(Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on March 1st 2016
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Love & Romance, Time Travel, Young Adult
Pages: 432
Format: ARC
"Instantly engaging, constantly suspenseful, ultimately poignant and satisfying. Loved it!"--Diana Gabaldon, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Outlander series When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. And she's alive, though currently trapped in the twelfth century, during the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Passing through the Dim, Hope enters a brutal medieval world of political intrigue, danger, and violence. A place where any serious interference could alter the very course of history. And when she meets a boy whose face is impossibly familiar, she must decide between her mission and her heart—both of which could leave Hope trapped in the past forever.    Addictive, romantic, and rich with historical detail, Into the Dim is an Outlander for teens.
Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor was on my to read list the moment I read the summary. I love a good time travel book and this one intrigued me.
Hope has lost her mother and although she has a solid relationship with her step-father, he has recently remarried and this means she needs to make a decision. She can either spend the summer with her step-father’s mother (who doesn’t like her at all) or she can go to Scotland to meet her mother’s family…people she doesn’t know anything about. Deciding that Scotland would be the easier of the two options, Hope gets on a plane and her life immediately changes.
First, I will say that Hope is an interesting character. I admit to feeling really bad for her with the situation she is in.  To lose her mom and then be immediately pushed to make a decision where neither option is fair, I had moments where I just wanted to ask her step-father what the heck he was doing. As the story progresses, it became clear that she would do anything if it meant making those around her happy or protecting them.
When Hope gets to her aunt’s home, she immediately has questions as there is a lot of mystery surrounding the people she meets as well as the house itself. As she learns more about the legacy surrounding her family, Hope is pulled into the mystery of what actually happened to her mother and how she can help save her.
I thought the secondary characters were interesting and the villain of the story is your typical villain. Phoebe and Collum are interesting supporting characters that help to move the story along and Bran is the mysterious boy she crosses paths with that just also happens to know more about Hope and her situation than he originally leads her to believe.
Taylor created an interesting world around the rules of time travel as well as the dangers to those who are involved. As she brought the characters back in time, Taylor pulled me through time right along with her characters. Admittedly, I found the science of how the time travel was accomplished over my head yet it was still interesting and didn’t cause my eyes to glaze over.
There wasn’t anything here that really wowed me but overall the story kept me engaged and wanting to find out more. This was a fairly quick read and while there were some parts that were a bit far-fetched, I found myself enjoying it. If you are looking for something that has a bit of a historical feel with sci-fi mixed in, consider checking this one out.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the review copy!
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