Here and Now

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares - 2.5 STARS

Synopsis:Follow the rules. Remember what happened. Never fall in love.

This is the story of seventeen-year-old Prenna James, who immigrated to New York when she was twelve. Except Prenna didn’t come from a different country. She came from a different time—a future where a mosquito-borne illness has mutated into a pandemic, killing millions and leaving the world in ruins. 
Prenna and the others who escaped to the present day must follow a strict set of rules: never reveal where they’re from, never interfere with history, and never, ever be intimate with anyone outside their community. Prenna does as she’s told, believing she can help prevent the plague that will one day ravage the earth. 
But everything changes when Prenna falls for Ethan Jarves. 

*I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Overall: Intriguing...
Characters: Prenna and Ethan
Page Turner: At times 
Series Cont.? no
Recommend if You Like…Unite, Relativity, 
Book Boyfriend: Ethan?
Genre: Young Adult Sci-Fi   
Sex Scenes: Nope but lots of talking about it. 

Overall- 
Im not sure I would consider this an "Epic Romance"…I would say its a different kind of romance. In fact, Im not sure where the romance is at all in this one…Horny, and insta-love more like it. I don't know where to begin with this one. There was a lot I didn't like.  The beginning was really slow, the world building left something to be desired. I didn't quite understand the true plot (other than having read the back of the book) until later in the book when things finally got interesting. I must say, there were a couple of plot twists that were great and took my by complete surprise! 

Prenna seemed all over the place, developmentally, I was really most irritated with her and the lack of character development. 

Ethan seemed like a cross between a horn-ball and highly intelligent. But I don't really understand their relationship. I completely understand where he is coming from, his obsession given the prologue. But what is MOST frustrating about this book is that all while they are trying to save the world, they spend a lot of time getting caught, and making irrational decisions. I mean who sits on the beach, shops and eats cheeseburgers all the time when trying to save the world?! 

The concept was really quite interesting, but the author didn't convince me of anything. There were tons of holes in the story. Unfortunately the story line, which dragged in the beginning, was riddled with confusing scenes and frustrating explanations, that really didn't help me. 

Sure there were some high points, and some creativity. (the glasses, and the meds) but then there were some really low points (cheeseburgers, sex and glass cutting tools to escape being imprisoned?). I enjoyed some of the plot points more than anything which is really why I gave it a two point 5. The homeless man piece was interesting in the end. I also found that the person that needed to be saved and why to be pretty interesting and intriguing, also I found the time travel aspect to be of interest. My real problem with this book? That everything just seemed so easy, and NOT natural. Nothing infuriates me more than when I read a book, that is supposed to have realistic aspects that for some reason, the reader is just supposed to read and believe without any support. It is not reasonable that the mosquito born virus would wipe out the world when AIDS is gone and plastic surgery is as easy as taking a pill. This type of unreasonable writing was rampant throughout the book, frustrating me to no end. Perhaps the younger audience wouldn't pick up on the inaccuracies and oddities but I can't imagine that anyone would be accepting of all the ill fitting explanations in this book. 

I got to hand it to the author though for providing a less than stellar ending. One where I finished my reading and thought to myself, now why the hell did I just read that. Disappointing. This book missed the mark for me considering the amount of books out there on time travel or universe travel. Overall I actually really disappointed in this book.