This is my first reading of an Ann Brashares novel.

I enjoyed this book and thought it would be a great read for teens. I thought the premise of this book was pretty interesting and the characters were likeable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Well, this book definitely tried to do something. Not sure what the intention was behind it, but something happened.
There was a very forced and weird romance in here, and some pseudo science.

I ended up DNF'ing this novel due to worldbuilding that did not stand up to close scrutiny. How does Prenna come from a society that has time travel but not medicine capable of taking care of plagues? It was too short to give the worldbuilding and premise the exploration it needed.

This book was absolutely amazing. Given the state of the world today, it was honestly scary to think of what the future holds in regards to viruses and the climate. I'd be lying if I said this book didn't spook me.

The characters were amazing and I loved their individual characteristics. They were super easy to connect with and the book was easy to fall into. Definitely recommend this one.

Great storyline with a touch of romance. I enjoyed reading a book so different from what Brashares usually writes.

In 2098, due to global warming, the world was becoming uninhabitable. The intense heat caused mosquitoes infected with a deadly virus to multiply. Their bite caused death across the planet and, with no hope left, Prenna, her mother and a group of others travelled to 2010. There they planned to work to save the future.

Prenna has lived with members of her colony in her new time period for 4 years. Forced to live by a strict set of rules to maintain secrecy, she was mostly obedient. Though handsome Ethan was always trying to talk to her in class, Prenna knew she wasn’t allowed to spend quality time with him. However, things changed the day a strange old man told her she had to keep a murder from happening on May 14th, a few weeks away. He insisted if it happened it would forever change the future.

When the leaders began to suspect Prenna was being disobedient, they kidnapped her. Ethan came to her rescue, and they went on the run as they made plans to stop the upcoming murder. Though Prenna knew May 14th held a big significance to the old man, she didn’t realize it also held the possibility of breaking her heart.

This book about time travel, forbidden love, and pondering the “what if’s?” of the future had many twists and turns. At times very romantic, it also broke my heart. Though written in 2014, it’s scary how global warming has gotten worse in just 5 years. There’s an interesting passage on p. 166 that still holds true today “There is Earth Day and all kinds of green products that make people feel good…. but nobody does the hard things. Not if it costs them anything. Nobody calls for any real sacrifices…. eventually they will demand sacrifices…but by then it will be too late.” We need to make sure it doesn’t become too late.

Recommended for ages 14 and older.

I honestly thought I would like this, because I like dystopian type novels, but this kinda fell short. There were some inconsistencies and annoying bits and...I don't know. It just wasn't as exciting as others. It wasn't awful, but if there were sequels I'm not sure I'd read them.

I love this author and have followed them for literally years, they can do no wrong with their writing. Great book.

Time travel has never really been my thing, but this book managed to grab me. Ethan knows Prenna is different, he was there when she appeared in his time. However he can't seem to get her to talk to him.

Prenna has rules she has to follow or she will be punished, and if you go too far you can end up permanently gone. She has been falling for Ethan since she started school, she doesn't know why but she can't seem to let it go.

A homeless man, a key and a letter all work to start Prenna questioning everything the leaders of her community were doing. Especially when it comes to the rules.

A fast-paced and intriguing, with a scary peek into the future. As Ethan and Prenna work to find the thing that caused her time to be so bleak and fix it. They also find love.

I laughed, cried and held my breath as this story unfolded. A truly enjoyable YA read.

Fascinating plot and engaging characters. Loved the premise, the conflict, and the main characters' believable path towards overcoming their obstacles.

My big beef is with the ending. There is no catharsis. I understand the choice not to have Ethan and Prenna together, but you need some sort of emotional resolution to help readers feel satisfied. This is attempted with Katherine and Molly, but their relationships with Prenna were barely given any treatment in the book (all emotion was told, rather than shown) and so their safety and opportunities were not satisfying enough to hold up the end of the book. As a reader I felt Prenna'e connection to Ethan, to Julius, and to some extent to her father, bit the other relationships just seemed tokens.

Okay, I have to admit here that I have not read any of the books in the popular Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and this is the first book by Ann Brashares that I have read. What a wonderful story to introduce me to a new author. I'm so glad I discovered this one and I look forward to reading more.

The Here and Now is an exciting story where Prenna and Ethan work together to find out what is the truth and what are the lies. Coming from another time, Prenna has 'rules' to live by, but are these rules in place to keep her safe or to hide the secrets of others? This is definitely a page turner, as together they face a scary present that may or not affect the uncertain future.

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares is about two lovers that come from different times. Individually, they have differences to make them unique in themselves, but they are brought together by so many things. There are rules in this society, including to never talk about where your are from. It's interesting to have this void in world building, to not know about the character completely. I felt myself not being able to connect to them because I was missing some pieces.

While I thought the story had a good premise, the pacing was off, for me. Everything fell into place too quickly, without any real hardships or turmoil. And while I don't like angst at all, the relationship built between the two main characters were almost instantaneous.

My rating (****) -- A short well-written teen romance between a refugee from the future and a boy of today. I liked the story, with the usual teen rebellion to save the world, but the looming global warming disaster (due to burning of fossil fuels) was over the top. It's not hammered on, just a background for the story.

I love Ann Brashares writing and this book was beautifully written. I enjoyed the story line but found the time travelling a bit confusing at points. The characters where greatly developed and I felt a connection to them.

Very different style for this author, but I highly enjoyed it. I wish I’d felt more connected to the characters though.

Quick Take: I'm not sure what to say about this book, it's YA and a quick read. It's much lighter than the Divergent series, but good. The adult version would have delved more into the impact of everything on the future, global warming, disease, etc.

If you are looking for an entertaining, quick YA selection this is a good choice. I'm curious to see if reader's will love this one... I really enjoyed My Name is Memory, click here to read my thoughts/review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, unfortunately this book didn't end up working for me, which is a real shame, as I had such high hopes going into this book.

This book was really awesome and weird! I really enjoyed reading it! I haven't read her big main series, but that totally doesn't matter because this is a stand alone book. Anyways. I really enjoyed this world of going back in time to escape a pretty horrible future!

The future that Prenna and the others left was awful, and they were right to want to change it. But their rules, they were just begging for someone to break them. And to put on these people the idea that if would be their fault if the plague happened, well, it already did, they're trying to change it. Gah! Well, they said they would, but leadership, man, are they controlling and awful and cowards!

That ending was so bittersweet! I mean, they made sure that her data wasn't lost, but she still was killed. But since it might have been Ethan who they had to keep from dying...yeah. But then there's the whole, different microbes/diseases, made for a not totally happy ending!

Honestly, I would rather either the book be longer, since it was just over 200 pages, and there could've been more story, so maybe there could've been a solution. Either that, or a sequel, so we could have much more, and definitely have a happier ending!

This was a really enjoyable book, and I really enjoyed reading it!

I read this book almost in one sitting while I was travelling by train. I read it awhile back though and never ended up writing my thoughts on it because I thought it was just okay. I love time travel books but this one wasn't explained too well. It kept my interest but didn't wow me.

This didn't end up being my genre of stories, so I couldn't get into it.