Despite the book opening with a fair amount of action within the first few chapters, I still had SO much trouble getting into it. The characters just didn't feel lifelike initially for me. They felt sort of flat for a while and between the flashback prologue, Etta's present, and then the trip to the past where we meet Nicholas, everything felt a bit disjointed and wobbly. It was like, a lot of things were happening, but nothing that really felt substantial. Everything up until dinner on the ship felt like obvious plot devices and staging to get into the story. I couldn't forget that I was reading a book until the dinner scene, when you actually get to see some interaction and characterization, rather than just dry plot-weaving. 
 That being said, I absolutely loved everything from then on and I am actually a little irritated that I didn't go with my gut and order the next book as soon as things started getting interesting. 
 Etta and Nicholas both evolve very naturally over the course of the story and grow into complex characters. Etta goes from being rather frightened, sheltered, and delusional about being able to return to her old life, to being a strong-willed, surefooted, brave young woman that comes to terms with her new life and is willing to sacrifice almost anything to save the world from the selfish aims of the opposing forces. Nicholas and Etta start out very similarly, both are one-track-minded about figuring out a way to get back to or have the life that they WANT to have. They both are willing to do whatever it takes to keep that possibility alive, until they're forced to reevaluate and decide whether they want to continue this way, and possibly end up just like their enemy, or if they want to abandon that original dream in order to save the timeline and countless lives. 
 I found the bits toward the end about timelines changing and the rules and all that a bit confusing so hopefully that's cleared up and explored more in the next book. 
 I would highly recommend this book to fans of adventure/fantasy, time-travel, and star-crossed lovers type romance.