Chasing Stars

by Helen Douglas

[Angie]

Time travel! Space travel! And dangerous escapes! Chasing Stars has it all! I don't know if I liked it as much as After Eden, but close enough! Eden and Ryan are lying low in 2012 when another cleaner shows up. She's supposedly there for Travis' body, but it's clear that she's watching Ryan also. Of course, she catches Eden alone and uses her to get to Ryan. However, she's not there to kill him. She wants to take him, and Eden, back to 2123 where he belongs, and where she can't slip and tell anyone about the future. But it's not so simple as that; Ryan has to go to trial for breaking very serious time laws, leaving Eden alone in a new time and a new country.

I loved the 22nd century! It's not super futuristic and bizarre, but like Eden was told a couple of times, it's the small differences that throw you off the most. Chasing Stars does a great job of showing a time travelers struggles to fit into the time, and just going about daily life. When Eden first arrives in New Hampshire, she has nothing. She's given a prepaid card so she can get clothes and food, but even those things are hard to figure out. Fashion is completely different, so she has no idea what's considered casual or formal. Then there's all kinds of weird food items, including cricket salad and seaweed soups. Eden can't even turn on the TV (now called a com-somethingorother). It's all very interesting.

Aside from Eden trying to start a new life in the future, Chasing Stars has a quite engaging plot. Ryan's trial happens, and it doesn't go how anyone hoped, but how I figured it would go or else the book would be very short. Eden has been hanging out with his friends, so with their help they come up with plans to rescuing him. I liked how they actually thought about their plans, and did research instead of just jumping into unknown situations for the sake of time. I did figure out how the final rescue mission would play out, and I'm so glad that I was right. But then it all ends on a cliffhanger and I must know where they go next!

There were two kind of minor things that annoyed me while reading Chasing Stars. The first was that the author messed up on her British versus American English several times. I felt like she did really good at this in the first book when it was set in England, but there were a lot more mistakes now that it was set in America. The second was that everyone is always drinking! They're not getting drunk, but the amount of alcohol flowing really stood out. But eventually one of their rescue plans involves getting someone really drunk, and then pretending to be drunk. I guess all of the drinking was to show that it was a common thing among teens, so that their plans wouldn't be too far of a stretch. It was just distracting though.

In the end, I really enjoyed Chasing Stars. It was a ton of fun and combined two of my favorite things: time travel and outer space! I do wish there had been more romance, since all of this trouble was so that Eden and Ryan could be together. I was glad that no love triangle formed, which would have been easy to do between either two of Ryan's male friends. But it looks like the next book will included more romance and more danger for our starcrossed lovers!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.