REVIEW: CLOCKWISE by Elle Strauss

Author: Elle Strauss

Pages: eBook

Genre: Young Adult

Publisher: BookBaby

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Synopsis. (Goodreads)

Boy watching with her best friend would be enough excitement for fifteen year old Casey Donavan. She doesn't even mind life at the bottom of the Cambridge High social ladder, if only she didn’t have this other much bigger problem. Unscheduled trips to the nineteenth century!

When Casey gets talked into going to the Fall Dance, the unthinkable happens--she accidentally takes Nate Mackenzie, the cutest boy in the school, back in time. Protocol pressures her to tell their 1860 hosts that he is her brother and when Casey finds she has a handsome, wealthy (and unwanted) suitor, something changes in Nate. Are those romantic sparks or is it just ‘brotherly’ protectiveness?

When they return to the present things go back to the way they were before: Casey at the bottom of the social totem pole and Nate practically the flag flying from the top. Except this time her heart is broken. Plus, her best friend is mad, her parents are split up, and her little brother gets escorted home by the police. The only thing that could make life worse is if, by some strange twist of fate, she took Nate back to the past again.

Which, of course, she does.

REVIEW: 4 out of 5 stars

CLOCKWISE was kindly provided to me by the author Elle Strauss in exchange for my honest review.

15 year-old Casey Donovan is your typical shy, awkward teen with a crush on the popular school jock that doesn’t seem to notice her. She also has a very big secret which no-one but her best-friend is aware of – she is a time traveler who without knowing how transports back in time to the 1800’s.

Time stands still in the present when Casey time travels but she is able to feel when it is coming on and is left exhausted when it ends; unfortunately at a school dance while dancing (as a dare) with Nate MacKenzie, her crush they are transported back in time.

An initially disbelieving Nate handled the time travel well once it was explained and played the part of her brother Nathaniel willingly although protectively, but things went back to usual as soon as they were back in the present much to Casey’s dismay and heart-break. I am glad Nate had the opportunity to travel on a number of occasions with Casey which enabled him to get to know her outside of school, he was quite sweet and supportive of her ability.

I really enjoyed both of the worlds Casey was between; I enjoyed the history of the past - their way of living, the politics, the people both good and bad and how she was able to adapt and cope which was the same as how she was dealing with the present and the issues a regular teen faced with family and school life. I wish we could have found out more of why Casey had this ability, and how she was able to travel between times? It is the only thing I found to be missing in CLOCKWISE; I wanted to know how it all worked.

There was a slight twist at the end which I really enjoyed and definitely didn’t expect, it was a nice ending to a really enjoyable story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the interactions between all of the characters; each were thought out, likeable and written well.

I liked Ms Strauss’s detailed writing style, it was a solid and entertaining plot which held my attention and left me wanting more of the world she has created – the 19^th century and present time was interweaved perfectly, Ms Strauss certainly knew her history which was impressive and the pacing was spot on for me.

CLOCKWISE is the first time travel novel I have read and I really enjoyed it, I am not sure if it is a part of a series but it would definitely be a great start. I will definitely be reading more books written by Elle Strauss.