I received this book for free from The Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Because You Exist by Tiffany Truitt
Series: Light in the Dark #1
Published by Limitless on November 11th 2014
Genres: Time-Travel, YA
Source: The Author
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Life is good for LOGAN MIDDLETON. He’s quarterback of the Shepherd High football team, nephew of the town’s most successful lawyer, and boyfriend of Jenna Maples, a girl who has finally agreed to take their relationship to the next level. But nothing good lasts forever.
With only a few minutes of last period English left between him and a weekend alone with Jenna, Logan blacks out. When he awakens, he finds himself in a future where Shepherd High lies in ruins, nothing is what it seems, and everyone he loves is dead. Logan is a shifter. Chosen to travel through time, it’s up to him to figure out how to stop the terrible events that claimed his once perfect life.
Of course, all of this might be easier if he wasn’t paired with the one girl who’d rather see him dead than help him, JOSEPHINE. A girl he tormented during childhood. Strong-willed with biting wit, who lives in the shadows. Tough and dark, Jo is Shepherd High’s most notorious outcast and Logan’s opposite in every way. Together the two must overcome their many differences to figure out why they’ve been selected for such an overwhelming task, and who selected them in the first place.
Before it’s too late…
So this book was good, but a bit odd. I don’t mean that in a bad way though. The whole way the time travel happens is just weird with no real explanation about when or why. I get that there is some other entity or something that causes it, but it was not explained well. There is also a kind of typical people that hate each other, and now have to work with each other thing going on. And *gasp* they begin to care for each other. Really though, it was pretty enjoyable and I liked it.
Logan is a popular kid. On the football team, good looking, and has a super nice and hot girlfriend who happens to be a cheerleader. He also happens to be a “Shifter” which means he just kind of passes out and travels through time whenever the powers that be decide it to happen. Every moment that he travels to, Josephine also does. A girl who he had tormented and made her life pretty miserable for years. He’s kind of a jerk too, and even when he does actually have moments of true, unselfish feelings, I just didn’t really ever warm up to him much.
Josephine (otherwise known as Scary Carrie thanks to Logan) is a loner. She always wears a hoodie and kind of hides herself away. I liked her more than Logan, but I still didn’t really love her character either. A lot about her still remains quite a mystery. We do learn about her past which is pretty horrible, but we don’t learn about her present much. She acts like she doesn’t give a shit about what others think, but she does admit that of course she cares. She jut won’t let anyone know that. She is a very broken character. She loves the shifting, while Logan hates it. Even though it’s scary at times, it’s still an escape for her. She can be herself and not worry so much about what anyone thinks. She’s quite tough and resilient.
I likes how when they shift and travel to another time, it’s specifically to show them something important that has either happened, or will happen in their lives. The thing that I didn’t like was that sometimes it felt really boring. Sometimes they would just walk around for a while with nothing really happening. Other times there was plenty of action and it was exciting to read. We do learn about their pasts a bit and what their future will become if they don’t change something. We also meet a few other characters that happen to be in their normal time and conveniently live in the area as well. I also liked the concept of one of them being light and the other dark, with the dark shifter being the one who is in control of the shift in a way. Not that they can control when the shift happens or when they will go, but if they don’t shift, the other can’t either. Or the dark shifter can shift without the other one.
Overall it was an enjoyable read. I did like the story, but felt that there was a lot of boring spots. I also felt like the romance kind of took away from things, but it was also necessary since it is really something that Logan is passionate about. Pretty much everything is about his girlfriend. He is absolutely head over heels for her and he’s pretty sweet when it comes to her. Being that this is the first of a series, I am not too bothered about feeling that we needed to know more because I am sure the second book will answer a lot of questions. This was an interesting take on time travel and I am curious to see where it goes and get the answers to some of the things that are lingering in my mind. While it didn’t blow me away, I will continue the series to find out what comes next.
3.5 Hot Espressos