A future devastated with pollution and widespread epidemics leads a group to time travel to the past to carve out a better life. They assimilate somewhat into the community but must follow strict rules to avoid damaging the time line. It is 2010, and Ethan happens to catch the shimmer in the air and the sudden materialization of Prenna from the future. A few years later, he sees her again when she attends his high school and the attraction is quite mutual. Following clues left by another time traveller, the pair strives to halt the murder that has been identified as the key act that leads to the bleak future Earth.

When I read a time-travel book, I can’t help but think of Back to the Future and Dr. Emmett Brown’s warning not to mess with the space-time continuum. Even with the time travellers’ many rules, just living in an earlier time will cause infinitesimal changes to the future and that is not addressed. When the teens devise a plan to shift the time line and save future mankind, the couple is a little too lackadaisical in the days leading up to the prevention of the most pivotally destructive path in time. Let’s go have a little beach holiday before we save the world. Best for teens that want a bit of romance and mystery that nudges the brain into considering the staggering space-time continuum conundrum.

NetGalley review Publication date 4.8.14