ARC Review--Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor

When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. Trapped in the twelfth century in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Along the way, her path collides with that of a mysterious boy who could be vital to her mission . . . or the key to Hope’s undoing.      Addictive, romantic, and rich with historical detail, Into the Dim is an Outlander for teens.

I received this eARC from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review, I was in no way compensated for this review.

Janet B. Taylor’s debut Into the Dim was a most magical and stunning read! I’ve always enjoyed a good time traveling novel. I may not be the best with history and memorizing dates, but I do enjoy knowing things that have happened long ago, particularly if a ghost story is linked to it! But that’s not the case here.

My first fear with all time traveling novels involves the science behind the time traveling. I am so not a science person. I enjoyed English and creative writing courses, but never science. That’s too hardcore facts for me, but honestly, the science here wasn’t all that bad. It’s explained rather easily with how time traveling works, and that worked for me!

Hope’s mother has recently been declared dead. Eight months ago she was at a university giving a lecture, when an earthquake struck and killed nearly everyone. We open the book to see Hope and her father attending the funeral he wanted to have for Hope’s mother, in order to let go. Yet, a part of Hope wants to believe that her mother is still alive, they never did find a body. As morbid as that seems, I can understand Hope’s logic.

Hope is offered to spend the summer in Scotland with her mom’s family, and since there really is no other option for her, she goes. And that is where the journey truly begins.

It’s not long before Hope is introduced to the time traveling world and learning that her aunt is head of a particular group who goes back into time. Her mission is to locate a powerful stone that can allow for easier time traveling with no restrictions, for currently, there are restrictions.

There’s so much detail to this story, it’s amazing! There were so many characters that I enjoyed meeting and trying to speculate on their personality and character traits. But truly, never once did I feel overwhelmed or confused with anything. The words flow so easily off the page I wanted more and more.

There is a bit of romance in the book as well. When Hope meets Bran, it’s not quite the insta love reaction you might expect, yet there’s this tension between them. A definite buzz that you know something is going to happen. And then, just wow! I totally saw one thing coming, but there was yet another major surprise that Janet throws at us that totally threw me through the loop!

I also feel like that there could be a possible love triangle situation going on. I’d rather hope not, but I guess the love triangle cynic in me is always looking to see if there is one somewhere. I feel like one is loosely set up in the background, but for the moment, we do remain focused on just the one couple.

I really enjoyed Hope’s character as well. She is pretty intelligent and has an eidetic memory, which I SO envy! But she has her flaws too, which is a nice sort of balance. I was afraid her memory gift would make her a bit haughty, but she was anything but! I loved her interactions with Collum, who was sort of the “prodigy” time traveler in her aunt’s group. She knocks him off that high horse of his a time or two, but I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface of his full character. I feel like he might stand out a bit more in the next book. It’s just a feeling, not anything I picked up on in the pages. But we’ll see how things go this time next year, so someone please remind me of what I am saying! LOL, because as I said, I am the opposite of Hope and her “super” memory!

Into the Dim was a stunning and remarkable read! I was eating up the pages despite an initial hesitancy to start the book. I am ever so glad that I decided to read this anyway, because it was one of the most entertaining and surprising reads of the year so far! I love a good surprising twist to the story, especially if I don’t see it coming! There was a good balance of surprises I could detect and ones that I could not in this book; which pretty much makes this a perfectly GREAT read!  

Overall Rating 5/5 stars

Into the Dim releases March 1, 2016