Book Review: The Named by Marianne Curley

Imagine you were able to change the past. By altering one tiny thing, you could start a chain of catastrophic events...
Ethan is Named- he has the ability to travel back in time, where he must use his special skills to try and interpret dark forces intent on unravelling history. But Ethan is also a normal school boy, and leading a single life with a double identity is becoming just too much to handle, especially when even the normal part is getting more and more complicated.

The Named is the first in The Guardians of Time series by Marianne Curley. It is a young adult fantasy book with a little bit of romance thrown in too. Ethan and Isabel are the central characters and alternate chapters are delivered from each of their perspectives. Isabel is effectively Ethan's apprentice and once she has discovered that she is Named she has to follow Ethan's guidance in order to survive the missions that she is sent on. I was a little irritated by how easily Isabel accepted being told that she has these amazing powers and ability to travel through time. I just thought that a little more could have been made of her coming to terms with this astonishing discovery.
The time travelling aspect of the book was brilliant and I loved the idea of the Named being sprinkled with some kind of magic dust in order to take on the appearance and mannerisms of the people of the time they have returned to.
I think that this book would appeal to male and female readers as it has a little bit of everything. Marianne Curley keeps a good pace up throughout and throws in several twists and turns to keep you turning the pages.
I shall read the next in the series as it will be interesting to learn how the characters develop and what their new time travelling missions will involve.

Many thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me this book to review.

New to Dot Scribble's Shelves...

I have been good this week and only bought one book but my wish list has got considerably longer!

I bought:
The Point of Rescue by Sophie Hannah (Hodder)- Sally is watching the news with her husband when she hears a name she ought not to recognise: Mark Bretherick.
Last year, a work trip Sally had planned was cancelled at the last minute. Desperate for a break from her busy life juggling her career and a young family, Sally didn't tell her husband that the trip had fallen through. Instead, she booked a week off and treated herself to a secret holiday. All she wanted was a bit of peace- some time to herself- but it didn't work out that way. Because Sally met a man- Mark Bretherick.
All the details are the same: where he lives, his job, his wife Geraldine and daughter Lucy. Except that the man on the news is someone Sally has never seen before. And Geraldine and Lucy Bretherick are both dead...

These two were sent to me by lovely, lovely publishers for review:
The Named by Marianne Curley (Bloomsbury)- Imagine you were able to change the past. By altering one tiny thing, you could start a chain of catastrophic events...
Ethan is Named- he has the ability to travel back in time, where he must use his special skills to try to intercept the dark forces intent on unravelling history. But Ethan is also a normal schoolboy, and leading a single life with a double identity is becoming just too much to handle, especially when even the normal part is getting more and more complicated.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (Penguin)- Alice wakes up on the floor of the gym with a nasty bump on her head, thinking she's still a fun-loving twenty-nine year old starting life with her gorgeous husband and pregnant with her first baby.
To her disbelief, it soon transpires the fall has knocked ten years from her memory and she is actually an uptight thirty-nine year old whose idea of a good time is a three-hour workout followed by committee meetings with the kind of women she used to despise. How on earth did her life come to this? And more disturbingly, how can she not remember giving birth to three children? Why does her husband suddenly hate her? And what can Alice possibly have done that means her beloved sister will barely speak to her?
Seeing herself through fresh eyes, Alice barely recognizes or even likes the person she has become. Can she ever find her way back to the woman she used to be?

So there you go, let me know if you have read any of these or heard anything good/bad about them. Hope you all have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend, hopefully there will be some sunshine!