Book Review: Waking in Time, by Angie Stanton

Title: Waking in Time
Author: Angie Stanton
Publisher: Switch Press
Date of Publication: March 1st, 2017
Format: .pdf file
Page Count: 362
Goodreads: Click
Amazon: Associates Link
Recommended? For young adult audiences, yes.
Similar Books: Hannah's Rainbow
My Rating: ★★★★☆

I need to start this review by stating, honestly, that this book was a roller coaster ride. It started strong, with good dialog and interesting characters (who remained interesting throughout the book) but while reading this one, I felt like the author didn't have a strong enough grasp on dialog overall, or that some sections of the book were more closely copy edited than others.

Poorly developed characters are the biggest frustration for me in fiction, but weak dialog definitely comes in a close second. It's one of those things that can make a truly great book quite dull, and this was not a truly great book. 

This novel is the story of Abbi, whose grandmother recently passed, but not before pleading with Abbi to "find the baby." Shortly after arriving at college, Abbi's mother sends her a hat box that her grandmother left for her, and the morning after opening it and going through the things contained within, she wakes up -- in 1983. Now she must find her way back to the 21st century with the help of a pair of friends she meets in time, all the while trying to uncover the secret of the baby her grandmother wished her to find.

Ms. Stanton has potential -- a lot of potential. The book was a quick and easy read that I plowed through in less than 36 hours of reading time. I enjoyed the story so much that in fact I would have liked for there to have been more of it, and I would have preferred to see more development of the relationships between the characters. While I fully realize that Abbi had little time to spend with Smitty and Will to facilitate this development, I find myself wanting more out of this story.

The book does take some logistical leaps, but most of that is overshadowed for me, as an adoptee, by the way that Ms. Stanton addressed Smitty's life in an orphanage and other issues which affect people who were adopted both during that time and throughout American history. This made me happy, and was a relief to read addressed in mainstream fiction.

I love books involving time-travel, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read this book. Ms. Stanton could do with tightening up her dialog a bit (or some stronger copy editing), but I would certainly enjoy seeing more from this author.

In particular I appreciated the afterward to this novel, and the things that inspired it. I hope that Ms. Stanton won't give up the search for Ruby's baby and that she finds some relief in discovering who the child might have become. Adoptee rights groups are making great strides in reuniting families with one another and she may still be able to find the child for whom she seeks. 

I'd like to recommend my best friend's novel Hannah's Rainbow if you enjoyed Waking in Time, as I believe Ms. Stanton and Cyndi have similar writing styles and were both inspired to write stories about people from their family trees. Thank you!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.