Wayfarer (A Passenger Novel, Book 2) (Passenger, 2)

The book is absolutely amazing! A great exillerating piece! The book is 5 stars. However, I preordered it months in advance and the book jacket was ripped and crinkled in many places and I was very disappointed. As someone who is OCD about their books, this was very sad. And the book itself was dented. It was preordered and suppose to be a brand new copy. This is just awful.

***Review posted on The Eater of Books! blog***

Wayfarer by Alexandra Bracken
Book Two of the Passenger series
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Publication Date: January 3, 2017
Rating: 4 stars
Source: Review copy sent by the publisher

Summary (from Goodreads):

All Etta Spencer wanted was to make her violin debut when she was thrust into a treacherous world where the struggle for power could alter history. After losing the one thing that would have allowed her to protect the Timeline, and the one person worth fighting for, Etta awakens alone in an unknown place and time, exposed to the threat of the two groups who would rather see her dead than succeed. When help arrives, it comes from the last person Etta ever expected—Julian Ironwood, the Grand Master’s heir who has long been presumed dead, and whose dangerous alliance with a man from Etta’s past could put them both at risk.

Meanwhile, Nicholas and Sophia are racing through time in order to locate Etta and the missing astrolabe with Ironwood travelers hot on their trail. They cross paths with a mercenary-for-hire, a cheeky girl named Li Min who quickly develops a flirtation with Sophia. But as the three of them attempt to evade their pursuers, Nicholas soon realizes that one of his companions may have ulterior motives.

As Etta and Nicholas fight to make their way back to one another, from Imperial Russia to the Vatican catacombs, time is rapidly shifting and changing into something unrecognizable… and might just run out on both of them.

What I Liked:

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW. (Unless you haven't read Passenger.)

One-line summary: This book is every bit as fascinating, captivating, and thrilling as its predecessor, and a page-turning, satisfying conclusion to the series.

I was extremely excited when I received this book early for review, but also wary. It's a long book (500+ pages), and the story is at an intense point (from the end of Passenger). I was nervous to read Wayfarer, because there are so many ways that this book could end, and most of them are bittersweet (or just plain cruel). I'm so happy to say that Wayfarer was incredibly engrossing and it ended rather perfectly - Bracken found a way.

This book picks up a little after the end of Passenger. Nicholas and Etta have been separated in time and space. Etta wakes up as a captive of the Thorns, and she meets someone she never thought she'd know. She, Julian Ironwood, and the Thorns set out to secure the astrolabe from Cyrus Ironwood. Meanwhile, Nicholas and Sophia seek help from Rose Linden, only to be turned around several times. Looking for information, the pair accumulate a number of favors they must return. They meet Li Min, a mysterious and secretive traveler who helps them more than once. But Nicholas has one goal, and that is to find Etta. Sophia wants to find the astrolabe. And Li Min knows more than she is letting on.

I'm still reeling a little, so bear with me as I go about this review. I've just finished the book and I'm in a pleasant state of shock, partial numbness, and total satisfaction. This book... I don't remember my exact expectations, before starting it. Hoping that Nicholas and Etta would survive and be together? In any case, I'm so pleased by what was written, and its delivery.

One thing I do recommend is a reread of Passenger, or checking out some sort of spoiler-filled review or post. Bracken has a spoiler-y graphic available on her website. I wish I had reread Passenger, because besides the ending, I didn't remember a ton of specifics. The good thing was, as I continued to read Wayfarer, I realized that I didn't need to remember too many specifics, because more and more came back to me. At first though, not the case.

One of the best parts of this book was the character development and introduction/development of new and smaller characters that had no or little role in Passenger. For example, I thought Sophia played a bigger role in this book - an enormous role. She is the most important "secondary" character (arguably a primary character? She doesn't have a narrative in the books though). I understood and liked Sophia so much more, in this book. She seems ruthless and blunt and sometimes harsh, but she is so determined and driven. She is someone you want on your side, because she is a dirty fighter.

Julian Ironwood, Nicholas's half-brother, is another secondary character who quickly becomes very important in Wayfarer. He betrayed his grandfather and sought refuge with the Thorns, which is how he and Etta meet. When she wakes up, she tries to escape, and she runs into Julian. Julian is a coward and a runner, but we get to understand him better in this book. He is an idiot and a poor brother, but he learns this and matures a lot, over the course of this book.

I enjoyed the presence of Li Min and Henry Hemlock. I won't say much on either of them, but both are vastly important in this book, and play critical roles in pivotal points in the story. I didn't love or hate Li Min, but I adored Henry Hemlock. His interactions with Etta were wonderful.

Etta shows her fight and her tenacity in this book! She keeps moving, with grief, guilt, even pain weighing her down. She knows that Nicholas is out there, and she knows that the astrolabe must be found and taken out of the Ironwoods' grasp. Her goals are lofty but she never quits.

The same can be said about Nicholas. He wants to find Etta and never stops hunting for information and leads. He and Sophia travel to so many different places and times, and make various (terrible) deals for information, to find Etta. Finding the astrolabe is important but to Nicholas, finding Etta is everything. Nicholas has such a pure and good heart, such upstanding morals. He's a good guy who considers everything, weighs everything, and questions everything. I liked seeing how his mind worked, and I liked seeing him push through pain and doubt.

Etta and Nicholas are separated from much of the book, so I can't really say much about physical romance, but their relationship is strong through space and time. It's amazing how they never cease thinking about each other, hoping that the other is alright, and fighting for each other. They do interact at points toward the end of the book, I will say that.

I died emotionally no fewer than seventeen times while reading this book. There were times when I actually teared up (my Goodreads statuses are proof). There were some painful parts in this book! Bracken took me on an emotional roller coaster. But for the better!

I love the varying settings that Bracken takes us through! Between Etta and Nicholas, we are introduced to so many different times and places. The most interesting, in this book, was probably Carthage, 148 B.C. How intriguing!

By the climax of the book, you'll be wondering how on earth Bracken can end this book with something happy or positive. There seems to be no way, with certain revelations about the astrolabe, and a darker force that is at play, and certain deals with devils that are very unfair. But Bracken made the ending worth all of the anguish and agony! I promise.

What I Did Not Like:

I don't really have much to say here, other than I do wish there had been more Nicholas/Etta interaction! I don't want to spoil anything, but the romantic in me would have loved more interactions. Of any kind.

Not really a dislike, but I do recommend a Passenger reread, if that one isn't fresh. For example, I read Passenger over a year ago. A reread might have helped, at least initially. After a certain point in Wayfarer though, some things started to come back.

Would I Recommend It:

I highly recommend this book, and series! Time-traveling novels can be tricky, and very messy. I haven't read a ton of them, but one of my favorite series of all time happens to be a time-travel series - the Ruby Red trilogy by Kerstin Gier. I can safely add this Passenger duology to those ranks. This is a wonderful, fascinating, and imaginative series! With a very satisfying ending.

Rating:

4.5 stars. I'm still trying to decide if to round up or down. But rest assured, I loved this book, all 532 pages of it. It is worth the full spectrum of emotions that I experienced! I look forward to reading more from Bracken in the future.

I don’t have the words to adequately express how much I loved this book. It was a brilliant conclusion to this duology, and had such heart to it. I absolutely adore Alexandra Bracken’s writing! Some small part of me wants this series to continue, but maybe with side characters having their own stories.

While my favorite people, Nicholas and Etta, spent much of the story apart, I spent much of the story anticipating when they would reunite, and it didn’t disappoint. They spend much of the story fighting their way back to each other, encountering danger after danger, and taking the reader all of the world, and through all different time periods.

I have to say my least favorite character was Sophia. She improves a bit towards the end of the story, and I like that she is this fierce character, but she was just not a likable character for me.

My only complaint is with the epilogue. I’m not sure what significance it has to the story. To me, it just confused things. If anyone can shed light on the epilogue, please do!

And, like I mention in my review of [[ASIN:1484715772 Passenger]], Bracken does a wonderful job researching the time periods mentioned in her story!

Do you ever just keep put off reading a book because you didn’t want the story to end? Wayfarer was definitely that book for me. I kept starting it, went off to read other books entirely, and then coming back to this in pieces. I simply adore Etta and Nicholas and fell in love with Passenger, and I didn’t want their story to end.

Where Passenger was about a mystery of travelers and the small moments of how Etta and Nicholas met and fell in love, Wayfarer is a story of how they might find each other again, separated by time. Travelers through the years are in search of the astrolabe, working for no other than Cyrus Ironwood, who is pretty much the only one with the resources and the drive to see it through. Nicholas and Sophia are at odds on whether to find the astrolabe or searching for Etta. Etta has been orphaned by her own timeline and meets another orphaned traveler, Julian Ironwood, the Grand Master’s grandson and Nicholas’ half-brother. Etta has to navigate back to the last common year between her and Nicholas’ two timelines in the hopes that they might find their way back to one another.

The writing is lyrical and easily flows between the two alternating narratives between Etta and Nicholas. There wasn’t really a moment where I thought I might prefer one POV over another, because I so wanted to know what was happening to them both. Their travels across time brought them to some very fascinating periods in history and I loved that certain moments in history were highlighted in this book. In particular, the chapters about Imperial Russia might be my favorite. It’s a very interesting time in history, and it’s nice to imagine, if for a moment, what it might have been like to live then. Or to be like the travelers in this duology and see significant historical figures as someone real?

This book is diverse and never makes it seem awkwardly inserted into the story. Wayfarer introduces gay characters, a Chinese character as a love interest, and emphasizes Sophia learning how to navigate through her life with only one eye. Sophia is such a strong character, but one I never really warmed up to in Passenger because she had pushed everyone away. In Wayfarer, we come to see so much more of her character and after finishing this book, I absolutely love Sophia. I wondered how Sophia and Nicholas would interact after even their most tempered moments had been stilted with hostility in the first book. They draw closer together in this book, and it’s really lovely to see the two of them unquestionably support each other and be the family for each other that they’d never had.

Julian was a very nice addition to this story in that, through Etta, we see a bit more of Julian’s character. He goes about his life with almost reckless abandon, even if he knows the dark truth about the men who raised him – his father and grandfather. Julian is truly someone who always means well, but his own character limitations comes from having lived a life of privilege. I love that Alexandra Bracken doesn’t shy away from including scenes that make Julian realize just how well he’s lived. How freely he’s been able to travel through time without a care in the world because he is white and a man. This book highlights the moments in Nicholas’ travels where he, as a black man, and Li Min, a Chinese girl, might stick out no matter where in time they travelled. Even Sophia at times might appear to be out of place as a white woman if unaccompanied in the streets.

There is a element of mystery to Wayfarer that we didn’t really get a sense of back in the first book. A story told only through traveler lore, of an Ancient One and his Shadows. They too who hunt for the astrolabe, but they leave strings of bloodied bodies in their wake. This story ties back to Rose Linden, Etta’s mother, and the choices she’s had to make for the sake of the timelines. Of why she would choose to deny her daughter so much and only keeping her at a distance. I liked the introduction of these new mysterious, albeit very brutal, characters. I wonder if I would have liked to know more about them, but the story told about them just in passing does seem rather depressing, so maybe what we’re told in Wayfarer is enough.

There are many twists and turns, and jumps forwards and backwards through time and its alternate timelines. We meet many new characters, and return to meeting some old ones. The ending is action-packed, and then becomes a very emotional read to the end as these characters and their stories come to a close. These books were a wild ride that have managed to fill me with wonder, tears, and laughter as I took a step into that passage with Etta in book 1. I will miss them all dearly and reading about their grand adventures and their journey through time.

So thank you, Alexandra Bracken, for writing these two wonderfully magical books. It’s been a fantastic read from start-to-finish. I can’t wait to read what other stories you have in store.

I am so bummed, because I was so looking forward to this book. But it was so slow. And lacked forward momentum for me. It didn't my help that Etta and Nicholas were separated for most of the book, when their relationship provided some of the best moments of the first.

I just didn't feel the urgency here. And even the traveling lacked the magic of discovery for these different periods. Add in some convoluted mythology in addition to the families and it was a little lackluster.

I think some solid editing to tighten everything up would have made a big difference. No characters were really given a solid chance to shine, though they had all the potential.

After Etta is orphaned by her natural time due to a shift in the timeline, Nicholas makes plans with Etta’s mom to find where she was dumped off in time and continue on their journey to reclaim the astrolabe.

What I liked:

While I feel like Passenger was mostly about Nicholas and Etta getting to know each other on their journey to find the astrolabe, I love the fact that in this sequel you get to learn so much more about other characters in the books.

In particular, I love getting to see more of Sophia. In Passenger, it seemed like she was primarily concerned with pleasing Cyrus Ironwood, but she seems different after being beaten by the Thorns and left for dead in the Syrian desert. She is her same fierce, angry self, but she seems to actually grow to care for Nicholas and Etta. I love her no nonsense attitude. I want only the best things for Sophia after this book, which is a very different feeling than I had after reading Passenger.

I enjoyed learning more about Rose. Seeing her motivations for why she sent Etta on this mission unprepared and the things that she had to do to set things in motion was interesting and sad. None of it really helped me like her more, she's just too cold for me. But it's definitely undeniable that she cares about Etta, cold or not.

The new characters in this book are wonderful as well! Henry, Julian, the Belladonna. All of them are super fun to meet.

I feel like there is a lot of action going on in this book. It definitely doesn't suffer from the sequel slump. There isn't a dull moment in this book, which is great because it's over 500 pages!

I loved all the settings that we get to see in this book as well. From the Crusades to the reign of the last tsar of Russia, it was all super fascinating to see in this book. I'm almost sad it's not a trilogy because just imagine what other awesome historical moments we could see!

What I disliked:

The only thing that I can say I really disliked about this book was the fact that Nicholas and Etta were separated for nearly the entire book. I love the relationship they build in Passenger and I feel cheated that I didn't get very much Nicholas and Etta time. I don't understand why it seems to be a thing in YA for the couple to be separated for long periods of time in the sequels. Distance doesn't make this heart grow fonder.

Overall, this was an excellent sequel. The characters were amazing, the history was amazing, and it was intense! If you like Passenger, definitely don't miss this conclusion! If you're into time-travel, pirates, and history, check out this series if you haven't already!

Extra wordy Love Mushy time travel fantasy. Good story line, would be a better read if some of the mush were condensed and the action enhanced.

Wayfarer was one of my most anticipated reads of 2017. I have been looking forward to this book since last summer when I read Passenger. I fell in love with the characters and felt like my heart was ripped out of my chest in the last few cliff-hanger moments in Passenger. So you can imagine, when Wayfarer hit the shelves, I was immediately diving in. The book picked up right where Passenger left off and the characters were just as wonderful as i remembered.

Bracken does such an incredible job with all of the details involved in a story based on time travel. There were definitely moments where I had to go back and re-read a few pages, but the writing was spot on and beautiful. The amount of research and planning that went into this book is hard to think about! Bracken also did a remarkable job of handling the topics of race and sexuality. I loved how the characters were strong, well-rounded, and stood up for what they believed in.

I loved about 98% of the story, but with every book, there is always something I wish went a little differently. There were a few parts that were a little slow, and I really wanted Etta and Nicholas to have more time together because I just love their relationship SO much! I think it made the in between portions of the story more enjoyable though, because I was constantly hoping for them to miraculously run into each other.

All in all, Wayfarer was a beautifully written story with the same amazingly complex characters, and a few new characters who I fell in love with as well. I would highly recommend reading Passenger and Wayfarer if you are a YA lover or if you love historical fiction. Well done Bracken!

The end of this book is probably one of the best series wrap ups I've read in a while. It tied up all loose ends and it was beautiful.

It did get a little slow about a hundred pages in and I found myself skimming through long passages of descriptions in those parts. But it revived itself as the set up ended and the plot picked back up.

It was still a fantastic read. Congratulations to Alexandra Bracken on #1 on the NYT list and the end of this wonderful series.

There are not many books that I actually feel like I want time to stop, and people to stop, and the world to stop just to let me finish but this one did the trick. I read a lot at work so I usually have to catch pages as I answer the phone, radio, and officers jabbering in my ear. I did not like that tonight I just kept hoping the officers would hush and nap somewhere unless I called them because this book had me hooked. The sequel though not quite as good as the first, is still amazing. I honestly like the separate story lines from the characters as they branched off on their own adventures. I loved meeting Julian, and Li Min, and I loved seeing the relationships progress. Julian learning the racist part of the time he grew up in. Sophia learning not to be such a horrible person. All the small things added up to a fantastic ending, even if Nicholas was very self serving when he said he wouldn't be. I was okay with it for that ending. Also can we get a story just focusing on Li Min and Sophia? K, thanks. I would love it.