As Etta and Nicholas set off across centuries and continents, they forge first a friendship and then something more, but time is not on their side. Ironwood also coerces Nicholas to accompany Etta - to make sure the device is brought back to him. If she can't find it by a certain date, he'll kill her mother. Ironwood blackmails Etta to find a mysterious device he claims her mother (also, obviously, a time traveler) stole from him years ago and hid in another century. That is, until he actually meets Etta and realizes she has no idea who the Ironwoods are and what they want from her. Etta doesn't know she's a time traveler, but when she's kidnapped through a 'passage' at the Metropolitan Museum, she ends up in 1776 on Nicholas' ship, to be taken back to the Ironwoods as part of a contract he'd like to fulfill so he can then be done with the Ironwoods forever. Nineteen-year-old Nicholas is the adopted son of an 18th-century sea captain trying to escape his nefarious biological family, the Ironwoods, who want little to do with him, since his mother was their slave. Etta Spencer is a 17-year-old violin prodigy in modern-day New York City on the brink of her professional debut.

PASSENGER is an epic thriller about two teen time-travelers.

The threat of violence is of more concern than the actual violence, but there are some ruthless characters willing to kill, and there's a small body count and people left for dead. Though the romantic tension and longing is high, there's only one love scene, and it's tastefully written in a 'fade-to-black' sentence. There are a few instances when 'Negro' or 'slave' or 'colored' are used, although there are relatively few curse words for a young-adult novel. Since the book's protagonists are an 18th-century sailor who's the son of a slave (and her master) and a 21st-century virtuoso violinist who's a white feminist, author Alexandra Bracken doesn't shy away from discussing issues of race and gender, both in a historical and a contemporary context. Parents need to know that Passenger is a globe-trotting time-travel adventure that spans centuries and should appeal to readers who like big concepts, detailed characterization, and slow-burning romance. Sailors drink, a couple to excess and one so much that he makes inappropriate comments.ĭid you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Passenger series by alexandra bracken