Review: Whisper Falls

Whisper Falls (Whisper Falls #1) by Elizabeth Langston

 

Title: Whisper Falls

Series: Whisper Falls, #1

Author: Elizabeth Langston

 

Published: Spencer Hill Press; 2013

370 pages, kindle edition

 

Source: Netgalley

 

 Description (from Goodreads):

While training for a mountain bike race, high-school senior Mark Lewis spots a mysterious girl dressed in odd clothing, standing behind a waterfall in the woods near his North Carolina home. When she comments on the strange machine that he rides, he suspects something isn’t right. When Susanna claims to be an indentured servant from 1796, he wonders if she's crazy. Yet he feels compelled to find out more.

Mark enters a ‘long-distance’ relationship with Susanna through the shimmering--and temperamental--barrier of Whisper Falls. Curious about her world, Mark combs through history to learn about the brutal life she's trapped in. But knowledge can be dangerous. Soon he must choose between the risk of changing history or dooming the girl he can't stop thinking about to a lifetime of misery.

My Thoughts:

 

3.5 stars Whisper Falls was a light and breezy historical romance with a splash of science fiction and time travel thrown in for the hell of it. There was sweet romance, loveable characters, suspenseful action scenes and brilliantly written historical fiction sections. Altogether it was a hearty read that was easy to breeze through but remained enchanting and delightful at the same time. The characters were what really made the book shine for me. They were down-to-earth, relatable and realistic. I...more 3.5 stars Whisper Falls was a light and breezy historical romance with a splash of science fiction and time travel thrown in for the hell of it. There was sweet romance, loveable characters, suspenseful action scenes and brilliantly written historical fiction sections. Altogether it was a hearty read that was easy to breeze through but remained enchanting and delightful at the same time. The characters were what really made the book shine for me. They were down-to-earth, relatable and realistic. It was a nice change of pace to read about some characters that weren't perfectly flawless and down right impossibly hot like most of the YA and NA characters haunting our other new releases. Both Mark and Susanna made mistakes, pulled some stupid moves and generally weren't all that perfect, but they learnt to deal with that and move past it all which was rather refreshing. Their romance was spot on. It did blur between the line of instalove and a good developed relationship slightly but it was better plotted out than most of the garbage I have been reading lately. I enjoyed the fact that they were cute without being all that wishy-washy lovey-dovey stuff and that Susanna was clearly able to function without Mark (and vice-versa) even once their relationship developed further. They were both independent people and that was another strange relief from the other needy, borderline obsessive couples that are found in most YA books. The plotline was the only thing that let me down. I have to say that while I was simply fascinated width he rich and illustrative historical side of the story, I was hoping for a more scientific and upbeat time travel side to it as well. In that way this book was a bit of a flop. I struggled to understand how Whisper Falls actually worked and I didn't understand how the surrounding area turned between the different times. How did it become "Mark's" world? What made it "Susanna's" world? That part wasn't handled very well and I wish that more could have been establish in more detail because I found myself slightly bored not being able to grasp the theory. Saying that I did enjoy this book and I most certainly will be picking up A Whisper in Time so I can see how Susanna's journey ends. Note: a copy was provided courtesy of Elizabeth Langston and Patchwork Press, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. No compensation was given or taken during this process.