Passenger

Passenger, Book 1

By: Alexandra Bracken

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Violin prodigy Etta Spencer had big plans for her future, but a tragedy has put her once-bright career at risk. Closely tied to her musical skill, however, is a mysterious power she doesn't even know she has. When her two talents collide during a stressful performance, Etta is drawn back hundreds of years through time.

Etta wakes, confused and terrified, in 1776, in the midst a fierce sea battle. Nicholas Carter, the handsome young prize master of a privateering ship, has been hired to retrieve Etta and deliver her unharmed to the Ironwoods, a powerful family in the Colonies - the very same one that orchestrated her jump back, and one Nicholas himself has ties to. But discovering she can time travel is nothing compared to the shock of discovering the true reason the Ironwoods have ensnared her in their web.

Another traveler has stolen an object of untold value from them, and, if Etta can find it, they will return her to her own time. Out of options, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the mysterious traveler. But as they draw closer to each other and the end of their search, the true nature of the object, and the dangerous game the Ironwoods are playing, comes to light - threatening to separate her not only from Nicholas, but her path home...forever.

©2016 Alexandra Bracken (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Time Travel Sort of....

This was very hard to get into, but in the end I enjoyed it. I believe the author tried to build the concept/premise before the story begun and that made for a hard 10-12 chapters in the beginning. But once the story started coming through better, the vision of where Nicholas and Etta were and where they were going became clear to me. I liked when the old man’s real purpose was revealed, all be it a little late. And the coldness of the mother in the end…brilliant move for the author. There were some things I wished were better like the love scenes and the dialog between Etta and Sophia. I feel like they could be related maybe even sisters who rival each other but in the end love one another. But Etta’s distain was just not believable. She trusted the girl way too much. That is why I was not surprised with the ending. Speaking of the ending… cliffhanger so get ready. Don’t really care for them in my leisure reads, but this one was done nicely. Good job Alexandra Bracken.

Perfect adventure!

Like adventure and love on the open sea?
Like time travel?
Like mentions of current events mix in?
This book is for you.

Amazing Performance!

I listen to this on my daily commute and it was so hard to walk away from this world every day. I would keep thinking about it at work and I find myself taking long way home to keep listening! Can’t wait for the next book!

Good concept but some issues bothered me

I listened to this in 2016 and gave it a 4 star rating at first, but a year later, decided to change it to a 3 star and will try to explain why.

I enjoyed this book overall, though I did have issues with some of the content, which I will cover near the end of the review. In general, I’ll try to be vague in this review so as to avoid spoilers.

The characters are likable, except for those who we aren’t supposed to like. My favorite of all of them was Nicholas. He’s got his flaws like all people, but still seemed like a generally kind and loyal individual. Certainly a stark contrast to the rest of his “family”. He was also protective of the girl he loved, and not in that creepy Edward Cullen, “Possessiveness is protectiveness” kind of way. Nicholas was protective in the way that one is when one truly loves someone and doesn’t want to see them harmed, and I think he would have given his life for his lady love if he had to. Plus, the way he reacted when that big-fat-hairy-emotionally-rending THING happened near the end of the book… (you who have read the book know what THING I’m talking about) …that just got to me. Poor Nicholas. *sniffle* Can I hug a book character?

I also liked the story in general. I thought it, the time travel system and all of its complications, and the conflict between the time traveling families was really creative and interesting.

Now down to the nitty-gritty content issues which were the reason(s) I changed my rating to 3 stars.

We’ll start with the violence: There isn’t a LOT of violence in this book, but when there was violence, blood was described more than my sensitive self personally prefers so that was one strike against the book.

The profanity was mild but more frequent than I prefer, especially coming out of the mouths of teenage characters. Mostly d**n, though if I recall there may have also been some uses of s**t. The Lord’s name is used in vain somewhat frequently as well and I personally do not care for any of that.

There is a romance in this book and while some of it was sweet and I didn’t mind it, some of it got more sensual than I prefer and there was also one fade-to-black sex scene I could have done without. As a Christian I personally am not an advocate of pre-marital sex, nor do I advocate seeing how close one can get to sex without actually having it, especially when the individuals in question are teens (or just barely older than teens) and their ability to make wise choices that take future consequences into consideration is not yet fully developed. To add to my annoyance, I didn’t like the fact that one character kept pushing the other towards sex even though the other had expressed several times that they didn’t think it was a good idea, but the first character apparently could not respect that choice and kept pushing until the second character finally gave in. I do not feel that is a good example to the teens that may read this. No means no. Stop pushing. May I also add that the sex was (due to the spontaneous nature of the moment) implied to be unprotected in spite of neither character involved being “innocent”? Because time travel and being chased by baddies is soooo much more fun with STDs and a baby on board. *eye roll*

Those things aside, the biggest reason I decided to change my star rating is because I decided I no longer have an interest in the second book, "Wayfarer", which basically null-and-voids all the original reason I gave this book 4 stars: The cliff hanger than made me so excited for the second book that I was willing to overlook the issues I had with this first book in order to find out what would happen.

Something I must mention is that my mom read Passenger before I did and generally enjoyed it. We often have similar tastes in reading, and the fact that she enjoyed was important to me. Well, my mom had also been hooked by the cliffhanger ending of Passenger, so as soon as Wayfarer came out, she read it first, too. I had already heard from other reviewers that everything from Passenger was amplified in Wayfarer and my mom confirmed that. Things were more dramatic (okay), complicated (okay), and unfortunately, violent (ew, no). She said the prologue started out with a disturbingly graphic murder and there were other instances of graphic violence later on. The profanity and some sexual content also continued. At that point I was already losing interest, but when she quit reading entirely because it was just getting way too long and confusing, that was pretty much the end of any interest for me. No need to take time away from books I was *really* excited about to read Wayfarer when I'd lost all interest. Nope. Don't have time for that.

So… My final rating is 3 stars. Passenger had a good story concept and I mostly enjoyed it at the time, but the content issues took away from it and I have no desire to slog through worse content issues in the second book, particularly when I know what happened anyway.

As for the narrator’s performance, it was good for the most part, but there were ways it could have been improved. The narrator was fine at reading the parts from Etta’s perspective and voicing all the female characters, but when it came to Nicholas and the other male characters her voices for them tended to be very similar and just a tad annoying in how “gravelly” they all sounded. Maybe that was just me, but I didn’t care for it that much, thus the reason I gave the performance 3 stars.

not too complicated for time travel yer

it took me literal years to finish this book, because I own the physical copy and I own this audiobook and it's just been a long time for me to get into it, but I've been listening to audiobooks more frequently and needed one to pass the time and this one was here for me.

I love the characters, and all the beautiful descendants of the places that they travel too in this story. I wouldn't be against more petty family drama series because it's most of what I signed up for with this one and it gives me great joy to hear all the family tea spread out in the ages.

The romance is a given, but I couldn't be bothered with caring for it. I want them to be happy together in the future but I'm a sucker for slow burn and Bracken has a way of getting straight to the point of things that I would usually appreciate but in a romance setting I like some angst of 'Oh it can't be!' but I still have a book to go so we'll see how long it takes for them to be reunited in Wayfair.

Rose and I are going to have some issues if she doesn't check herself, that's just a given. She's all over the place and drops suddenly what we all knew about Etta's dad because Alice already told us basically but come on dude you don't just say that and then go galloping off into the distance for your brother (?) to take your place not knowing you were there to begin with??

Passangers

Who was your favorite character and why?

Etta, I like how she didn't know she was a time traveler but when she did find out she didn't freak out and she wanted to learn about it.

Which character – as performed by Saskia Maarleveld – was your favorite?

Nicolas Carter

Any additional comments?

I can't wait to listen to the 2nd book! I hope there will be more in the series.

A true adventure

Thrilling till the end. I cheered at times and held my breath. Each chapter was better than the last and I'm excited for its sequel. A two book series is rare, so I'd like to support it as much as I can.

Plus the narrator was splendid. I loved the voices she used for the characters and all the inflections. I ate up every word.

I loved it

I’ve read in print previously and wanted to revisit. This was just as good at reading myself

Can't Resist a Time Travel Novel

Etta Spencer is a violin prodigy just weeks from her professional debut. Etta's lived a quiet life focusing on violin and limiting her close relationship to her mother and her teacher. On the night of a concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Etta is snatched from the present. She awakes on a ship in 1776 that has just been boarded by privateers. One of the leaders of the privateers is Nicolas Carter to whom Etta feels a persistent pull.

Taken to New York City, Etta learns that she is a member of a time-traveling family and because of her genetics, capable of time travel. She and Nicolas are compelled to travel through time in order to find a stolen and powerful time-traveling artifact.

Passenger is a lot of fun, but it definitely has a slow start. There is quite a bit of explanation and background that has to be established before Etta can even begin her time traveling adventures. After all, she didn't even know that time travelers exist.

Once Etta and Nicolas begin their journey things really pick up. I like how the pair jumps to several locations on their journey through space and time. I especially appreciate that not all of those locations are in the Western world.

Etta and Nicolas experience an irresistible pull toward one another, and although the romance seems a bit rushed, and there's way too many secrets between the two, I guess I was won over to their romance by the end. Mostly.

The book ends with a crazy cliffhanger, and I'm sure that many will be eagerly awaiting the next addition to the series.

I hadn't read anything by Alexandra Bracken since I read her debut Brightly Woven back in 2010, and it was fun to see how much she's grown as an author since then.

Book 2 Please

I love the story, the prose, the cadence. the characters are likeable. Narrator is fabulous. Not exactly erotica, but fun. What else is there to say?