Review: A Fun Trip Back to the Seventies!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 4, 2013
(Actually 3.5 Stars)Since I've read the Northwest Passage series by John Heldt, I have fallen in love with time travel books. So when I was contacted with the opportunity to read and review Advantage Erin, I immediately accepted, and was rewarded with a quick and fun read with a trip to the seventies included!I felt sorry for Erin as I read about her pushy mother. It seemed to me that her mum was trying to relive her high school days through Erin where tennis was concerned, and was determined for Erin to continue where her mother wasn't able to, thanks to a knee injury. I appreciated that her mother only wanted the best for Erin, but I think she went completely the wrong way about it, as she seemed less like a mother and more like a dictator in Erin's life. It was nice to see her mother change in the book, although I wish she had been a little more supportive of Erin during the tennis tournament.Erin's grandmother was a great character, purely because she accepted Erin for who she was, and didn't push her into being someone else. I did think she was attempting to teach Erin a lesson though, because Erin did seem to push her mother's buttons on purpose on occasion. I loved Sonny's character too, and wish Erin had made more of an effort to be friendlier with him, because he really wasn't that bad. Who cares if he wasn't cool? He was a nice guy, and I was a little disappointed to see him change when Erin travelled back to her time.I enjoyed watching Erin travel back into 1970, especially as she had to get herself out of some sticky situations, particularly when she got caught and had to explain to the principal why the money in  her wallet was printed in a different century to the one they were currently in. Thankfully, her grandmother saved the day once more, saving Erin from more embarrassing mishaps (unfortunately, she calls Woodstock `Stockwood' in her history class, much to the amusement of her classmates), leaving her time to prepare for her tennis match against Catherine, Erin's mother. I wish we had been able to get a better look at what Erin's mother was like as a teenager, but as this was a short-story, we weren't able to do that. I loved reading about the tennis match between Erin and Catherine, it really felt like I was there right alongside them as they played.Advantage Erin was a fun read with a neat little twist at the end, and I really wish it had been longer so I could have spent more time with all the characters! This one is perfect for fans of time-travel, and I can't wait to see what Kreisman brings out next.I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.