RANDOM READS REVIEW - Erasing Time by C.J. Hill

I am a little early with my Random Read this month, but hopefully I will be able to get another book done before the end of the month.

I found this awesome meme because of Feed Your Fiction Addiction which led me to I'm Loving Books.  I love this meme.  It helps me read at least one book a month in my TBR pile that I have been dying to read and just haven't been able to.  This month my random pick was #68 Erasing Time by C.J. Hill.  I was going to pick another one, but Erasing Time is a series, so I decided to try and finish both this month.  The second book may not be "random", but I have been dying to read this series for a while.

Pic and description taken from GoodReads

Description:

When twins Sheridan and Taylor wake up 400 years in the future, they find a changed world: domed cities, no animals, and a language that's so different, it barely sounds like English. And the worst news: They can't go back home.

The twenty-fifth-century government transported the girls to their city hoping to find a famous scientist to help perfect a devastating new weapon. The same government has implanted tracking devices in the citizens, limiting and examining everything they do. Taylor and Sheridan have to find a way out of the city before the government discovers their secrets. To complicate matters, the moblike Dakine has interest in getting hold of them too. The only way for the girls to elude their pursuers is to put their trust in Echo, a guy with secrets of his own. The trio must put their faith in the unknown to make a harrowing escape into the wilds beyond the city.

Full of adrenaline-injected chases and heartbreaking confessions,Erasing Time explores the strength of the bonds between twins, the risks and rewards of trust, and the hard road to finding the courage to fight for what you believe in.

My Review / Thoughts:

First off I want to mention something about this Author.  My daughter and I went to a book signing of hers a while back.  She is such a genuine individual.   This author will hold a special place in my heart forever also.  Why, you ask?  While at the book signing the author told us that she has Dyslexia.  I was so surprised.  I honestly am blown away that there are authors out there with Dyslexia.  I have seen first hand how hard it is for my son to read and write, so having authors out there that have published books with this "learning disability" is so inspirational to me.   I have loved C.J. Hill's (aka Janette Rallison) writing for a while.  She is probably one of my favorite authors, so to get to know a more personal side of her was absolutely fantastic.  I am so thankful for people like her and Stacey R. Campbell (I am sure there are more, but these ones I know) that are willing to share this "learning disability" with others so that they can see that nothing should ever hold you back from your dreams.

Okay, I am done with being a sappy mom for now......on to the review:

I really enjoyed reading this book.  I don't quite know where to start I think I will share a little about each character that I liked first :).

Sheridan Bradford:  She is a twin that is just a "normal" teenage girl.  She is finishing high school, and is such a great character.  She is sweet, and a little too trusting, but much smarter than people give her credit for.

Taylor Bradford:  Sheridan's twin - is brilliant.  She graduated high school at the young age 13 and college at 16 and was working on a doctoral program in particle physics.  She was too smart for her own good.  She is pretty sassy also.  I think she might be a little too arrogant, but I also think that's what makes her, her :).

Echo:  Is a handsome boy from the future :).  Need I say more?  hehe!  He is a genius as well, and studies lost languages.  

Sheridan and Taylor are pulled from their home and find themselves 400 years in the future.  They meet Echo who is in charge of helping the girls adjust to their new surroundings.  They were brought into the future by mistake.  The scientists were searching for a Tyler Sherwood.  They needed his expertise on the same machine that brought Taylor and Sheridan to the future.

Sheridan and Taylor soon learn that everything in the future is computer generated.  People don't have animals because they are all extinct.  They don't have religion because religion was lost.  Children are genetically "enhanced" and are brought up by guardians and not parents until they are older.  It is a strange place and they want to return home.

Echo is the young man who is in charge of helping the twins cope with their new lives.  Taylor and Sheridan soon find out that Echo is also a twin, and had recently lost his twin brother.

There is an organization in the future that is like the mafia called the Dakine.  They are not good and seem to be the reason for all the bad things that happen.  Taylor and Sheridan are coming to find out just how dangerous the Dakine can be.

The language has evolved in the future and Echo is one of the few who can communicate with Sheridan and Taylor at the beginning.  I had to laugh each time the twins talked in "code".  They were phrases that we use quite often, but were not understood in the future.  Things like "I'm not letting you give the the brush off" and "I'll try to nip this thing in the bud".   It made the book quite entertaining, and I laughed out loud more than once at their back and forth.  It was very clever!

I loved the futuristic way they dressed and did things.  It reminded me a lot of "The Capital" in "The Hunger Games".  People all dressed wild with funky hair and funky make up.  It was absolutely wonderful.  Hill does a great job of describing the outfits, and make up that I found myself laughing out loud a few times at what the description put in my head.  It is visually stimulating.  I know it's a book, but that is why I enjoyed it so much.  Hill did a great job of making my imagination run wild.

There is mystery, love, and danger in this book.  It is so interesting to think about what the future may hold, and what others think it might be like.  

I am so anxious to see what the next book has to offer, because there is a major "plot twist" in this book that I was NOT expecting.   I just love it when an author can do that.  I always seem to think I "know" whats going on, and then BAM...I am hit with the unexpected.  I LOVE IT!  

I am still trying to wrap my head around the twist in the plot, so I must go on to the next  book.  I was going to pick another "random read", but I have to see what happens next :).  This was such a great, fast read.  It's full of twists and turns, and excitement.

On to book 2 "Echo in Time"!!!!  Can't wait :)!

Source:  I bought this book for my self and my daughter.  I was not compensated in any way for this review.  These are my own PERSONAL thoughts on the book.

My Rating:

Where to Buy:

Amazon * Barnes & Noble

About the Author:

C.J. Hill (aka Janette Rallinson): 

CJ Hill is a pen name for a YA author who is best known for writing romantic comedies. (Slayers will be her 18th published book.) Her writing has shifted away from the romantic comedy genre, so her editor thought a pen name would be a good idea. (New books will include: dangerous dragons, time travel to dystopian worlds, and flesh-eating beetles.) Since the publisher refused to let her have the pseudonym : The Artist Formerly Referred to as Princess, she chose a name to honor her mother. CJ Hill was her mother's pen name, or at least it would have been if her mother had published. Her mother wrote a few children's books and a middle grade novel but was taken by cancer before she had fully learned the craft.

Most writers' first novels aren't publishable. CJ Junior's first novel wasn't, but somehow was published anyway. Now, even though it is out of print, it remains forever available on Amazon, where it taunts her with its badness. This was another good reason to use a pen name.

CJ Hill has five children, three of whom like her on any given day depending on who is in trouble. She has lived in Arizona for the last half of her life, but is still in desert denial and hopes that one day her garden will grow silver bells and cockle shells or maybe just tomatoes.