Guest Review – Quantum

Afternoon! Today’s review is a double whammy for me. Not only is it written by one of my favorite book bloggers out there, but it is of a book that I love by an author I adore.

Big Al  has been an avid reader for more decades than he would care to admit. (*giggle) He was best known for his  music reviews, which spanned a variety of websites and magazines, until 1 day the big bad world of books caught up with him. (YAY!) How? Well, after having several readers and authors tell him, “You ought to start a book blog,” he said, “what the hell.”  And so was the beginning of Big Al’s Books and Pals.  Now… I could throw out a bucket load of reasons why I love Al, or better yet, share some slightly embarrassing stories about him, but in the interest of saving our friendship I’ll leave you with this instead…Big Al’s spectacdamundo (yes I made that up) review of the talented (and obnoxiously beautiful) Imogen Rose’s “Quantum”  Happy Reading!

If you would like to get to know Al better be sure to stop by his site Big Al’s Books and Pals, his Facebook page, or you can annoy him on Twitter like I do @BooksAndPals

Quantum – Book 3 of the Portal Chronicles

Genre: YA / Paranormal

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Availability Kindle: YES Nook: YES DTB: YES

Author:  Globetrotter Imogen Rose is Swedish by birth, went to college in London where she received a PhD in immunology, and is now a Jersey girl. After her eight-year-old daughter insisted she write down her stories Rose wrote the first of the Portal Chronicles and decided to let it out into the world. The response was so positive that she’s continued. This is the third book in the series with more to come. Rose will be releasing Faustine, the first book in a separate, but possibly interconnected, series called The Bonfire Chronicles in the spring of 2011 with Momentum (Portal Chronicles Book Four) to follow. For more visit the author’s web site.

Description:

In Portal (Portal Chronicles Book One) teenager Arizona Stevens wakes up in a car to discover her life has changed. Her last name is Darley, she has an older brother she’d never met, a different father, and has transformed from a hockey-playing jockette into a blonde-Barbie cheerleader. As information comes out in this book and Equilibrium (Portal Chronicles Book Two) Arizona slowly learns that she was transported through both time and space via a “portal” by her scientist mother. Due to technical issues with the portal she is trapped in this new dimension for at least a year.

A year has passed. As Arizona Darley contemplates traveling back through the portal to see her dad life takes some unexpected twists.

Appraisal:

This is easily the best book of the Portal Chronicles series so far. Quantum starts out with a significant revelation in the prologue and continues with lots of plot twists you’d have never guessed, but that make perfect sense when they happen. As you learn more about the history of the characters in the series and how they relate to each you gain a deeper understanding of them and care more and more about what is going to happen next. When you finish, just as with the prior two books, you’re left with the satisfaction of a good story well told, yet are eager for the next in the series. With each book in the series Rose adds new layers to the ongoing story to continually jack up the stakes and the complexity of the story to hold the reader’s interest.

FYI:

While I think it would be possible for someone just starting this series to begin with Equilibrium (Portal Chronicles Book Two) if they hadn’t already read Portal (Portal Chronicles Book One) I would not advise starting with Quantum. This is because with each new volume Rose is expanding our knowledge of the world she has created. This volume, at least IMO, hits the point where knowledge of everyone’s back story is needed to understand the full import of the continuing saga of Arizona and her family.