Author: Honor in the rain
Genre: Adventure
Shining moment: The plot
I'm supposed to be studying for my Spanish final right about now... but screw it. I'm gonna write this instead.
This was a story that pleasantly surprised me to say the least. I mean it's (currently) ranked number two!
The plot, at least at first glance, was brilliant. It instantly got me hooked and I knew the second I finished reading the synopsis that the next 48 hours of my life belonged to this novel.
So, for the sake of clarity, I'll post the synopsis right here.
Synopsis
Hadley Jamison doesn't know what to think when she hears that her classmate, Archer Morales, committed suicide. She didn't exactly know him, but that doesn't stop her from feeling like there was something she could have done to help him.
So to Hadly's surprise, on the very night of Archer's funeral, she has a run in with Death himself and is offered the chance to go back in time to stop Archer from ending his life. The catch? She has only twenty-seven days to do it. And if Hadley doesn't succeed? Well, she doesn't want to think about that.
-
Doesn't that sound cool?
Of course, this would definitely attract a certain crowd, those who like dark, and those who like sap.
Yeah, this story was very heavy on the romance, which is something I'm a sucker for. The relationship between Archer and Hadley (which we all knew was coming the second we finished the summary) was another shining moment to me. Although the short time of 27 days did bother me, simply because their relationship moved too fast such a short amount of time. It was set up to feel much longer than what was given. For the sake of this next paragraph, I'm going to pretend this was stretched over the span of say, three to four months.
Their relationship was built up fairly well, they author took her time allowing them to first form a toleration for each other before it blossomed to a friendship, then eventually a relationship. Even though Archer, being the observant prick he is, knew about Hadley's feelings towards him, he didn't instantly give in and suddenly be her girlfriend. It's something I applaude, because it would go against his character. Although, I can't lie and say I wasn't secretly hoping he would have thrown all that pesky character development aside and scooped up Hadley before they ran away into the sunset.
It's a shame that I have to mention this, but one fact about our main character came off as genuintly surprising. Hadley was aware of her feelings as well! You heard it right here folks, a Wattpad narrator was actually aware of their feelings towards their designated love interest. Their blindness wasn't used to push the plot along, and it allowed for these two to actually have a relationship we could read about!
Now then, let's talk about the characters.
Hadley was actually a breath of fresh air for me. She wasn't your typical confused and oblivious narrator that has a secret talent in making comebacks. She was a character who was fairly normal. She was popular, but was neither ditsy or a queen bee. She has money, but was neither snobbish or demanding. She was respectable, with passions, a bit of an attitude, and a kind heart. We get to see her develop and change as time goes on, and though I can't seem to properly describe her, she's an interesting character to follow.
Archer falls under a completely different category. He's your typical hot jerk, with a dark backstory, a hatred of people, and a few emotions locked up inside that hallow gray chamber he call a heart. It's my favorite type of character, and like all the others, I love him all the same. Sadly after pushing his cool name and my love aside, nothing about him really makes him stand out from the rest of the bruiting bad boys. His backstory is, granted, different then what I have come across, but I know if I look hard enough, something eerily similar will come up. He has his own brand of humor, but that's because of the author, all of the characters follow her basic humor guidelines. Of course, none of this dims my love and I will violently defend him if anyone dares to call him a bad character (which you most definitely can do. We all have opinions.) And as the typical dark character goes, he's probably one of my favorites.
Archer's family however, that's something I can really get behind! I really loved the quirky members of the Morales-Incitti family. They didn't get that much spotlight due to the large number of them, but I really seemed to enjoy those chapters when they made an appearance. I also found it amusing that they supported Harcher just as much as the readers.
There's also Death and Havoc, but I don't want to go that deep into them because of spoilers. Death was a character I felt needed more development, he was given a backstory, but not much screen time. His appearances were few and far between, but that was out of necessity. Havoc was a character that really held up to his name. He was cunning, mysterious, and absolutely terrifying. The sound of his name ignited a fire within the comment section each time without fail, and rightfully so I may add. To make it simple, whenever he'd make an appearance, everything went up in smoke. He added some much needed tension to the plot, and kept you on the edge of your seat.
The writing style for this story was rather basic, which I think is a good thing. The author has a great level of vocabulary that she incorporated in, and from what I'm able to pick up, the grammar was pretty spot on. The details were incorporated nicely and fully allowed you to see the world the author built up.
I'm going to jump back into discussing the plot now, because there were a few major points I have yet to discuss. This story involved otherworldly aspects and time travel.
Time travel is a tricky thing to manage. Whether it's Back to the Future or Ruby Red, there's bound to be some plot holes.
For instance, we don't know what happened to the 27 days that initially existed. Have they been wiped from history? And what happens to the lives effected by Archer and Hadley meeting? Could there be a chain reaction that causes the death of someone who doesn't deserve it? What happens now that Archer has survived? Does another life need to die in his place? What happened to the memories created during the first 27 days? Does Hadley remember them? Or do they slowly fade away? What happened to that verson of Hadley? Or the people that lived during that time?
I'm thinking too much into this, but you see my point.
But we don't come into these stories for flawless science fiction. Readers come for the story presented, and In 27 Days had a nearly flawless presentation. I feel like the biggest piece of criticism I can give this book was that it was too short!
Yes, I'm grateful for the story I had the chance to read and I would love some extra time with these characters. However, I feel like the plot was damaged due to the short length. The ending was wrapped up very quickly, not enough time was given on the stories final events.
There will be a major spoiler in the following paragraphs
-
-
What particularly annoyed me about this was how the plot skimmed over Hadley dying. It overall felt anticlimactic. She was killed in a car crash, sent to heaven, and was instantly sent back simply because she asked. There was no consequence to it, no price to pay, just 'You wanna go back Haldey? Okay! Just click your heels three times and say there's no place like home.'
To be honest, I wanted to see what the author would have done if she kept Hadley dead. As satisfying as this happy ending was, it would have been far more unique to finish the story from heaven. I'm glad she survived nonetheless, I just wish there was some challenge that came with it
-
-
End of spoiler
Alongside that, some extra time could have brought light to the unknown parts of the fantasy world. I was disappointed to see that we got so little information on the otherworldly aspects. We were given insight on this world full of angels and underlings, but they were never expanded past Death and Havoc. They consistently talk about an Edict that we never got to see, and it was clearly mentioned that they can alter time, erase memories and have control over the human world.
If this author were to ever write a spin off, I'd like it to be about that world.
In related news, In 27 Days is currently set to be published and released by August 2017. I definitely plan on purchasing a copy and can't wait to plunge myself back into this world.
