After Eden (After Eden #1)
Publication: 1st January 2014
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Pages: 288
Genre: Science-Fiction/Time-Travel
Age Appropriate: Young Adult
Read the Prologue and the first chapter here.
Eden Anfield loves puzzles, so when mysterious new boy Ryan Westland shows up at her school she's hooked. On the face of it, he's a typical American teenager. So why doesn't he recognise pizza? And how come he hasn't heard of Hitler? What puzzles Eden the most, however, is the interest he's taking in her.
As Eden starts to fall in love with Ryan, she begins to unravel his secret. Her breakthrough comes one rainy afternoon when she stumbles across a book in Ryan's bedroom - a biography of her best friend - written over fifty years in the future. Confronting Ryan, she discovers that he is there with one unbelievably important purpose ... and she might just have destroyed his only chance of success.
As Eden starts to fall in love with Ryan, she begins to unravel his secret. Her breakthrough comes one rainy afternoon when she stumbles across a book in Ryan's bedroom - a biography of her best friend - written over fifty years in the future. Confronting Ryan, she discovers that he is there with one unbelievably important purpose ... and she might just have destroyed his only chance of success.
My Thoughts.
After Eden is the first book in the After Eden series by Helen Douglas.
This book is very reminiscent of Twilight, actually very much so, the similarities are astounding, almost the same kind of storyline with a few tweaks here and there to not make it an exact copy, but when you're as big a fan as I am (Twilight is my favourite series) you will definitely notice.
That's not to say that's it's a bad book, on the contrary I did actually enjoy it and finished it in a matter of hours, and I will carry on with the rest of the series although I do feel this book could have been a stand-alone, I don't think you really need to carry on the story when it all seemed to be wrapped up in After Eden.
One difference in this book is the focus on time-travel and astronomy, and the way that one person can make a difference to the fate of any one thing, good or bad.
Thumbs-up for the concept, it was different from what's around at the moment and I quite enjoyed the characters as well, I liked Eden and Ryan as a couple, they fit well together and I was invested in them and had my fingers crossed that it would all work out for them, I also was a fan of the supporting characters, especially Connor and Megan.
If you like a bit of time-travel mixed with a bit of astronomy then pick this up, actually you don't really need to be a fan particularly of any of those things, it's a quick, enjoyable read.
I look forward to the second book.
I give this 3.5/5 stars.
I was born in a small beach town in Cornwall, much like the fictional town of Perran that appears in After Eden. As a child I enjoyed reading, building dens and writing stories of my own. My teenage years were centred around the beach. Summer days were spent swimming and body-boarding. Summer nights meant beach parties with bonfires and barbecues. When it rained, which it did a lot, I read lots of books and dreamed of being a writer.
After leaving school, I lived in many different places including London, California, New York and New Jersey. I’m now back in Cornwall where I live midway between the woods and the beach. When the sky is clear, I can usually be found walking in the woods, hanging out at the beach or looking at the stars. When the sea mist rolls in or it’s raining, I spend my time reading books, writing and dreaming up my next story.
