Until We Meet Again - Renee Collins

Until We Meet Again by Renee Collins
Published on November 3, 2015 by Sourcebooks Fire

They exist in two different centuries, but their love defies time.

Cassandra craves drama and adventure, so the last thing she wants is to spend her summer marooned with her mother and stepfather in a snooty Massachusetts shore town. But when a dreamy stranger shows up on their private beach claiming it's his own—and that the year is 1925—she is swept into a mystery a hundred years in the making.

As she searches for answers in the present, Cassandra discovers a truth that puts their growing love—and Lawrence's life—into jeopardy. Desperate to save him, Cassandra must find a way to change history…or risk losing Lawrence forever.

Until We Meet Again wasn't in my radar until some glowing early reviews started to appear, reading the synopsis I was more than intrigued by it a romance with time travel AND a mystery, hell yeah sign me up. Unfortunately, this was one of those cases of it's not you, it's me books.

The thing that most worked for me was the writing, despite I knowing very early on that this would probably not be a me book I still kept reading and never really felt an urge to DNF it. The pacing of the story also worked really well, we have a murder mystery and a romance to be developed and Collins manages to gives us enough information so to keep us interested on the story and eager to get to the ending to figure everything out.

We have two POV's, Cassandra's (which is the main one) and Lawrence's (usually really short and occasional). Cassandra is a typical angst teenager until she sees a stranger on the beach (Lawrence), them her life gains a purpose (with the mystery to solve) and I just can't, using romance as character development just isn't enough, she supposedly was so many depth to Lawrence because she is "different" and I didn't get, was she different because she was bored? And Lawrence, wow that boy was overdone on the perfect boyfriend machine, he comes from a rich family but isn't a snob and doesn't want to follow his father footsteps, oh no he wants to be a poet! And guess who his muse is? That's right, Cassandra! Maybe this sounds like a perfect romance to you, and it was quite nice but that is it, it was nice and fluffy and extremely cheese - so much that sometimes I thought I would be sick. The secondary characters were just really black or white, if someone was bad (we have some mob and really bad guys here) you could see from a mile afar.

The way everything happened in this story also made me question either this was really an YA book, because everything was so... Childish and predictable. There was things, like the last few chapters, that I think were supposed to be life or death, heart pounding scenes that ended up just reading like a dramatic telenovela (well, I think all telenovelas are dramatic).

Overall this wasn't a bad book, I think it can be perfect to some people and/or depending on your humor, for me this was a disappointment - I think the story could have worked a little bit more on bringing more flawed characters and realistic scenes so that this would have felt more like a story being told and not just a entertainment read.

Doctor Who: The Glamour Chronicles

Hey guys, today I'm here to share my two other reviews of the series Doctor Who: The Glamour Chronicles. You can find my review of Royal Blood, the third book of the series, here.
[These books where given to me by the Publisher, this in no way affected my opinion.]

Deep Time by Trevor Baxendale
Series: Doctor Who: The Glamour Chronicles
Published on September 10, 2015 by BBC Books

‘I do hope you’re all ready to be terrified!’
The Phaeron disappeared from the universe over a million years ago. They travelled among the stars using roads made from time and space, but left only relics behind. But what actually happened to the Phaeron? Some believe they were they eradicated by a superior force… Others claim they destroyed themselves.
Or were they in fact the victims of an even more hideous fate?
In the far future, humans discover the location of the last Phaeron road – and the Doctor and Clara join the mission to see where the road leads. Each member of the research team knows exactly what they’re looking for – but only the Doctor knows exactly what they’ll find. Because only the Doctor knows the true secret of the Phaeron: a monstrous secret so terrible and powerful that it must be buried in the deepest grave imaginable…

Having read all three books of The Glamour Chronicles I can affirm that Deep Time is my favorite of the bunch, this book had all great things of a sci-fi novel for me. I loved the start, on the space ship where we get to know the crew, sci-fi that actually passes on space where definitely my favorites. Them the survival part on a unknown planet, we had some great elements of emotional impact, also some pretty disgusting things (insects blegh) and I turned the pages like a maniac, I read this one in one night and it was amazing. It's the one that, for me, translated the twelfth doctor best to the pages, it didn't exaggerated on the eccentrics of his personality but on the more emotional and human side that the doctor has developed through the seasons. If you only want to read one of the books of this new series of the Doctor, stay with this one you won't regret it.

Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell
Series: Doctor Who: The Glamour Chronicles
Published on September 10, 2015 by BBC Books

“I'm an archaeologist, but probably not the one you were expecting.”
Christmas 2015, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Imagine everyone's surprise when a time portal opens up in Sydney Cove. Imagine their shock as a massive pyramid now sits beside the Harbour Bridge, inconveniently blocking Port Jackson and glowing with energy. Imagine their fear as Cyrrus "the mobster" Globb, Professor Horace Jaanson and an alien assassin called Kik arrive to claim the glowing pyramid. Finally imagine everyone's dismay when they are followed by a bunch of con artists out to spring their greatest grift yet.
This gang consists of Legs (the sexy comedian), Dog Boy (providing protection and firepower), Shortie (handling logistics), Da Trowel (in charge of excavation and history) and their leader, Doc (busy making sure the universe isn't destroyed in an explosion that makes the Big Bang look like a damp squib).
And when someone accidentally reawakens The Ancients of the Universe - which, Doc reckons, wasn't the wisest or best-judged of actions – things get a whole lot more complicated…

Oh boy, Big Bang Generation was the last one that I read of The Glamour Chronicles and unfortunately this was a disappointment. We start the story getting to know a bunch of new characters, where each one wants something different from the Glamour and we only get to see this scenario clearly about 30% or something in so for a few chapters I was just so focused on trying to attach everyone with their names/personalities that it got a little hard to enjoy the story. But them things kick in, action start to happen and I finally understood the story and it was meh, this one (as you can see for the title) relies on a thing that on the DW series kind of is a trope already and it wasn't my favorite. But probably my biggest complaint is that, despite this being a Doctor Who book we get so little of the actual Doctor, the narrative is on third person and keeps changing from one character to the other, having so many new characters we spend most of the time getting to know them than spending time with the Doctor, honestly at the ending I felt like this was a story that could have been completely independent of the Doctor, like this was a already imagined story that the Doctor was put there only as another character because it was a requirement to make into the Glamour Chronicles. Overall my least favorite of them and I can't really recommend it.

Royal Blood - Una McCormack

Royal Blood by Una McCormack 
Series: Doctor Who: The Glamour Chronicles
Published on September 10, 2015  by BBC Books
[This book was given to me by the Publisher but this in no way affected my opinion]

The city-state of Varuz is failing. Duke Aurelian is the last of his line, his capital is crumbling, and the armies of his enemy, Duke Conrad, are poised beyond the mountains to invade. Aurelian is preparing to gamble everything on one last battle. So when a holy man, the Doctor, comes to Varuz from beyond the mountains, Aurelian asks for his blessing in the war.

But all is not what it seems in Varuz. The city-guard have lasers for swords, and the halls are lit by electric candlelight. Aurelian’s beloved wife, Guena, and his most trusted knight, Bernhardt, seem to be plotting to overthrow their Duke, and Clara finds herself drawn into their intrigue...

Will the Doctor stop Aurelian from going to war? Will Clara’s involvement in the plot against the Duke be discovered? Why is Conrad’s ambassador so nervous? And who are the ancient and weary knights who arrive in Varuz claiming to be on a quest for the Holy Grail…?

Before Royal Blood I had never read any of the DW books published, so I was a bit weary of how well the characters would translate to the writing format and if it would be possible to have the same feel as the tv show. After reading it I think that it isn't possible to translate the tone of the show entirely BUT it still is an enjoyable experience. The Doctor and Clara didn't translated exactly for me - there was just times where they would say or do something that I would scratch my head and be like "hmm, I don't think they would actually do that this way and/or say this".

What did bothered me was the start, this book has more than one POV. One is on third person and it usually follows Clara, the other is on first person and follows a character that we don't know who it's at the start and until I figure that out these passages didn't made any sense. Even so I did laughed at some passages and found the overall plot pretty doctor-ish, on its crazyness and twists.

I found this city, Varuz, so interesting. They are kind of a medieval setting but also have the most star-wars like weapons and other magical objects that we have to figure out how ended up being develop on that society and the reveal on this subject was really cool and interesting. We also have, about half into the book, the Holy Grail plot when that happened I couldn't help but remember of episodes as the one with Robin Hood, but these knights aren't as fun as Robin so be warmed - still, at first I thought "what the hell" but they ended up tying nicely with the rest of the story and giving sense to the plot on the most unusual way, as it always is with the Doctor.

If you have a curiosity to check the DW books as well as I had I would definitely recommend to start from here, for me it worked and I can't wait to pick up the next book on the Glamour Chronicles series.