Earth & Sky by Megan Crewe

TL;DR aliens and time travel and trying to fix thousands of years of messing with time

(finished 3/4/15)

This is actually the first book I've received specifically for a review! I won it through a goodreads giveaway. A lot of book bloggers have disclaimers about the copies / ARCs they get, and I don't really have one figured out yet. I don't know if winning the book has an influence on my review, simply because it's my first time, but if anything it's a "oh cool look I won something for once" feeling. 

The concept of Earth & Sky is really cool. I was a little afraid it would be too depressing for me, but that wasn't the case at all. I mean, it's depressing in some parts, but that comes with the territory. It's got an interesting backstory to the plot that I don't think I've read about before, so that was cool. It made more sense to me than the explanations in the Lux series regarding the aliens. I mean, I get aliens take a little suspension of disbelief, but there's a difference between that and just assuming that all aliens can and / or want to appear human all the time. 

There was lots of doing stuff, though I'm not sure all of it necessarily counts as "action". The plot was coherent and Skylar didn't feel like a useless protagonist. She's probably a little plain / boring depending on how you look at her, but she's not frustrating a narrator. I agree with some of the reviews on goodreads that she was fairly reckless, but I honestly can't say I would do any better than her. I think her mistakes are reasonable for a girl my age, especially with what she's dealt with.

And there was also little to no romantic plot, something I'm really grateful for. I mean, there could've been something relatively small that I forgot between reading it and writing this review, but Skylar is in no way head-over-heels for Win like what happens in just about every other YA. There was a brief second that I was afraid the book would end with a kissing scene, and it didn't, and I was so happy! I'm kind of wondering if something is going to develop between them in the next book -- and I wouldn't doubt it -- but it's just really refreshing to be able to read a book without the romantic subtext fueling or taking over the plot.

I read this book over the course of a month, though, so I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of details. I'm hoping to re-read it at some point in the relative future (when I have the time / patience to marathon it) to write a better review.

TL;DR It's not all that dark (though I wouldn't consider it a fluffy read), and from what I remember, it has a great lack of romance.