Review: Earth & Sky by Megan Crewe

Earth & Sky by Megan Crewe

Publisher: Skyscape

Source: Paperback (purchased) and eARC provided by NetGalley

Goodreads link: (click here)

What's it about?

Ever since Skylar was a little girl, she's felt a wrongness in the world. Certain things and people give her unexplained panic attacks. It all started with the mysterious disappearance of her older brother, Noam, when she was only five years old. He went out to the store to get something for her and he never came back. After she lost Noam, nothing in the world seemed right, and she felt like it was more than just grief that was causing it. Twelve years later, Skylar is still trying to convince people that she's normal, but everywhere she turns, she sees things that are just...wrong. It's not like she can explain it or do anything about it, so she just clutches the bracelet that is the last remaining piece of her brother and fills her head with numbers to drown out the wrongness she feels, but it's only getting worse. One day, at a school field trip to the courthouse, she has a horrific flash of a fiery explosion and her own death, but as quickly as the vision came, it went away. Skylar finds herself fine, but screaming in an otherwise quiet room surrounded by her shocked classmates. Her screaming catches the attention of a strange boy named Win, who is about to change the path of Skylar's life, assuming he can keep anyone else from noticing her. 

With a few words and an otherworldly time traveling cloth, Win explains to Skylar that she isn't crazy, and the wrongness she's felt all her life isn't all in her head. According to Win, alien scientists have been messing with Earth's timeline for thousands of years, not caring about the consequences. Their experiments have been altering history and leaving ripples behind, these ripples are what Skylar sees as wrongness. These ripples are causing catastrophic changes to the planet and if the time travelling experiments don't stop soon, the very fabric of the reality will unravel and the Earth and everyone on it will be destroyed. For some reason, Win believes that Skylar's ability to sense the small shifts in reality are the key to saving the world. Throughout history, a member of his group has hidden the pieces of a machine that can put an end time travelling and stop the further destruction of the planet. Skylar agrees, but partly because with time travel, she believes she can bring back her brother, or at least find out what happened to him. She has no idea how dangerous this mission is, though. There are alien Enforcers hot on their trail and ready to kill as they hop through history to try to save the future. 

My Thoughts

Well, that was fun! Earth & Sky is an exciting and clever romp through the ages. Not only that, but it's got cool alien technology, a complex plot and a truly star-crossed romance. This book manages to fit into several different catagories at once: sci-fi, historical fiction, contemporary, action/adventure, mystery/thriller and romance. All aspects are well written and perfectly fit together, plus, it's just an enjoyable read. At first I was thinking, oh, man...time travel and paradoxes...aliens...globetrotting though history...this sounds so cool, but it could get confusing! BUT, it did not. The story flowed well and was fast paced and full of adventure. Sure, there were a couple of times that I had to stop and think (mostly when it got to talking about paradoxes), but it was fine, it didn't take me out of the story. The time travel aspect was very well done and even if someone doesn't quite understand everything 100%, their overall mission to save the world keeps it moving so you don't have to become a scientist to enjoy the story. I also really liked Skylar as a character. She's smart and brave, yet vulnerable. Win is great, too. Yes, he's an alien rebel with a mission, but he's also curious and still has a lot to learn about the human race that he so desperately is trying to save. He and Skylar are learning from each other along the way, not just about fighting for the future, but also about what it means to be human. 

I'm REALLY looking forward to continuing this story. The next book, The Clouded Sky, releases May 5th, 2015.

If you liked The Guardians of Time trilogy by Marianne Curley, you'll enjoy Earth & Sky. And vice versa, if you liked Earth & Sky and are looking for something similar (travelling through history to save the world), try The Guardians of Time trilogy while you wait for The Clouded Sky.

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<3 Michelle