Wednesday 28 May 2014

Fissure Blog Tour




So today is my day of participating in the blog tour for Fissure by Marilyn Almodóvar. As I had not read the previous book, 'Interred', I will be posting reviews for both books.







As Baxter Jacobs' sixteenth birthday approaches, a strange visitor arrives in the middle of a snow storm who brings news that will change Baxter's life forever. Under the safe foundations that Baxter's mother has built to protect her there lays a dark family secret. Baxter is a Timebender, a magical being who has the ability to control time. As Baxter tries to come to terms with her new abilities, she is thrown into the world of Timebenders, Warriors and Healers. Baxter learns more about this world with the help of Declan, a boy who has been trapped in a time loop for 122 years who only Baxter can free, and Jack, a boy who Baxter has been told is dangerous. With the realisation that the Council is out to try to take control of her powers, Baxter must use her new found powers to help her friends to escape, and finally free Declan from his prison.

I thought that this story was interesting and unique. Time travelling stories usually require an object, such as the cases in Back to the Future and Doctor Who, so I found it interesting that Baxter was able to manipulate time and create portals to different places and times without the need of such objects. I found Baxter to be a likeable, strong female protagonist, although there were a few cases where I thought that Almodóvar was trying too hard to make Baxter sound like a teenager, and I found a couple of the word choices to be a little off. I adored the character of Declan, and although he was slightly cocky he became my favourite character in the book. I thought that Jack was slightly too full of himself, and although he is sweet and unselfish at times, I felt myself being drawn more to Declan's personality than Jack's.

I was slightly disappointed that some of the characters that I thought had potential were so short lived. As they were given their own personalities and character descriptions, I thought that they would become characters that we would hear a lot of, but sadly that was not the case. I loved the characters of Sydney and Arthur, and was intrigued by their relationship and how it would progress, so I was disappointed when this relationship was cut short. There are a lot of events that cause great trauma for Baxter, and I felt that there were not enough raw emotions from her. Baxter is constantly on the run, but I felt that in the parts where the action slows down slightly, Baxter's emotions should have caught up to her a bit more. I loved the fandom references that Baxter makes, particularly to Doctor Who, Harry Potter and Supernatural, as I am a fan of these franchises and found it amusing how she was relating them to her own life.

If you love stories of time travel and magic, then you will definitely love this book.
















After being thrown head first into the world if the Interred and losing almost everything that mattered to her, Baxter Jacobs is ready for things to calm down and allow her time to grieve and figure out her new Time Bending skills. However, things aren't going to be so simple, as Baxter's Uncle Bryan is determined to take her away from the English Council and back to New York. Baxter is reluctant to leave her Healer, Jack behind. Along with being able to heal Baxter, Jack also has a link directly into Baxter's mind, allowing them to communicate telepathically. There is also the problem that after falling from the cliff top, Baxter's memories seem to have been wiped as to how she got there in the first place. She also has the note left by her mother to consider, "Fred and B." Could this mean that Bryan has intentions other than keeping Baxter safe? Baxter, along with the help of Jack and her other interred friends must work to find the truth. Can they really trust all of the members of the English Council? Secrets are revealed and old enemies fought as Baxter unravels Time to find out the truth.


After reading Interred, I was eager to find out what would happen next in Baxter's story. I felt that the book started off a little slow, but once Jack was back in action and Baxter was once again using portals to travel through time I started to enjoy the fast paced action that I loved in the first book. There are some new characters introduced in this book, and I particularly loved Nicolas and Dare. I found it interesting that Baxter had seemingly had some of her earlier memories wiped, as although Dare was her childhood friend, Baxter does not remember her. I found Baxter's memory loss to be interesting, as it means that as the reader, we know what has happened whereas Baxter does not. At first I wasn't too keen on Nicolas, as he seemed to be protecting Baxter only because he was asked to, and just carrying out his Warrior duties. However, as the book goes on his personality is revealed, and I felt that he was a good ally for Baxter to have. I loved that there were different versions of certain characters from different points in time, and the way Baxter comes in contact with these different versions. It was all a bit “wibbly wobbly timey wimey.” Speaking of Doctor Who, I loved the references to the show in this book, as in Baxter's situation, I would probably be making the same references. I also found it funny how some of the characters were oblivious to these comments and had no clue what she was talking about. I thought certain aspects of the story were similar to Doctor Who. For example, I felt that the relationship between Aaron and Baxter was similar to that of The Doctor and River Song, as Aaron explains to her that he keeps meeting her at different points in time, but she has never seen him before, so that although he knows her, she does not know him.

The climax of the book was very fast paced, and I was excited over the return of Declan, as I thought he was a very interesting character in the first book, and was initially what made me so interested in this series from the start. I felt that the book could have been slightly better if Declan had been a more active character, as I felt that he could have used the fact that Baxter still trusted him to his advantage. The book is left on a cliffhanger, and it took me a couple of minutes to realise that the book was actually over and it wasn't the page on my e reader refusing to turn. Although I wanted to keep on reading to find out what happened next, I feel as if it is a very interesting place for the next book to pick up from, and I look forward to reading it when it is released.









Make sure to check out the book trailer for Fissure!






Also there is a competition running to win an ebook of Interred, plus other merchandise related to the series! Feel free to try your luck below.






a Rafflecopter giveaway





Interred and Fissure are both ready to purchase now in both ebook and paperback formats.





Find out more about this series at






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