[ARC Review] Neverwas by Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed & Larkin Reed

Title: Neverwas (Amber House #2)

Author: Kelly Moore, Tucker Reed & Larkin Reed

Publisher: Scholastic

Genre: YA, Horror, Paranormal

Release Date: January 7, 2014

Source: Publisher for review

"I was sixteen the second time I had my first kiss...."

At the end of AMBER HOUSE, Sarah made a choice that transformed everything--and now she must choose it all again.

Things are very different--better--for Sarah and her family: her Aunt Maggie grew up; her parents are happily married; her grandmother died after a long, productive and respected life. But other things are different too, and not for the better.

After growing up in the free country of the Pacific Northwest, Sarah Parsons has settled in at Amber House, the stately Maryland home that's been in her family for generations. But the world surrounding the House feels deeply wrong to Sarah. It's a place where the colonists lost the 1776 Insurrection, where the American Confederation of States still struggles with segregation, and where Sarah is haunted by echoes of a better world that she knows never existed.

Her friend Jackson shares these visions of a different world--and together, they manage both to remember the way things ought to be, and to plan a daring mission that will reset the universe once again. Sarah must figure out what has changed, and why, and how she can fix it--how she can find her way to another otherwhen.

 Neverwas was an interesting sequel to Amber House, although, I did not like it as much as the first book. In my opinion, it was a bit confusing. At first, I had a very hard time following the sequence of the book. I knew that Sarah had changed the past in the previous book, but I didn’t realize how drastic of a change that really was until I started to read Neverwas. As a reader, I was able to be easily re-acquainted with the characters. Unfortunately, for some of the characters, I was a bit lost and did not have the first book to reference from.

The story was quite different than what I was expecting, to be frankly honest. I was expecting more of Sarah changing the past but still remembering everything that previously happened. Instead you find her figuring things out as the story progresses. Which wasn’t a problem at all. However, I do wish there was a little more clarity on some of the changes, such as the different wars that took place. I felt as if I was just thrown into the story with no life preserver to help me along the way.

The characters seemed to be about the same. Richard didn’t seem as sneaky in this go round, but Sarah was a bit of a wimp (I guess you could say). I was also a little glad to see some of the relationship changes in this book compared to the last, but maybe those changes had a lot to do with the way the characters turned out in this one.

All in all, this was a pretty great book. I was happy to see how things ended up and really can’t wait to conclude what happens in the next book. I hope everything works out the way it’s supposed to in the end. As with the last book, I do recommend this book to ages 12 and up. 

 *Giveaway is US ONLY.
* Winner has 48 hrs to respond to email or another winner will be chosen.
* Winner will win my ARC copy.

a Rafflecopter giveaway