All Our Yesterdays (review)

4/5 stars

When I started All Our Yesterdays (Goodreads | Amazon) I had a lot of doubts.  Because romance was mentioned heavily in the description I was worried that it would be romantically driven and have a meandering plot. But at the same time, as a huge Doctor Who fan, I couldn't resist the idea of a time travel YA novel.  I needed that in my life.

And fortunately, it was really good.  Told in two timelines, the past and the future (or present if you will) as the storylines slowly converge.  I love the broken up narrative.  I like when authors experiment with storytelling and this worked extremely well.

Don't let the description fool you, this book is all about the plot.  When we first meet Em and Finn they are trapped in a prison and Em, obsessed with the drain in her cell floor, finds a list written in her own handwriting.  The list encompasses all their failed attempts to save the world and sets off a daring escape to once again travel back in time to try something new and hopefully to actually save the world this time.  The story of Marina, in love with her genius best friends James Show, is just as relevant.  All the carefully placed pieces are meant to push the story forward.

Surprisingly the romance worked for me.  I can't say that I shipped anyone but all of the relationships made sense.  Even if we weren't seeing things in the correct order, the relationships were built over time and there was no instalove in sight.  And I feel the need to state again, romance was not the focus of the story and it never held back the plot.  The characters were on a mission to save the future and that came before anything else.

This book is action packed, yet the character's are well developed and really shine.  There's a lot more I want to say in this review but I want to allow you to be at least a little surprised.  Just read the book!

I received an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.