Rewrite Redemption
By: J.H. Walker
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: January 25, 2013
Genre: Sci/Fi YA
Rating:

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She’s sixteen. He’s seventeen. They don’t know each other…at least not yet.

She has a secret and her whole life revolves around keeping it. Every few months and with little warning, she simply disappears, pulled into the past for hours or even days. She’s terrified it will happen in front of someone, changing her life forever. So far, the only witnesses have been her parents, and that didn’t end well. She has no control over it and no idea why it happens to her.

She wants answers.

He has answers—at least he understands what’s going on. He has a secret, too. He’s part of an organization that goes back in time to rewrite reality. But he also has a problem. He broke the organization’s number-one rule by altering his own timeline. As punishment, he’s been blocked from time travel, which is most unfortunate. Because the changes he made to his timeline, accidentally resulted in disaster for his family. A disaster he’s now prevented from repairing. No one can travel beneath the organization’s radar except a Shadow. But they’re rare, so rare he’s never even met one.

Then he moves to her town.

A.J. travels back in time with little to no warning. She has no idea why/how she does it but it’s been happening since she was a baby. As a result of this phenomenon, her mother went crazy and killed herself and her father uses alcohol to get through the day. She goes through her days trying to remain invisible as much as possible. It isn’t until a new guy shows up at school that she begins to realize that she can go back in time and rewrite her future.

This was such an interesting concept. I’ve read time travel books before but nothing like this. There is a guild that’s sole purpose is to oversea the time travels and make sure that any threat to the world is taken out before an apocalypse can happen. Guys like Constantine go back in time and edit the past to make a better future. However, A.J. is a whole different thing. She time travels at will without the guilds approval or knowledge. She’s what they call a Shadow.

Due to one tiny alteration Constantine made in his past, his current life is hell and he no longer has his Editor abilities to fix it. His family is falling apart and it’s all his fault. When he comes across A.J. he comes up with a plan. Get to know the girl and have her help him go back in the past and fix his mistake. However, it becomes clear that she’s more than just a random Shadow.

Even though I really enjoyed the story, I did have some hang ups. There was of course the insta-love. These two go from not knowing each other to falling in love. I understand that it’s supposed to be this whole alien soul mates thing but I’d have liked the love to be a bit more slow building. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the mega info dump when Constantine tells Lex all about the Guild and what it all means. I felt a bit overwhelmed.

However, this was a whole new world for me. I’ve read time travel books before but never one like this that dealt with the actual person having a tweak in their DNA strand allowing them to time travel. I liked that we went back in time with A.J. and experienced the disorientation when she lands and has to figure out what to do next. Especially since she isn’t intending to time travel so she isn’t always prepared. I think my favorite part is when A.J. goes back in time twice and come across a Native American named, Hosa. I wish we’d have spent a little more time with his characters since I found him very fascinating.

This was a very interesting take on a time travel story. I liked that the author thought outside of the box with this one and brought new items to the table of time travel.

“I might have won the lottery but I hadn’t cashed in the ticket yet. And until you have the money in your hand, you don’t have the prize.”

J.H. grew up in Central America. She now lives in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies with her photographer husband and many, many books. In addition to her never-ending study of human behavior, she’s a political junkie and a certified tree hugger. Rewrite Redemption is her debut novel.

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