CLOCKWISE by Elle Strauss

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Casey is just a regular teenage girl except for a couple of minor issues: her unmanageably curly hair, her equally untameable mega-crush on school football hero Nate, and oh yeah, that pesky problem of uncontolled time travelling at the most inconvenient possible times.



This is a cute, fun and fresh feeling read, and while I could agree with Nate that Casey is far more fascinating in the past, where her spunky self-reliance, quick wits and gumption come to the fore, she's pretty much a charmer whatever time zone she's in. She does have a lot to be mopey about back here in the real world, what with Nate breaking her heart, her parent's divorce and her little brother's unfortunate reaction to it, and her friend Lindsay's feeling left out of Casey's temporal traumas. The historical elements have an authentically gritty feel to them, and the way the plot moves between the two periods is clever and skillfully handled.



The opening chapter has a bit of a middle grade feel to it, but it quickly becomes more and more sophisticated and complex, narratively and emotionally, as the story builds. Casey's story really drew me in, and the twists of the plot and Casey and Nate's relationship were fun to experinece and worry about. This is a sweetly satisfying story, with loveable characters, a clever plot and lots of witty, wry and winsome writing! There's a couple cute twists, and it's fun to see some seemingly disparate plot elements coalesce and resolve.



The author asked me to read this, and give an honest review, and I'm so glad she did, as this was a good read I prob wouldn't have found on my own. She also has a really cool blog at

http://www.ellestraussbooks.blogspot.com which I heartily commend to your attention. She's a generous spirited supporter of good YA, and I'm delighted to have made her (virtual) acquaintance!



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