While You Were Gone by Amy K. Nichols

While You Were Gone (Duplexity, Part 2) by Amy K. Nichols
(Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads)Also by this author: Now That You're Here (Duplexity, Part I)
Published by Random House Children's Books on August 4, 2015
Genres: Action & Adventure, Fantasy & Magic, General, Love & Romance, Young Adult
Pages: 304
Format: eARC

An artist without a cause meets a rebel without a clue.

Eevee is a promising young artist and the governor’s daughter in a city where censorship is everywhere and security is everything. When a fire devastates her exhibition—years in the making—her dreams of attending an elite art institute are dashed. She’s struggling to find inspiration when she meets Danny, a boy from a different world. Literally.

Raised in a foster home, Danny has led a life full of hurt and hardship until a glitch in the universe changes everything. Suddenly Danny is living in a home he’s never seen, with parents who miraculously survived the car crash that should have killed them. It’s like he’s a new Danny. But this alternate self has secrets—ties to an underground anarchist group that have already landed him in hot water. When he starts to develop feelings for Eevee, he’s even more disturbed to learn that he might have started the fire that ruined her work.

As Danny sifts through clues from his past and Eevee attempts to piece together her future, they uncover a secret that’s bigger than both of them. . . . And together, they must correct the breach between the worlds before it’s too late.

After reading book 1 in this series and being completely blown away, I opened this book with high expectations and Amy K. Nichols doesn’t disappoint in the second half of her Duplexity series.

Book one told one story… and book two – tells the second part of that story… only from a different perspective. Sort of. All this is very hard to explain.

This is a book of parallel worlds if that gives you any clue as to what I mean above. In book one we meet Danny and Evee, and in book two, we meet Danny and Evee. Don’t worry, I’ll try to explain.

In While You Were Gone, Danny is brought from his world to a parallel universe where it’s practically unrecognizable. He grew up in a foster home where trying to make it day to day was his struggle. In this new life, his parents are alive and he’s struggling to make sense of it all. At the same time the government is trying to control everything… where you go, what you do, you name it.

Danny is instantly drawn to Evee. She’s a budding artist, but she’s also the Governor’s daughter and Danny’s ties to and underground group bent on anarchy could get them both in trouble.

I have to say that while I enjoyed this one, I wasn’t as invested in this version of Danny and Evee. I felt like the romance wasn’t quite up to what we got in the first one. That isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy what we got, I just would have liked them together a bit more to see their relationship develop.

The story itself was really well done and a perfect complement to that of book one. I found myself eagerly turning pages to find out what would happen and I was really happy with the outcome.

I do love that these characters are so different from one another. It’s easy to see the differences in what each offer and why they connect so well in the worlds they are in.

I will say that you could possibly read one of these books without the other, but seriously why would you. Book one sets the stage and explains more of the science of the why’s and hows and book two focuses more on the story at hand.

If you’re looking on an interesting take on a parallel universe you definitely need to check out Amy K. Nichols. I know I’m eagerly waiting to see what she creates next!

Thank you to Knopf books for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

About Amy K. Nichols

Amy K. Nichols has been crafting stories for as long as she can remember. She is the author of YA science fiction novel Now That You’re Here, to be published by Knopf December 9, 2014. The follow-up, While You Were Gone, will be published in 2015. She is mentored by award-winning crime novelist James Sallis and lives on the edge of the Sonoran desert with her husband and children. Amy is a member of SCBWI and SFWA, as well as the Class of 2K14 debut authors.

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Tour Schedule:

Week One:

7/27/2015- Bookhounds ya– Interview

7/28/2015- The Best Books Ever– Review

7/29/2015- Two Chicks on Books– Guest Post

7/30/2015- The Cover Contessa– Review

7/31/2015- Me, My Shelf and I– Interview

Week Two:

8/3/2015- A Dream Within A Dream– Review

8/4/2015- Fiktshun– Guest Post

8/5/2015- Fiction Fare– Review