Member Reviews

I love books about time travel, and the blurb of this book was very inspiring.
The factor here is not WHERE, but WHEN.

Prenna James and a group traveled from the future trying to find a way to prevent a certain mosquito from proliferating to the point where it would carry the "weapon" that would kill so many people in the future.

This group - let's call them researchers voyagers - had a set of rules to follow.
They had a mission and should not run away from it, distracting themselves with other matters.

But it seems Prenna did just that the minute she met Ethan.

It's okay that he was cute with his geek way, but what about the mission? And people dying in the future? Was there a future? It seems the important was "the here and now", let's screw up with the rest of the humanity.

The premise of the book is interesting, but I did not feel connected to the main characters. So, their romance, and even their mission, was lost for me.
3 stars

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Sorry, could not get to reading this book on time - thank you for the opportunity to review!

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I just couldn’t get into this. I’ve been a fan of everything else from this author, but this book just couldn’t grab my attention,

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Cleaning up my netgalley still of some of the books that didn't get downloaded or just are not on my kindle for some reason. Sorry I didn't get to this book.

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The Here and Now by Anne Brashares
April 2014

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and Delacorte Press in exchange for an honest review. YA

Prenna James immigrated to NY at 12 years old from a future that was left in ruins following a pandemic of dengue fever. Likewise, she is constantly monitored to ensure her loyalty to her community. They live by stringent rules to avoid their identities being discovered. Consequently, Prenna becomes involved with Ethan Jarves. Their forbidden romance is one that puts both their lives at risk.

I found this story rather unbelievable or rather unimaginable. This isn't my favorite genre.

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Readable, but didn't feel invested in the characters. I wanted to like this one, because I like this author, but this isn't one I could recommend.

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I am a huge fan of Ann Brashares and her mastery of laying complex human emotions on a page. This book had a great premise and was fun to read.

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Refreshing, something new. Did enjoy reading as it was something that it isn't always done and rehashed into a new form. The characters were a little slow progressing in both story and personality, but otherwise a great read.

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I wouldn't recommend this one. Maybe I'm to old to relate to the characters. I love the idea of time travel, but wasn't enchanted with this story.

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Time Travel and rules broken and trusts made. This was a quick read that had a little bit of everything. If you are a fan of seeing how something insignificant can cause change, may want to pick this up. The romance was there but not over the top. Great page turner and well keep you in the book to see what else could happen.

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A well-written and enjoyable book, I am glad I requested this title and will be more than happy to pass the title along to my fellow library purchasers.

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**Edit** After some deliberation and mulling over, I've dropped my rating from a 4 to a 3, but still a rough 3.5. The more I thought about it, the more things I didn't like about it. **Edit**

A 3.5 but I bumped it to a 4 because I enjoyed Brashares' other works. I was surprised by the book. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel was not at all what I was expecting. It's not really dystopian, as it takes place in 2014, though there was time travel and talk of the future, it wasn't based there. I enjoyed some aspects of it. Some you have to try not to think too hard about or you'll just hate the book. I kept it on the light side while reading it. There's no explanation of time travel or the blood plague of the future or anything about the society of the time travelers. But they seemed pretty dumb and sheep-like so I guess things haven't changed that much from today. Prenna did some pretty stupid things and got called stupid quite a lot throughout the book. There was nothing spectacular about it or any new theories/revelations on time travel or the future but it was a quick, mildly entertaining read. I think Brashares should just stick to regular YA.

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Prenna arrives to the past on 2010 in the nude. She has time traveled from the future to escape a blood plague in 2098 that is killing everyone. A boy fishing sees Prenna when she "arrives" in the nude and gives her his sweatshirt to cover up. She walks away toward the bridge. The boy, Ethan thinks he imagined this happening. Prenna is living in a community that consist of the time she came from. In church, part of the ceremony is reciting the twelve rules that they must follow. Ethan sees Prenna when he attends school two and a half later. He can't believe his eyes. One day after a false bomb scare Ethan tells Prenna that a homeless man he knows wants to talk to her. The homeless man convinces Prenna that she needs to do something in the present to prevent the future happening with the deadly blood plague. Will she do it? It goes against the twelve rules that she is suppose to follow. The leaders of the community are suspicious of Prenna. Why?

The novel starts with a different time travel story than what I expected. There is a forbidden romance. I read with interest how Prenna struggled to fit in to a different time period. It's an interesting story.

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Sorry, requested but did not find the time to review.

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I recognized this author's name from the Sisterhood of Traveling Pants. I loved that book and thought I'd love this one. However, this just wasn't what I was expecting. I don't want to bash the story. The story was well thought out. It's just not my usual reading. Too much science fiction for my liking.

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I just could not take this book seriously, I’m very sorry. The Here and Now tells the story of a girl who is sent back in time with a small group of people so that they can escape their own grim future world. Because mosquitoes? And fever? Anyway, the gist of it is that in the future literally millions of people die from malaria to the point where the human race finds themselves on the Endangered Species List. It is probably not the best sign when a book’s plot reminds you strongly of a South Park episode:



I like to think I can accept a lot in the books I read but with this one, I just found it borderline hilarious all of the time. These characters escape a mosquito-ridden planet to go back in time and…do nothing…about it? Literally they have ~rules~ which forbid all the future people from interfering with the world as it is, which, okay, just head on forward to a mosquito-ridden future. Seems legit. And obviously there is a love story between a future girl and a boy from the past. ~love in the time of mosquitoes~

I mean you could always go and read this book for amusement but I struggle to find anything deep or serious in a story that so desperately wants to be.

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