Book Tour: Review & Giveaway – Portal (Portal Chronicles #1) Imogen Rose

Crushed on by kelly, on July 8, 2013, in Blog Tour, Giveaways, Reviews / 0 Comments

Virtual Book Tour: Review & Giveaway – Portal (Portal Chronicles #1) by Imogen Rose

Book Crushin is excited to take part in the virtual book tour for Portal! We have a spoiler free review, a tour wide giveaway with a $50 Amazon gift card plus swag, as well as the complete Portal series information!

Portal (Portal Chronicles #1) by Imogen Rose

Category: Young Adult, Romance, Sci-Fi, Time-Travel
Publication: April, 12, 2012; Wild Thorn Publishing
Pages: 314
Book Trailer
Synopsis: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon, Amazon U.K., B&N Nook, iTunes, KOBO, Amazon Paperback, B&N Paperback

[book rating = 3.5/5.0]

Come Find Me Two Years Ago…

Six words that propel ice-hockey-playing tomboy, Arizona, into an alternate dimension.

She suddenly finds herself living the life of a glamorous cheerleader. She finds herself transported from her happy life with her dad to living with the mother she hates.

Everyone knows her as Arizona Darley, but she isn’t. She is Arizona Stevens.

As she struggles to find answers she is certain of two things — that her mother is somehow responsible, and that she wants to go back home to her real life.

That’s until she meets Kellan…

Spoiler-Free Review:

I really love the time-travel genre. Not too many young adult books can pull it off without getting too scientific (not always a bad thing) or boring (definitely a bad thing!). Portal does not have either of those problems. I will say that although this has science fiction based themes the book is more of a young adult romance.

I really enjoyed Portal and I found the characters well developed, story had immense depth and all I can say right now is I can’t wait to read the next in the series! Arizona is clearly a unique heroine, one of the reasons I got excited about this title was her description in the synopsis, a tomboy ice hockey player!!! Sign me up! You don’t get too many YA protagonists that are so far from the typical mold and anything that breaks the status quo and does it well…is definitely worth reading! Plus Kellan is super sweet and his connection with Arizona just works perfectly.

Portal kept me guessing for quite a while, throughout the entire book actually, then it ended and I am still scratching my head contemplating what is going on with Arizona & her family. Not in a ‘I can’t comprehend’ kind of way, but more in a ‘Give me more details!’ way. And why won’t anyone talk to one another? Am I too old to understand this? This is true for a lot of books I read, the protagonists can not just talk about what’s going on in their lives, it’s so frustrating. There is some deep things going on, and no one wants to talk about it? I have to admit that I had a problem with her Mother, Olivia, but now that I read the whole the book, I can understand the hows and whys. The book uses Olivia’s POV selectively, but those scenes are real gems! You get snippets of the past that lead you back into the present and provide a lot of the knowledge necessary to move forward. But that doesn’t mean I like her character any more now that I’m finished then when I started, because I don’t like her at all. I guess that is a sign of a good connection to the reader, because Arizona clearly holds her mother in contempt for the entire book & well so did I!

I did have a few issues with the book, which is why I rated it only 3.5 hearts; which doesn’t mean I won’t be reading the rest of this series, as I have hopes these annoyances get resolved. My biggest reason was some of the repetitive descriptions of designer labels…which a tomboy, in my experienced opinion, would give two craps about. As a reader, I was so tired of reading what designer clothes, what fancy bag her mother carries or cars they drive; mostly because it all felt pointless to the story. Some of the dialogue just fell flat and over descriptive. When you get to the end and you finally think Arizona is going to slap her Mother and the literal stuff will hit the fan. Instead you get some jumbled thoughts and a weak ending. In my head I was like this is what I was waiting for? Then comes the Epilogue. Whoa, now that’s a reveal. Sorry, not telling you anymore guess you’ll have to pick it up and read for yourself!

Giveaway:

Imogen Rose is running a tour-wide giveaway!

Giveaway includes:

1 $50 Amazon Gift Card

3 Portal Mouse Mats

1 Signed Set (5 books) of the Portal Chronicles paperbacks

1 Portal Charm
CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

Author Bio: Imogen Rose

Imogen Rose is the author of the bestselling series, Portal Chronicles, which has attained cult status within indie literature and become a favorite among teens and adults alike. An immunologist by profession, Dr. Rose published her first work of fiction in 2010. She now writes full time and is currently working on her second teen series, the Bonfire Chronicles. Imogen was born in Sweden and has lived in several places, counting London among her favorites. She moved to New Jersey in 2001. A self-confessed Hermès addict, Imogen freely admits to being obsessed with Kurt Cobain. She enjoys shopping, traveling, watching movies, and hanging out with her family, friends, and Chihuahua.

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