Violin prodigy Etta has sacrificed a lot for her music, including most of her personal life. Her New York City soloist debut is fast approaching, though, and it makes everything seem worth it. But just as she's on the brink of success, Etta finds herself floored by a tragedy that reveals her as one of the Ironwoods, an ancient, feuding family of time travelers, who need Etta to find a mysterious object. Etta soon finds herself on a voyage accompanied by sailor Nicholas, an illegitimate, unaccepted member of the Ironwood family who wants nothing more than to escape their influence. Together, Etta and Nicholas skip through time on their search, dealing not only with heightened stakes from the Ironwoods but also the difficulties in the historical places they travel through rk-skinned, biracial Nicholas is a target for vitriol in many periods. Though the pace occasionally drags, this time-traveling adventure is rich in detail, the slow-burning relationship between Etta and Nicholas will leave many readers breathless, and the startling cliff-hanger will reel them back for the next installment.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Bracken's Darkest Minds series was a best-seller, with a film adaption currently in the works; fans will be eager for another tense series from the same author.

The novel opens in Bhutan in 1910 where half-brothers Nicholas and Julian are climbing a mountain. Julian slips and falls to his death while Nicholas watches. The next chapter begins in present-day New York where teenager Etta, a violin virtuoso, is preparing for her debut competition. As she steps on to the stage, she is overwhelmed by a strange noise and, while disoriented, is whisked away by a strange young woman. When Etta regains consciousness, she is a captive passenger on an 18th-century pirate ship commanded by Nicholas, a free black man. Her companion Sophia, the same young woman from the concert hall, informs Etta that she is a time traveler and has been summoned by Ironwood, Sophia's and Nicholas' grandfather, to recover a rare instrumentan astrolabethat gives its possessor power over all of time. Etta, deeply troubled about the condition of her mother and her beloved violin teacher Alice, and also strongly attracted to handsome Nicholas, vows to find the astrolabe and return to her own time. Subsequently, the two paramours are embroiled in dangerous adventures in a variety of settings and time periods.This first in a new series by Bracken, author of previous series The Darkest Mind and Star Wars: A New Hope, promises to be exciting for lovers of lengthy but fast-paced time-travel novels who are not bothered by rambling plots with unconnected twists and turns. Since anything can and does happen, Passenger's open ending is easy to accept, leaving readers ready for any number of future installments featuring more of the same.Laura Woodruff.