Review: Portal by Imogen Rose

Portal (Portal Chronicles #1) 

by Imogen Rose

Published: January 23, 2010

Self-Published

KOBO, 221 Pages

Come Find Me Two Years Ago... 

Six words that propelled ice hockey playing tomboy, Arizona, into an alternate dimension. 

She suddenly found herself in the past. In one moment she went from being an ice hockey playing teenager in New Jersey to a glamorous cheerleader in California. She found herself transported from a happy life with her dad, Dillard, to a new, strange one living with her mother whom she hates. Apparently it's a life she's always lived in. 

Everyone knows her as Arizona Darley, but she isn't. She is Arizona Stevens. 

As she struggles to find answers she is certain of one thing- that her mother Olivia, a brilliant physicist, is somehow responsible. . 

PORTAL is the story of the repercussions of Olivia Darley's attempt at creating a perfect world for herself and her children. Arizona's quest for answers threatens to undermine the seemingly perfect world that her mother has so carefully constructed. --Goodreads

4 Stars

Review:

I really liked this novel, despite the fact that I was very confused until half-way through the book. It took me a while to figure out everything. I liked how Portal alternates between Olivia's(Arizona's mom) and Arizona's points of view. The Olivia parts really added to the story, instead of me just thinking Oliva was extremely selfish in that she did all of that just so she can get the guy. But it wasn't just that, she cares a lot about her kids as well, and her dog; she went back for her dog! Ahh I thought that was so cute!

Arizona and I kind of got off to a rough start. At first I did not like her because I thought that she was a brat and extremely rude to her mother, but that was the first chapter. After I got more into the book, I really liked Arizona. I love her far-fetched scenarios, although they were very pessimistic, it was true teenage thinking and they were quite entertaining to read. Arizona is very tom-boyish (or should I say was?), so it was a complete surprise to her when she started to develop girly tendencies because "Barbie Arizona" was showing through. Reading about the shocks that she had about that, really made me LOL, so to speak. 

Harry (was he named after Harry Potter because the parents have a HP book that they and Harry read to Ella before bedtime, so I'm inferring that they are HP fans... If Harry was named after J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter that would be so cool!) and Kellan are very protective over Arizona, which was so sweet! But (sadly there's always a but) they were too over-protective. Obviously Arizona can take care of herself, but I guess in this dimension, she can't,  so now when she can Harry and Kellan still protect her because they have never met the Arizona who can take care of herself. (Does this make sense to you guys? Hopefully it does!) Anyway, the guys totally flip out when they find out that Arizona is trying out for the ice hockey team, which was a bit unnecessary. 

Ella was the best supporting character! She's eight and she's a ball of delight! I want a little sister now! She was a really good sibling and overall she was a good, nice kid.

The sci-fi time-traveling aspect to this book was the best. I wish Portal went a little more into detail about the actual time-traveling, but Portal the way it is now, was a very good read and I would recommend it.

After finishing this book I had some unanswered questions. What did Larry gain from this portal time traveling thing? I understood what Olivia had to gain, a perfect family and an overall amazing life, but what did Larry, the brains behind the whole portal have to gain? What happened to Simla and Justin? Are Justin's parents involved in the portal business like everyone elses? The epilogue, oh the epilogue! That just made a few more questions. Well this is only book one, so I NEED to read book two. I need to find answers to these questions! Well I think it's official to say that I am pumped to read book two!

Purchase Portal at: Amazon / Barnes&Noble / The Book Depository