Aug 5, 2013

{Blog Tour: Review + Giveaway} of A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris


Seeing Night Reviews is the next stop in the A Tale of Two Centuries tour by Rachel Harries, hosted by Rockstar Book Tours.

A Tale of Two Centuries by Rachel Harris
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

GENRE: Young Adult
THEME: Time Travel, Romance, and Historical
RECEIVED: Tour
AUTHORS BLOG: Rachel Harris' Site

BLURB:
Alessandra D’Angeli is in need of an adventure. Tired of her sixteenth-century life in Italy and homesick for her time-traveling cousin, Cat, who visited her for a magical week and dazzled her with tales of the future, Alessandra is lost. Until the stars hear her plea.

One mystical spell later, Alessandra appears on Cat’s Beverly Hills doorstep five hundred years in the future. Surrounded by confusing gadgets, scary transportation, and scandalous clothing, Less is hesitant to live the life of a twenty-first century teen…until she meets the infuriating—and infuriatingly handsome—surfer Austin Michaels. Austin challenges everything she believes in…and introduces her to a world filled with possibility.

With the clock ticking, Less knows she must live every moment of her modern life while she still can. But how will she return to the drab life of her past when the future is what holds everything she’s come to love?

REVIEW:

Starting this book I was expecting to enjoy it and have to girly squee moments, but I didn’t just enjoyed it, I absolutely adored this story. I love stories that have adventure, growth for the characters, and romance, this story had it all with such a lighthearted tone that kept me smiling all the way to the end. I read this before reading the first book and it was easy to step into this word and connect to each character.

A Tale of Two centuries follows Alessandra “Less” who is looking for adventure away from her sixteenth century life. She misses her adventurous time traveling cousin Cat who is now back in the future. After her heart is broken, she wishes for a future that Cat has told her so much about. She is then taken to the there after wishing for a change, where Cat helps her learn about 21st century. Little does Alessandra know that her new adventure will challenge her heart and her past.

Alessandra in her time doesn’t have the freedoms of the 21st century girl, she urns to act on stage, to marry someone she truly loves and the chance to experience life. Thankfully she has Cat to help her with the American lingo, the high school drama, and of course boys. I loved watching Less learn and experience the unusual ways of our time, the dress code was the best part, I was laughing at how much she had trouble with it. She also is challenge by her heart, meeting Austin who lives life to how he wants, something Less has never been able to do. He opens her eyes to the bigger picture and he doesn’t realize the effect she has on him either. The romance is sweet and develops into something that just made my heart pull for these two to be together. But in the end it’s all about how Less is able to find what her strength is and where it will take her.

Austin is a boy who lives life in his own pace; he struggles with the fact that his father isn’t the man he thought he was. Which in the end altered his reality and what he wanted in life. He challenges Less and complicates her life in the best of way. He also doesn’t know that she has started changing him and that he’s about to get one heck of a wake up call.

On the side story it goes back to Cat who was the original protagonist in the first book. She is dealing with leaving behind Lorenzo in the 16th century and falling for Lucas who is in the present. Their story is just beginning but it was a sweet side story that defiantly fit well along Less’.

Overall I loved this story so much, I can’t wait to read it again and again. I love the Princess Diary stories and Ever After movie, which felt like this was a mix of both wrapped in a big bow. This was a nice switch from my paranormal stories, the sweet romance, adventure, and twist in the ending was exactly what I needed. There are some villainish characters, but I wish they added or stirred up a bit more trouble. But nonetheless I loved how the pace of this story panned out and that I couldn't put this book down. I look forward to My Not So Super Sweet Life, where the readers go back to reading from Cat’s POV. I hope we get some side story for Less as well.

RECOMMENDATION:

This is a young adult novel with historical time travel elements that will take you on an adventure to remember. Fans of Born of Illusion by Teri Brown and the Blue Blood series by Melissa De La Cruz will want to read A Tale of two Centuries by Rachel Harris.


View all my reviews


AUTHOR BIO:
As a teen, Rachel Harris threw raging parties that shook her parents’ walls and created embarrassing fodder for future YA novels. As an adult, she reads and writes obsessively, rehashes said embarrassing fodder, and dreams up characters who become her own grown up version of imaginary friends.
She grew up in New Orleans, watching soap operas with her grandmother and staying up late sneak reading her mam's favorite romance novels. Now a Cajun cowgirl living in Houston, she still stays up too late reading her favorite romances, only now, she can do so openly. She firmly believes life's problems can be solved with a hot, powdered-sugar-coated beignet or a thick slice of king cake, and that screaming at strangers for cheap, plastic beads is acceptable behavior in certain situations.
She homeschools her two beautiful girls and loves watching reality television with her amazing husband. She writes young adult, new adult, and adult Fun, Flirty Escapes, and LOVES talking with readers!


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2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for reading, and for this fabulous review! I'm so glad you enjoyed this story. I'm not gonna lie, I totally did a happy dance reading this post :)

    xoxo
    Rachel

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay! Glad I can inspire a happy dance with my review :) I adored this story cant wait for the next one!

    ReplyDelete