Review: In the Present Tense by Carrie Pack

Title: In The Present Tense
Author: Carrie Pack
Genres: Romance, Fantasy, LGBT
Goodreads

Miles Lawson goes to sleep dreaming of a future with his boyfriend Adam, but wakes to find he is married to Ana, an acquaintance from high school. When he learns he has been time traveling, Miles is consumed with finding a cure for his rare condition—and finding his first love.

Traveling more frequently, Miles assembles the puzzle pieces of his life and, in doing so, alienates his wife. As he loses control, Miles must realize that sometimes fixing your past mistakes means changing your future. But will he be able to convince Adam he is telling the truth before it’s too late?

My Thoughts

Rating: 

I requested In the Present Tense on Netgalley, because I absolutely love the cover, and the synopsis intrigued me. While I did finish it in one day, I can't say that I loved it, which is such a shame because this book could've been great. 

In the Present Tense tells the story of Miles, a 17-year-old guy who is completely in love with his boyfriend Adam, when he suddenly wakes up and finds himself in his own 25-year-old body and married to a girl called Ana. When he finds out he can time-travel, he goes on the search for a cure, and his first love, Adam. 

In the Present Tense completely sucked me in from page one. The plot was very captivating and different from anything I've every read before. There's this whole mystery surrounding Miles time-travelling (is it real or is it 'just' a mental-illness?) and an evil cooperation called ChronoCorp which kept me on the edge of my seat, and made me unable to put the book down until I figured out what was going on. The book was filled with suspense, some plot-twists and was very fast-paced. 

I really liked the author's treatment of mental-illness and sexuality in this book. I've never read a book where the MC is bisexual before, and it was very refreshing. And although we find out that Miles suffers from a certain mental-illness, he isn't treated like a victim. While his mental-illness could explain his time-travelling, making his time-travelling 'fake', his mental illness and his time-travelling actually go hand in hand, which is a very interesting concept. 

However, the characters just weren't great. They all felt very hollow, and didn't have much of a personality. The relationships between the character also seemed a bit 'planned'; you just knew what was going to happen between them, and it felt like the author made you root for the characters that were going to end up together, by giving them a lot of backstory, and not telling you much about the other characters and their relationship with our main character. 

Another thing that I also really didn't like in this book was the cheating. I completely understood why it happened, but I don't agree with it. Especially because it's told in a way that almost forces you to want certain characters to cheat on their partners. Cheating is cheating, and in my book, it's never okay. 

So, in conclusion, while I didn't enjoy some parts of the book, I still enjoyed reading it. The plot was great, but I just wish there would've been more to the characters.