Marked By Books: Time's Twisted Arrow Blog Tour: Review & GIVEAWAYS!

..... One moment. One moment please. I'm still trying to come to terms with this book.

Okay, maybe I need more than a moment.

Alright, now that I'm done venting to my pillow, I think I can begin. Or at least I hope so. Fingers crossed!

First off: THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I'VE READ ALL YEAR. No "if"s, "and"s, or "but"s about it, this book is awesome. You can't possibly know how awesome it is unless you were lucky enough to read it already. Or you're Rysa Walker, in which case, THANK YOU!!!!!!

Second off: as you probably noticed, I'm having a bit of trouble putting words into coherent sentences at the moment. That's probably because of one of two things: this book was so incredible that I'm still awestruck, or that I stayed up too late reading it in one night because I couldn't put it down, and it's now one in the morning. Probably both.

So in that case, I'm going to have to put off writing that review for a bit of time. (EDIT: You can read my completed review here.) But it will, get done; this book deserves nothing less than the absolute best that I can give, and unfortunately that's not what I'm putting out right now. I am going to try to scrape together a few coherent thoughts tonight (or this morning?) along with the rest of the tour related stuff. Because said tour related stuff includes a copy of this book that you can win, and trust me when I say that you really want it.

They weren't panic attacks. Of that, seventeen year old Kate is certain, no matter what the shrink told her parents. But it's even harder to accept the explanation offered by her terminally ill grandmother - that Kate has inherited designer DNA from the time-traveling historians of CHRONOS, who were stranded in the past by a saboteur. Kate knows that her grandmother's story could easily be the brain tumor talking, but that doesn't explain the odd medallion or the two young men - one of them hauntingly familiar -- who simply vanish before her eyes on the subway. It doesn't explain Trey, the handsome stranger who now occupies Kate's assigned seat in trig class. And it definitely doesn't explain why Kate is now in an alternate timeline, where leaders of a previously unknown cult hold great power and are planning a rather drastic form of environmental defense.

In this new reality, Kate's grandmother was murdered at age twenty-two on a research trip to the past, which means that Kate's mother was never born, her father doesn't know her and, for all intents and purposes, she doesn't exist. The only thing keeping her from disappearing entirely is the strange blue medallion around her neck, and the only thing keeping her sane is her burgeoning relationship with Trey. To restore the time line, Kate must travel back to 1893 and keep herself and her grandmother clear of H.H. Holmes, the serial killer who is stalking young women at the Chicago World's Fair. But that choice comes at a price - she'll remember the past few months with Trey, but when he looks at her, he'll see a total stranger.

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RYSA WALKER grew up on a cattle ranch in the South. Her options for entertainment were talking to cows and reading books. (Occasionally, she would mix things up a bit and read books to cows.) On the rare occasion that she gained control of the television, she watched Star Trek and imagined living in the future, on distant planets, or at least in a town big enough to have a stop light.

When not writing, she teaches history and government in North Carolina, where she shares an office with her husband, who heroically pays the mortgage each month, and a golden retriever named Lucy. She still doesn't get control of the TV very often, thanks to two sports-obsessed kids.

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Star Trek? Heck, yeah! RESPECT.

My Thoughts

When I finished this book, I was trying really hard not to cry. It may have been because of the obnoxious fluorescent lights that have been shining on me for the past few hours as I read this book in one sitting, but I think it's something else. I am SO GLAD that Rysa didn't leave me with a cliffhanger here. I'm pretty sure I'd still be holding back tears, but it would not be joy streaming down my face. It would be bitter, agonizing pain because I wasn't ready to let go of the characters yet.

I'm still not, but at least there was a respectable amount of closure. I'd been worrying a lot as I saw the book coming to a close, and I was really afraid that everything was going to end right in the heat of it all (haha, literally). This ending still, has me on my toes, but at least they're firmly planted on the ground instead of ready to chuck my Kindle off of a cliff for leaving me with such an ending.

But those characters.... mhmm, those characters. I am so sick and tired of those idiotic "bad boy" male leads, and this was such a welcome breath of fresh air. Yes, I know, call me a goody two shoes or whatever, but I always go for the good ones in books. Just ask Gabby, it's annoyed her many times before.

Trey and Kiernan, man I love those guys. Both of them, which will probably not end so well for me later on, but I still love them both to death. Especially another version of one of them (yeah, some of you know what I'm talking about). They're just so awesome in so many ways, I can't even handle it!

Couple that with a heroine that can actually take care of herself, some kick-butt minor characters, a loveable Irish setter, and time travel, and you've got quite the book on your hands.

(Now, I know that I don't rate my initial thoughts until they're expanded in my final review, but I think you've got a pretty good idea of what it might be!)