Timesnatched: Pole Star by B.D. Boyle {Timesnatched; 1}

Book Blurb:

Jack Flint, Annabelle Dibble, and Nicolas Wycliffe are flung twenty years into the future where time coins and bohrium bracelets can mean the difference between life and death. Thrown together in a dystopian New York City, the American farm boy, English school girl and teen scientist will have to quickly unite and join the Coalition of Liberty. Annie’s quiet life along Wigan’s Pier is behind her and she is now faced with trusting the daring young American and the geek kid who can almost invent something from nothing. The boys will either save them all from this strange turn of events or they’ll plunge them even deeper into a frightening world of oppressive dictators, rebel forces and teenagers who are kidnapped for their future talents.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

“I think they may be ready to get rid of us. I probably shouldn’t have spoken for both of us. I have a way of taking over sometimes,” said Jack.
“You expressed my sentiments perfectly. I just want to go home!”
“Silence,” ordered Eli.

Jack is a normal kid riding around with and helping the Sheriff in Rattlesnake Wash, Idaho. Annie wishes she could live with her dad, who never seems to settle down, and leaves her in Wigan, England with her aunt. One day, both of them are kidnapped and taken to New York. New York twenty years in the future. Escaping, they find themselves leaders of a movement that, for them, hasn’t even started.

B.D. Boyle’s science fiction propels the reader into the future and then allows him or her to explore the topics of leadership, courage, resistance, and selflessness. Annie learns to deal with insecurities and allows herself to branch out into various spheres she hadn’t even thought of. Jack learns how to both follow and lead as both skills are constantly required to survive in this new world.

Timesnatched: Pole Star puts a unique spin on the time-traveling idea. It explores that uniqueness in detail. The reader, then, is constantly curious but also constantly given new information to dissect, so that the time-traveling details are just as intriguing as the rest of the story.

Some violent action is present in the novel, including detailed fight scenes and a form of torture. Sometimes, the details of time travel and other exposition distracted from the action and the development of the characters. Still, B.D. Boyle has written a gripping science fiction novel that explores what it means to uphold your convictions during trying times.

Timesnatched: Pole Star is the first in the trilogy. It is followed by Timesnatched: Southern Cross and Timesnatched: Starbourne.