Courtney Eldridge

Ghost Time has an interesting premise, but there just wasn’t enough story to hold my interest throughout the entire novel. Thea, the main character, goes through a tough time when her boyfriend, Cam goes missing. The book is written in an alternating present-time/flash-back sequence, which was a cool method of slowly learning more about the characters while also progressing the timeline. My main issue, though, is that there is very, very little resolution to all the questions and weirdness introduced throughout the story. I believe this was meant to be a series, and maybe this would have been a good first book if those answers were promised, but it looks like no sequel is forthcoming, so this is all we get.

I wish there were more substance throughout the book: even just a hint or a clue as to what was going on. As it stands, I was rather confused throughout the entire novel and then it sort of just ended. With that said, I think Thea is a fun character to read about — she has a great backstory and a voice that I jived with. But, that wasn’t enough to carry the novel through.

I really wanted to love this–it’s a shame that the plot didn’t really go anywhere.

Also posted on Purple People Readers.… (mehr)

Ghost Time was another book that Literary Lushes put on an ARC tour. I read the description and thought it sounded interesting, so I signed up.

As soon as I cracked open Ghost Time, I knew that it was going to take a while to get into. The writing style is very strange. For one thing, and what was the most irritating, there were no quotation marks. Ghost Time was narrated in first-person, so sometimes, it was really hard to tell whether Thea was thinking or speaking. For example:

I go, All right, all right, but tell me what you were going to say before that, and Cam goes, Oh, yeah.

That’s not one of the more confusing instances, but it gives you an idea of the writing style, as this continues throughout the whole book. Also, and this is more of a personal pet peeve, but there were no page numbers. I don’t know if this was unique to the ARC or if the finished copy also lacks page numbers, but that annoyed me. I like knowing what page I’m on. So you know what I did? I counted pages as I was reading, and no, I am not even joking!

Also, going along with the writing style, Ghost Time focuses a lot on time, and it jumps around. For example, the first chapter is “Monday, April 4, 2011 5:27pm”. The second chapter is two hours later, and the third chapter is two hours earlier, and that’s how it continues. The chapters alternate between the past and the future and how they relate to the initial chapter.

Anyway, now that I got the writing style out of the way, let’s talk a little bit about the story line. If you read the Goodreads description posted above, you know the gist of it. Thea’s boyfriend disappears, and then weird things start happening. Honestly, they had me absolutely confused, trying desperately to figure out how and why this was happening, and this was the main reason I kept flipping the pages. So the strange things that happen, along with Thea’s interactions with the FBI agent assigned to the case, and her reactions to Cam’s disappearance take up the majority of the “future” chapters. The “past” chapters mostly revolve around her relationship with Cam, though sometimes we get some back story on her as well. Some of these past chapters appeared relevant to some of the strange happenings that occur, but some of them just seemed extraneous at times. If I got bored reading Ghost Time, it was most likely during a past chapter.

Thea was not a very likable character. She seemed to have a very short temper, as several of the past chapters demonstrated. There was also just something a little off about her, which almost had me wondering if she was crazy and this whole story was in her head or something. I don’t know; I just didn’t find her easy to relate to. Cam seemed kind of like an arrogant jerk, but then in the next scene he’d be a really romantic, caring boyfriend. Detective Knox and Melody were interesting characters, and Agent Foley was just all kinds of creepy, though I haven’t figured out why.

As I said before, most of the reason that I kept feverishly flipping through pages was because I was so confused and needed an explanation. I will admit that I was extremely frustrated with the ending, as it really didn’t seem to give much information at all. Honestly, if this wasn’t a book that I had to pass on for the tour, I probably would have thrown it. However, I did a little googling and found this on the author’s website:

her young adult novel, Ghost Time, the first of a trilogy, will be published by Amazon Publishing

Okay, so it’s going to be part of a trilogy. This makes me feel a little better about the ending than if the story really just ended there, but I will say, after 416 pages, I really needed a little something to be resolved! Needless to say, I’m still frustrated by the ending and also a little disappointed. However, Ghost Time absolutely had me hooked, and I will definitely be reading the sequel, so I’m giving it 3 stars.

This review is also posted on my blog, Mommy's Reading Break.… (mehr)

I have had a little bit of difficulty deciding how to review this book without filling it with spoilers. I adored it from the start, right up until the very end. I did a little research and found out that this is the first book in a trilogy, which now makes sense.

This is a young adult book about a teenager, Thea, who is having a hard time believing that her previous math tutor slash new boyfriend Cam really wants to be with her. She's never really had a boyfriend before, and he's older, but it sure seems to be true love. Then he disappears, and some very strange things start happening, including YouTube videos of Thea and Cam making love that she is sure could not possibly exist. And they are impossible to remove.

The FBI gets involved, news vans start showing up, and Thea's live gets much more complicated than it should be. She would like to be able to just go to school and worry about and/or grieve Cam's absence, but she is constantly forced to explain herself. A local police detective becomes an unlikely ally, as does the detective's handicapped daughter, with whom Thea seems to have a psychic bond.

As the books winds to a close, I started getting worried that nothing was going to be explained or resolved, and that turned out to be the case. Still, I loved the book, and it has stuck with me. I hope the second part of the trilogy is published soon so we can find out what happens with Thea and Cam.

I received this book from NetGalley in return for a review; I was not paid for this review, nor required to post a positive review.… (mehr)