Raised in the lap of luxury, spoiled and tempestuous sixteen-year-old Tamara Goodwin has never had to think about tomorrow. But when her world is irrevocably shaken by her father's self-imposed death, she and her mother are left drowning in debt and forced to move in with Tamara's peculiar aunt and uncle in a tiny countryside village.Review:
Lonely and bored, Tamara's sole diversion is a traveling library. There she finds a large leather-bound book with a gold clasp and padlock, but no author name or title. Intrigued, she pries open the lock, and what she finds takes her breath away—for what's written inside is not only impossible and magical . . . it's her future.
I’ve wanted to read The Book of Tomorrow for a while now. The premise seemed enchanting, and I always love a good YA/Adult crossover. Fortunately, The Book of Tomorrow was certainly a well-crafted, whimsical, and engaging read. I did have, however, a few problems with it.
The Book of Tomorrow tells the story of Tamara Goodwin just as her life has been uprooted and thrown into complete and utter shambles. It all started the day her father took his own life, leaving her family in grief as well as in huge finical troubles. Now Tamara as well as her mother has been shipped off to live with Tamara's slightly odd and secretive aunt and uncle in the middle of nowhere. With no one close by and her aunt acting stranger by the day, Tamara turns to a traveling library and its sweet, attractive owner as well as a nun, hoping perhaps she will find the answers she so desperately seeks. What she ends up with, though, is a book that tells her what will happen the next day. Overjoyed, Tamara starts planning her every move, knowing what may happen with each step, but what happens when the book doesn’t hold a happily ever after for each area of her life? Well, more pages will tell in this magical read sure to have any reader caught up in Tamara’s story as she searches for her own way, only to stumble upon some intense family secrets and a boy who may hold the chance to saving her mother as well as her.
At the beginning of the story, Tamara was a selfish and materialistic girl who really only cared about money and the latest party, but as Tamara began to grow in the country, the girl I once found to be annoying and conceited, turned into a kinder, nicer person. I really enjoyed seeing this transformation as well as getting into Tamara’s head as everything began to spin out of control in her life. I also enjoyed the addition of Wesley; the boy who falls into her life rather suddenly yet changed it for better, as well as Sister Ignatius, a charming and crafty nun who manages to help Tamara throughout the story. Ahern truly created the perfect villain within Tamara’s aunt Rosaleen. Through her actions and words, this woman was nothing short of scary, but I always enjoyed seeing the new roadblocks she put up for Tamara and the complications they caused.
The plot in this was original and interesting. The idea of a book of tomorrow was fascinating, and I thought Ahern did a fabulous job of getting Tamara’s joy as well as guilt she felt over finding such a book. I also enjoyed the family secret subplot. However, I didn’t like how quickly Ahern summed it up in the end. So much suspense was built up to it, but it all was explained pretty quickly and promptly forgotten by the end, which I found to be slightly annoying. I also wish Ahern would have done a better job in crafting some of the secondary characters. For instance, even though Tamara’s Uncle Arthur was a prominent character in the story, I felt like I knew so little about him, and that went for more characters then I would’ve liked. The romance subplot was also a little underdelveped, in my opinion.
In all, The Book of Tomorrow is a magical and interesting book albeit a few flaws.
Grade: B
The Book of Tomorrow (Amazon/ Barnes and Noble/ Goodreads) is now available in paperback!
Source: Publicist at HarperCollins- thanks Kaitlyn!
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One of my reading pet peeves is when stories are too quickly and tidily sewn up at the end, but the rest of the novel sounds really interesting.
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