling.
She speaks again, seemingly bored now, as she goes through her pockets looking for something until she pulls out a pen.
"You'll have fifteen minutes and will have to watch from the hall."
I nod and try to keep from sweating, but my heart is beating so rapidly it's echoing in my ears.
Her eyes are steady on mine, and her lips pinch together.
She recites as if from memory, "No interactions and don't try to meet or touch anyone along the way. You wouldn't be able to anyway."
Or so she thinks. My fingers grip the flyers. Hidden beneath them is a photo of my mom.
"We'll be monitoring you. Any sudden changes in your breathing or heartbeat and we'll yank you out."
Delilah injects my neck with the sleep serum. It pinches like a snapping beetle, and the electrodes surge on my temple. My head tingles. Electricity pulses through my skin, making my foot twitch and my finger clutch involuntarily.
My eyelids are heavy. They close, but the sound of banging forces them open again. I see Rick, my boyfriend, through the window in the door. He bangs the glass with his hand, and I grip the armrest as restraints clamp down on my forearms.
"Arrest him," she hisses into a wall intercom, and armed security guards force Rick's arms behind his back. Delilah turns to me and gives me a smile. It doesn't look friendly.
It's chilling.
"She's ready to go back."
"Lara!" he screams, and the longing, the begging in his voice breaks me. "Don't do this, Lara!"
The chair begins to spin, and the room swirls around me until I'm dizzy with the urge to vomit. The velocity forces my head back against the cushion, and my mouth falls open. I whisper a single word.
"Mom."
This was a fantastic science fiction novel that dealt mainly with time travel. I enjoyed reading and learning about the science and theories behind the time travel in the book. It added a depth to the plot that made it stand out for me. The characters were all well written, especially our heroine Lara. She's a fighter for sure, but she's also devoted, loving, smart, and brave. She's willing to do whatever it takes to do the right thing and to save those she loves. There's a great blend of genres in the book ranging from science fiction and time travel to action, mystery, adventure, thriller and even romance. This book crosses lots of genre barriers and is sure to appeal to fans of all types of fiction. The plot was really intriguing and I thought I would be confused with all the time travel and the fast paced story line, but the author was able to keep things clear while keeping me on the edge of my seat. I loved all the smaller story lines throughout the book - the different pasts and futures, the relationships between characters, and the conspiracies - all combined to make a really authentic and unique start to what promises to be a riveting series. I'm already highly anticipating the next book in the series to see what will happen next. Definitely recommended for fans of YA science fiction and time travel fiction.
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Awesome excerpt and great review. Glad you liked it :)
ReplyDeleteNice review
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