Janet B. Taylor

Sixteen-year-old Hope Walton travels back in time to help rescue her mother, a member of the secret society of time travelers, who is trapped in twelfth-century England in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Into the Dim

Emelie

17/5-2/6-19 
I'm gonna lower my rating to 3,5owls! 

First Read: 13-17/7-16:
4owls
It was a really good book though it was kind of predictable sometimes, no big plot twists and no cliff hanger. But still, i really really liked it!

Lila Harrison

Toni Turner

4.5 STARS

I love me some time travel and this book was just a super fun ride with really gorgeous writing and a cast of characters that I easily grew to care for and want more from. 

!!Content warning for sexual abuse and attempted r*pe!!

Which I wish weren’t so frequent and terrifying, but like Phoebe said that shit was more normalized in the 12th c. than it is now in current societies but still!! 

But even aside from that terror the big bad villain was horrendous in the good way were you hate them so bad it’s good. Ya know? 

I’m excited to continue. I’ve got the second book ready to go.

Aleeya Metro

For anyone who knows, this is confusing me. When does this book take place? Ever since I got it I’ve been mentally trying to figure it out, but it hasn’t said anything yet. Please help

Sixteen year-old Hope Walton travels back in time to rescue her mother who is trapped in twelfth century England in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Along the way, she becomes entangled with a secret society of time travelers and a mysterious boy who could be vital to setting her mother free... or the key to Hope's undoing.

Katie

***3 and 1/2 stars***

It took me an atrociously long time to finish this book since I started it before the Reading Quest, and one of the rules was that books didn't count if you started them before the challenge. So I put it down for a solid month and finally picked it back up.

This book has a bit of a slow beginning. Information about Hope's home life was interesting to a point, but it didn't need to be as detailed as it was. I was ready to jump right into the time traveling and it took a little too much exposition to get there for my taste.

But once we actually were into the time traveling portion, we were THERE. I don't know much about this time in history, but I liked how it felt very in the moment. The conspiracy/action/fun stuff was exciting, and there were some plot twists I saw coming from a mile away, but others that left me pleasantly surprised.

There was an issue of characterization. Hope feels like a Mary-Sue, and most of the other characters don't have full personalities either. They just exist as archetypes--the bad boy, the feisty sidekick friend, the brooding hero, etc. I hope in the sequel the characters are all fleshed out a little more.

Overall, this book had some problems, but it was also just so dang fun I don't care that much about the issues I have with it. It definitely intrigued me enough to read the sequel, but it's not on my immediate TBR.

Josee Blanchard

this book is good , get better after half of it , then is amazing at the end. its a rollercoster of emotions. i plan on reading the 2nd book sparks of light. if you love history/ teen romance / time traveling . your good !

"Instantly engaging, constantly suspenseful, ultimately poignant and satisfying. Loved it!"--Diana Gabaldon, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Outlander series When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. And she's alive, though currently trapped in the twelfth century, during the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Passing through the Dim, Hope enters a brutal medieval world of political intrigue, danger, and violence. A place where any serious interference could alter the very course of history. And when she meets a boy whose face is impossibly familiar, she must decide between her mission and her heart—both of which could leave Hope trapped in the past forever.

Leelynn Brady

Find this review and more on my blog: Sometimes Leelynn Reads

“All the air whooshed from my lungs as I stared into my mother’s face, woven into an object that was nearly nine hundred years old.”


I listened to this book for my book club. It had an interesting premise, a girl that travels back in time to save the mom she thought was killed in an earthquake. Well, after she ends up going to Scotland because her aunt that she never met or talked to wants her to be there. Because that makes complete sense.



But I mean I guess it's alright to make a crazy decision after going through a funeral and having an empty casket because your mother's body was never found in the rubble and debris. So while I probably wouldn't even feel like visiting some aunt that never gave me the time of day, I get why Hope did it.



I liked the premise of the book for the most part. I've never really read a time travel book before, and having this as a YA book made it even better for me. I've never read Outlander, so having this book compared to it didn't give me an incentive to read it more than what I already had. I think it's really only because of the Scotland and time-travel aspects that they have similar, but who knows? If anyone else read both of these books, please let me know.



I have to say that I do not like Hope very much. She really isn't a good protagonist. One of the main issues that I and some other reviewers have expressed is the fact that she slut shames way too much. We are in a day and age where women should not be slut shaming other women, especially when said slut shamer has no idea how these girls even behave anyway. It shouldn't matter what they wear, how big their breasts are, or what color their hair is. Why is she judging these girls solely based on their appearance? I didn't like that at all. She also just seems to be way too hard on herself for some reason, almost unnecessarily. She has some cowardice tendencies, and I honestly don't know what the push was to get her to be a little bit brave. I just didn't get it.

I think because I didn't like Hope so much, I couldn't really enjoy the rest of the book, which is sad because it could have been really good! I don't have much to say about this other than it could have been better, but it wasn't completely terrible.

b.andherbooks

Hope Walton discover's her adoptive mother may not be dead after all after she is invited to spend the summer at her Aunt's Scottish estate. Instead Hope discovers that her family is part of a ring of time travelers and she is their last hope to bring her mother back from the time of Queen Eleanor of Aquitane.

This is being billed as a "Outlander" for teens. I disagree with this comparison. Just because a story is set in Scotland and includes time-traveling does not an Outlander make. Nothing much new explored here, and I felt explanations, especially of time traveling, were way to rushed for my personal tastes.

I think teens will enjoy this tale as it is fast-paced, violent, and historically accurate enough to make it interesting. Add in some swoon-y boys and a manic pixie dream girl BFF, and this is a fine start to a trilogy.

Into the Dim

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