All aboard the journey though time and the sea.
Customary warning: This is a reminder that these are my personal opinions. My thoughts and feelings are not your thoughts and feelings. I may not always be the target audience for a book; sometimes I am. If I do not like a book, that doesn’t mean you’ll dislike it. If I love a book or simply like a book, you may hate it. Take everything I say with this knowledge. If it sounds interesting to you despite what I’ve said, then go ahead and read it. You’ll only know you like something if you read it yourself.
That being said… Spoilers ahead.
Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
Synopsis From The Book
In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles, but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.
Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods-a powerful family in the Colonies-and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, his passenger, can find. In order to protect her, Nick must ensure she brings it back to them-whether she wants to or not.
Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home? forever.
Initial Thoughts Before Reading:
This will be my first Alexandra Bracken novel, despite how I’ve wanted to read her works for quite some time. I do not know much about this book other than the synopsis, which I found interesting. Plus I have a thing for pirates and ships. Treasure hunting is always so much fun. I hope this book is too
Initial Thoughts After Reading:
I love her writing. I simply do. I also have a thing for pirates (See above) so my heart was thoroughly pleased. I need to read the second, but I also need to read the last books in a lot of series I own, apparently. Regardless I really liked this, and its use of time. I can not wait to read more of Alexandra Bracken’s work, now that I have a love for it.
Plot Overview:
Etta is a Violinist hoping to make her big debut, called the best kept secret in classical music. The day of her soft debut, her instructor dies and she is thrust into the world of 1776. It is there that she learns she is what they call a “traveler” or one with the blood to be able to travel through time. She meets her captor, Sophia, and a half black man, Nicholas.
Sophia and Nicholas take her to a man named Cyrus Ironwood who puts her on a mission to find an object for him. This object will change time as she knows it and is necessary for her to save her mother’s life. Nicholas goes on the journey through time and Etta’s mother’s stories to find the object, all while falling for each other.
What I Liked:
Etta; I like her. I like how she knows how to adapt due to her up brining. I like how she views the world, and how she’s so 21st century when everyone is not. I didn’t get irritated with her decisions or her plans. She was reckless and idiotic at times but I found her strangely charming.
Nicholas; I love him. 80% because he’s a black 18th century pirate, 20% because he’s actually a good guy… (I jest. Maybe) He is kind and charming, to a fault, as that was the nature of the time. He realizes his race so clearly. I adore him and his takes on his past trauma. He may be heavy handed at times, with how he wants to protect Etta, but she saves him probably more.
Villians; The sides all have a sort of grey to them that I like. We know a lot about the Ironwoods but not about the Thornes. Etta’s mother turns out to be a sort of villain. I like how they all have their own goals, with thoughts on how the world should be without caring what truly will happen to the time with things they change.
Traveling; I liked the traveling. The rules were flushed out, which was the most important part for me. It was possible to meet someone who was dead in the past, if you were there when they were there in the past. It’s confusing, a mess, and all around a great execution in my personal opinion.
Use of music; I cringed when Etta messed up her solo at the beginning. I was cringing with her, for her, like it was my own mistake. I loved the use of music and chords as things of importance. I liked how Etta found safety in a violin’s music and playing the air violin in a London Air Raid during WWII.
What I Would Have Liked or Changed:
Longer time line — if at least by a bit.
Love; Now don’t get me wrong. I adore the Etta and Nicholas relationship. I just wish there was a little more substance of time to it, than a few short weeks together. For him, I do understand why he likes her so much (she’s not a racist, is a very important one, another being the time in which her grew up. Things are different in that time). Etta, I can even understand, as she’s had to push everything and everyone she’s cared about from her side for violin. I just feel its more like a good old bout of lust that has the formation for deep love. I’m also not an Insta love fan, so there is that.
Time Taken To Read
3hrs 20min
Rating: 4.5/5
We await the 2nd book to be certain.
Notable Quotes:
Too enthralled to note. Sorry. >~<
Marlena Marie 
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