The Sun, the Moon, and Maybe the Trains

This was a rather complex love story that spanned two centuries in a touching manner.

I really enjoyed the characterization that went on in this book. Small details about characters were brought back, such as Tess's best friend loving The White Stripes, and this really made me feel connected to the characters and invested in their ultimate fate.

The time period details were also extremely clever. When at the beginning John came to the modern days, I loved seeing the way he interacted with people and with all the new found technologies. Details such as the use of silver, horses, and costumes were all also relevant and interesting.

It was necessary to suspend my disbelief for some aspects of this book and to not overthink the time travel aspect as I believe there were some continuity errors, but these didn't detract from the book. I was also still extremely confused as to how the whole situation started, but now that I realize this was a sequel I understand where I went wrong.

This book was told in alternating chapters from Tess's and John's views. At some moments, this felt a little unnecessary. Tess was definitely the main character and some of John's chapters felt like filler.

I would have liked to have seen a little more before the end reflecting the ultimate decision that Tess and John made. I didn't feel that the Tess we were acquainted with really had strong enough feelings to justify the ultimate end. Despite this, I was overall very satisfied.

This book was a lovely read and can stand on its own without the prequel.

About: All the Butterflies in the World is a fiction book written by Rodney Jones. It was published on 10/28/14 by Red Adept Publishing. The genre is Young Adult, Teens, and Romance. This book, All the Butterflies in the World, is a sequel to The Sun, the Moon, and Maybe the Trains.

My Experience: I started reading All the Butterflies in the World on 8/10/15 and finished it on 8/25/15. I was contemplating whether I should read this book because I have not read the first book yet. While I have the book, I decided to go ahead and read it and I can always read the whole series again if it's any good. The beginning was not too interesting until Tess, the main character, started to believe in time travel. The story took off starting at the visit to the museum and the story became interesting. I read 75% of the book in one night and one morning. I stayed up to 2AM reading. I thoroughly enjoy reading this book and I enjoy the concept of time travel and how going back to time changes the future. I would definitely read the book again, but this time I will read book 1 too. I like the detail description of how life is like back in 1875 and life is like in 2009. I'm glad that this sequel has Liz's point of view.

Pros: time travel, friendship, smart thinking, planning, butterfly effects, page turner

Cons: not enough romance

I rate it 5 stars!

xoxo, Jasmine at How Useful It Is at www.howusefulitis.wordpress.com

A really different and interesting series. Interesting ideas based on the butterfly effect.

This is such a good story. I really like both of the main characters and the plot is really interesting. I usually take a break in between books of the same series to save myself from possibly getting bored- well, with an ending like that, I jumped straight into the next installment- safe to say there was no boredom experienced here! 5 stars for this. Really riveting stuff.