I won't be able to leave a review for this book; I requested it in a past lifetime of my NetGalley use (about ten years ago!) and it no longer fits with my reading interests. If I ever do end up reading it I'll come back and update this!

I requested this title back before my blogging break. I have ended up with a number of titles that are overwhelming to catch up on now I am back from my blogging break. I am regretfully not going to be reading and reviewing this title, but now I am back from my blogging break, I am looking forward to reading and reviewing some of your future titles. Thank you so much for the opportunity and apologies.

There's nothing to dislike about Freya or the other characters, but there's to particularly like either. They feel cookie-cutter. The story isn't bad. After the exciting prologue, however, we're dropped into a typical teenage girl's life in 1985, and I didn't feel invested enough in the characters to continue. DNFed

I first want to apologize for the extremely long delay in submitting a review for this book. It's been almost 7 years, and I finally got around to reading it to review. So for that, I do apologize.

Yesterday is a strange story. It's dystopian, but set in the past for most of the story, rather than in the future like most dystopians. However, there's also the element of time travel, which is why it is set in the past. The future gets seriously messed up, and Freya, the main character is sent back to 1985 to stay safe. Her memories are a mess, and it isn't until she meets a young man named Garren that things slowly start to crumble.

I have to admit, I was a little confused by the story at first. I wasn't quite sure what was going on, and I struggled in the beginning with getting into the story. But once it got going, I found myself immersed in it, and I was eager to see how it would all play out. I rather enjoyed the nostalgia factor, even though I was only a year old in 1985. It made me smile to see how the characters reacted to being in the past, especially after they discovered what time they were really from.

Yesterday is an action-packed story that will keep readers on edge, and by the time they finish, they'll be curious to see what could possibly happen next. Now that I've finally gotten around to reading this book, I'm looking forward to the sequel.

I'm rating Yesterday 4 stars, only because I did feel it was a bit hard to get into at first. Overall, though, it's a great story that I would recommend to fans of the dystopian genre.

Set in Ontario, Canada, it was fun to read a book with its setting only hours away. They exist but I rarely have stumbled upon a book set in Canada (hence my love for Kelley Armstrong novels). It gave me a delightful reading experience, which made up for some of the qualms I had about the disjointed storylines in this novel.

Yesterday begins with a very enticing prologue. We get thrown into a confusing, but thrilling scene where we originally meet Freya, while raising a lot of questions, it sets an excellent mysterious tone for the rest of the book. Once the true story starts, we’re in 1985, where Freya is a regular teenage girl, except now she feels like her memories are hazy. Something’s going on, and it’s very hard to put a finger on what.

It’s 1985! Being an 80’s baby, it was entertaining to get a setting that I was raised in. The style, the non-technological lifestyle, it was nostalgic to a simpler time, and quite original for a post apocalyptic novel to actually happen in the past. Yes! A post-apocalyptic, with time travel! This premise, definitely very original, is filled with mystery and action that easily keeps you turning the pages frantically to find out what’s happening, how they ended up in 1985, and how they’re going to survive. Because of the prologue, we know something big happened to Freya before she got to the past, and it’s agonizing, maybe even a little frightening, to not know what the heck is happening. Finally, when we do get some answers, it can be a bit overwhelming. All of a sudden we turn the page to find ourselves into an immense info-dump where all of the future world building gets thrown at us inside the span of a few pages. It’s still interesting, highly detailed, but it being such a sudden load of information, you barely have time to make any sense of it. Furthermore, the future world we learn about is extremely different with incredible scientific advancement. What’s hard to believe is that it is said to be only 40 years in the future. I may be proven wrong and in 40 years we’ll all be able to regrow limbs and only have sex in a virtual reality, but I found a lot of it inconceivable, and, thus, less compelling. I’m fine with unlikely, I’m fine with fantasy even, this is, after all, a fiction novel; however, it’s the author’s job to suspend my disbelief effectively, and in this case it was not. Once we get the low down on everything that has occurred, it basically becomes a high speed chase. Very action-packed and filled with tension; constantly on the run with Freya while still mind blown over what we learned about her past (or future..?).

When I learned it had strong time travel elements I was a little concerned. As time travel can be very tricky, I’m not easily persuaded by it. I think if you look at it in an entertaining point of view, it clearly fits the bill with twists that are equally surprising and intriguing. But when you put any thought into it, it’s a different story. I was not very satisfied with the way the time travel aspect was set up. Hypothetically, If you change the past, you won’t get to be in the same future that made it possible for you go back to change the past in the first place. Did I lose you? This is called the grandfather paradox, and it’s a recurring problem I had more than once in this plot. Time travel is not an easy venture; you have to really work it well (Ie. Dr Who, Back to the Future, Butterfly Effect). This one unfortunately left me feeling underwhelmed with the lack of any forethought on its implementation. Yes, I am picky when it comes to time travel. It is what it is.

With its peculiarity of juggling several genres and several major plot elements, you get a very original book, sure, but I’m not completely convinced it all fits together, and if it does, it isn’t seamless. It’s even hard to decipher what the book wants to be at times. A dystopian? A time travel romance? A contemp with some sci-ci elements? It has a LOT going on which, again, is great for an action book and clearly kept my interest throughout, yet I can’t help but feel it was a big mess.

The romance is also an aspect I’m not sure how I feel about. They do have chemistry and make a great team as main characters, but I couldn’t help but feel a lot of awkwardness coming from them. As if they’re constantly walking on eggshells. Some of it does have to do with the circumstances of their lives I’m sure, not to mention the high speed world building that didn’t show the reasoning for her infatuation with him to begin with. At least the relationship grows slow and steadily, making it feel more genuine. There are a couple of scenes that are very mature for YA as well – just a heads up.

As you can see, I have very mixed feelings about this one. On one hand I really enjoyed the overall effect of a fast paced, exciting book with great twists, but on the other hand I’m not sure if I will really remember any of it for very long. It’s like cramming for a test, you may ace it, but retake the test in 2 days and you will most likely fail miserably. Where am I going with this? I have no idea. My mind is as jumbled as this book.

Really cool action and suspense packed book, love the characters and the whole world and situation that Freya lives in.

I started reading this book and it didn't catch my attention for a bit but sadly I ended up DNF this book. Sorry for the late review.

I tried to engage with this book, but unfortunately it just wasn't for me.

Unfortunately I think this book fell victim to a time period in which I wanted to request alllll the books for review before considering whether or not the book would be suitable to my reading tastes. Post-apocalyptic books are only sometimes a genre I'd pick and time travel books are even rarer. So this book was probably never going to be for me, unfortunately.