Review: Return Once More

From Goodreads:
If you could learn the identity of your one true love—even though you will never meet— would you?

Years have passed since refugees from a ruined earth took to space, eventually settling a new system of planets. Science has not only made the leaps necessary to allow time travel, but the process engineered a strange side effect—predicting your one true love.

If you could save your one true love from an untimely death, would you be able to resist?

Sixteen-year-old Kaia Vespasian is an apprentice to the Historians—a group charged with using time travel to document the triumphs and failures of the past—and she can’t resist a peek at her long-dead soul mate in Ancient Egypt. Before she knows it, she’s broken every rule in the book, and the consequences of getting caught could destroy more than just her new romance.

Or would you have the strength to watch him die?

But when Kaia notices a fellow classmate snooping around in a time where he doesn’t belong, she suspects he has a secret of his own—and the conspiracy she uncovers could threaten the entire universe. If her experience has taught her anything, to changing history means facing the consequences. The Historians trained her to observe and record the past, but Kaia never guessed she might have to protect it— in a race across time to save her only chance at a future. 

My Thoughts:
This was a Did Not Finish. I'm very disappointed about this, because I was so excited about this concept.
The world building in the beginning is slow and slightly arduous. The telling gets to a point that it dragged me out of the story over and over. The internal dialogue is heavy, and somewhat repetitive, and distracting from the plot.
The world itself is quite depressing. It has a strong communistic feel, with the obliteration of freedom of choice as children are assigned their lives, based on algorithms. To be "peaceful" the society has removed all culture and religion, all love and spontaneity, all things that make humans human--unique, passionate, and a lust for life. There are points that bothered me, things that feel like the author was just trying to keep the "diversity" police happy, rather than the real scientific approach which everything was based, breaking from the world it was in to our current societal trends. It's like they use their time travel as a source to keep the masses under control by using fear to prevent them from branching out, exploring and truly living.
In the beginning, I can kind of feel Kaia's brother, Jonah, has probably broken free of these societal shackles, and that Kaia has the potential to do the same, but it just takes so long.
I kept pushing through, figuring the excessive world building had a point, but even after she goes looking for her "True" the writing is so bogged down I just couldn't really immerse myself into the story.

Blog Tour: Return Once More by Trisha Leigh

Return Once More by Trisha Leigh
(The Historians #1)
Published by: Bloomsbury Spark
Publication date: September 29th 2015
Genres: Science Fiction, Time-Travel, Young Adult

Synopsis:

If you could learn the identity of your one true love—even though you will never meet— would you?
Years have passed since refugees from a ruined earth took to space, eventually settling a new system of planets. Science has not only made the leaps necessary to allow time travel, but the process engineered a strange side effect—predicting your one true love.
If you could save your one true love from an untimely death, would you be able to resist?
Sixteen-year-old Kaia Vespasian is an apprentice to the Historians—a group charged with using time travel to document the triumphs and failures of the past—and she can’t resist a peek at her long-dead soul mate in Ancient Egypt. Before she knows it, she’s broken every rule in the book, and the consequences of getting caught could destroy more than just her new romance.
Or would you have the strength to watch him die?
But when Kaia notices a fellow classmate snooping around in a time where he doesn’t belong, she suspects he has a secret of his own—and the conspiracy she uncovers could threaten the entire universe. If her experience has taught her anything, to changing history means facing the consequences. The Historians trained her to observe and record the past, but Kaia never guessed she might have to protect it— in a race across time to save her only chance at a future.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17798068-return-once-more?ac=1

Purchase:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Return-Once-More-Trisha-Leigh-ebook/dp/B011KRC8XS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441932202&sr=8-1&keywords=Return+Once+More

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/return-once-more-trisha-leigh/1122371014?ean=9781619637856

Excerpt:
A man stepped forward, draped in the same off-white, purple-striped toga as the rest of the room. A senator of Rome, a nobleman. My brainstem tat spit out the answer into my mind before the question fully formed—Tillius Cimber. My heart climbed into my throat, lungs struggling with oxygen. It was happening. “You were going to consider my petition to return my brother from exile,” he said, too loudly. The words vibrated on the taught strands of anxiety in the air, bounding off the stone walls and crashing into my ears, easily translated by my tattoo. It was hard not to wince, but that would shake my face. I’d been distracted enough today, wandering into the portico, and my tendency to be sidetracked did not endear me to the overseers or our Elders. My family had endured enough disgrace in the past few years without my adding to it by being a space cadet. I was two Level-1 sanctions away from the Elders notifying my parents. After what happened with my brother, they might die from shame. “I’m still considering it,” Caesar replied, his tone dismissive. My lungs ached with unspent air. They struggled to call out, to warn him. Policy forbade any interaction, of course, and the brainstem tat did more than provide me with handy dandy information—it insisted I follow contemporary custom. It saved me a ton of studying but the downside meant occasionally losing control of my own limbs. It had forced me into an absurd curtsey on more than one occasion, once nearly toppling my giant wig right onto Marie Antoinette’s feet at a ball. There was no way to change the scene that began to unfold in front of us, anyway. No way to nudge it a different direction without setting off unknown effects that might reach all the way to Genesis in 2560. I squeezed Analeigh’s hand tighter as Caesar shook off Cimber. He barely took a step before another senator, Casca, stabbed him square in the neck, the blade sinking all the way to the hilt. The almost comical surprise on his face slid quickly toward resignation as Brutus attacked him next, his blade strong and true as it sunk into his old friend’s heart. The betrayal in Caesar’s eyes sent a sizzling chill down my spine but no words passed his lips. He did not single Brutus out as more important than the others, despite the infamous line in Shakespeare’s version of these tragic events. In fact, though he struggled and fought, Gaius Julius Caesar spoke not one more word as nearly sixty grown men surrounded him with daggers, each intent on taking their part of the blame—or the credit—by plunging their own weapon into flesh. Sarah’s face turned pale, chalky, as the scene descended into a melee. Men stabbed each other instead of their target. Their leather shoes slipped in crimson puddles dotting the floor, more than one of them slipped, and Caesear disappeared inside a crowd of thrusting blades. The coppery, slick odor of spilled blood clogged the air, coated my tongue. I swallowed, and it stuck to my throat. It seemed like it went on forever, but in reality, he bled out in mere minutes. Just a man, after all. Not a god.

AUTHOR BIO:

Trisha Leigh is a product of the Midwest, which means it’s pop, not soda, garage sales, not tag sales, and you guys as opposed to y’all. Most of the time. She’s been writing seriously for five years now, and has published 4 young adult novels and 4 new adult novels (under her pen name Lyla Payne). Her favorite things, in no particular order, include: reading, Game of Thrones, Hershey’s kisses, reading, her dogs (Yoda and Jilly), summer, movies, reading, Jude Law, coffee, and rewatching WB series from the 90’s-00’s.

Her family is made up of farmers and/or almost rock stars from Iowa, people who are numerous, loud, full of love–the kind of people that make the world a better place. Trisha tries her best to honor them, and the lessons they’ve taught, through characters and stories–made up, of course, but true enough in their way.

Trisha is the author of THE LAST YEAR series and the WHITMAN UNIVERSITY books. She’s represented by Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

To learn more about Trisha Leigh, please visit her at trishaleigh.com.

If you enjoy New Adult books or a good contemporary romance, please check out my pen name, Lyla Payne!

Author links:

http://trishaleigh.com/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5828387.Trisha_Leigh

https://www.facebook.com/Trisha-Leigh-463838867020091/timeline/

https://twitter.com/trishaleighkc

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Son of a Pitch: List of Publishers

As well as our awesome Agents, we have a huge line up of publishers for you. I will be posting about these publishers and the requesting editors over the next few weeks. But for now, here they all are!

BookFish Books

REUTS

Tigearr

Bloomsbury Spark

Carina

City Owl

Dancing Lemur 

Elephantine

Future House

Loomis Park

Omnific

Cover Reveal: One Wish Away by @kelleylynn1 @bloomsburykids

One Wish Away

by Kelley Lynn

Release Date: 11/11/14

Bloomsbury Spark

Book Summary:

Be careful what you wish for…

Lyra has always been ahead of the curve. Top of her class in school, a budding astronomer, and with a best friend like Darren she barely has time to miss the mother who abandoned her family years ago. She's too busy planning to follow in her father's footsteps, and to become the youngest astronomer at Space Exploration and Discovery.

When a star goes missing Lyra is determined to get to the bottom of it only to discover her braniac dad is the mastermind of a top-secret government experiment. They promise to build a perfect world, one galaxy at a time, but with every tweak of the present, a bit more of the future starts to crumble.

Lyra has to go undercover to reveal the truth and let humanity decide if the consequences are worth more than wishing on a star.

About the Author
Eventually the day came when the voices in Kelley Lynn’s head were more insistent then her engineering professor’s. So instead of turning to her Thermodynamics book, Kelley brought up a blank page on her computer screen and wrote. Somewhere along the way she became a Young Adult author.

Kelley was born and raised a Midwestern girl. She’s not afraid to sweat and fills her free time with softball, soccer and volleyball. (Though you probably don’t want her on your volleyball team.) She occasionally makes guest appearances as a female vocalist for area bands. Music plays a large role in her writing process as well as the characters and plot lines within her stories.

You can find Kelley hanging out at her blog, titled in her name, as well as the group blog she shares with her fellow critique partners, Falling for Fiction. Kelley is a member of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators.

Author Links:

   

Cover Reveal Organized by: