Passenger by Alexandra Bracken - Review

Title: Passenger
Author: Alexandra Bracken 
Pages: 486
Publisher: January 5th 2016 by Disney-Hyperion
ISBN: 1484715772

Summary:
Passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever.

Review: 
I picked up Passenger after many weeks of just staring at the beautiful cover. I normally get bogged down by longer books, so I was a little intimidated by the size of this novel as well as the mixed reviews I had been reading. I finally talked myself into picking it up when I went on a week long beach trip and I'm really glad that I did. It starts out a little slow with lots of characters to keep up with, but the speed builds about three chapters in.

Bracken's writing style is so enchanting and immediately pulls you into the scenes. The book is written in two first-person perspectives, Etta and Nicholas. The reader follows the two main characters through a time-traveling adventure. I loved the constant change between time periods and location. It was fast paced and I was easily able to imagine the incredible destinations that the two characters visited. It is pretty common to become confused in time travel novels, but Bracken writes so clearly and eloquently that the reader has no difficulty keeping up.

Without spilling too much about the synopsis, the author bravely tackled topics such as race, culture, and sexism. These topics were thrown around a good bit, but they were not too "in your face". It was obvious that Bracken had completed her fair share of research in order to make the times, places, and cultures appear as they should.

Passenger was an all around thrilling novel, often leaving me unable to put it down. I would absolutely recommend this book to friends and I will be picking up the next installation as soon as it hits the shelves in August!

Rating 4/5

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- The Blonde Bookworm