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, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he 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.
I feel like my review will be an unpopular opinion. I did not dislike this book, but it was also not the best book I have read. I liked the concept, I liked the writing style, but I didn't really like the execution. Nearing 500 pages (excluding the excerpt from the sequel at the end), I felt every single page (much like feeling every second of a boring movie). I can't really fault the author for this. She has a very interesting and unique writing style, it just didn't click for me. It was LONG when it didn't need to be. I feel like this book would be a lot better if it was 150-ish pages less.
The concept of this novel is very intriguing. I love the idea of time travel. At first I thought it was like a YA version of the wonderful Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. But Etta is not Claire, and Nicholas is not Jamie. I'm disappointed that I didn't like this book because it is right up my alley. I love historical fiction and time travel. I think one of the major faults of this novel is the vast amounts of info-dumps we get instead of character development. I felt like I didn't know any single one of the characters. I knew their names and I knew their stories, but I didn't know them. I didn't know what made them tick. That's probably why I didn't buy the romance between Etta and Nicholas. On the whole, I HATE insta-love, but it's even less tolerable when I don't click with either of the romantic leads.
The writing style on the other hand, was incredible. I loved Bracken's writing voice. Her descriptions of locations and people are really wonderful, but it ultimately falls flat due to all the fluff and unimportant things that are added to the novel to bulk it up when there didn't need to be that much fluff.
All in all, Passenger disappointed me. It was a really intriguing concept, but it was bogged down by info-dumps, insta-love, unrelatable characters and unimportant plot details that lead nowhere. While the writing style is very well done and unique, I'm going to give Passenger 2/5, and will probably not be continuing with the sequel that came out earlier this year.
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