"Portal" by Imogen Rose

From Goodreads: "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.

PORTAL is the first book of the Portal Chronicles. Fans of time travel, romance, and the supernatural will enjoy Arizona's quest for answers."

In all honesty, about three quarters of the way into this book I was so confused as to what was going on primarily because I hadn't read the synopsis and therefore I was totally oblivious to the fact that it was a sci-fi-ish young adult book that dealt with alternate dimensions (that is what I get for purchasing a book on Amazon simply because it is 99 cents) and because I was so confused as to what was going on, I actually debated whether to just set the book aside and not finish it (which I rarely ever do). But I decided to stick it out and I can't pinpoint exactly when everything clicked for me, but it did and the book/ storyline became amazing.

The boys in this book are entirely swoon-worthy and I find it strange that I think so because they are all popular jock boys and usually those type of boys annoy the crud out of me (like Nash from Rachel Vincent's "Soul Screamers" series or Erik from the Cast's "House of Night" series). I think why I liked them so much was that we actually saw a range of emotions from them, they weren't super arrogant boys who looked down upon others, no, they were the type of boys who would do anything in their power to protect those they cared about.

I really like Arizona as a character, she was spunky and really stuck to her guns. I think that had we been introduced to "Barbie Arizona" I wouldn't have been able to deal with this book, but lucky we got the rough and tumble Arizona (and I didn't even mind all that much when she did have her infrequent "girlie" moments).

Now while I did love the book there were a few things that did bother me. Like the dialogue for instance. Typically I am not one to pick up on any iffy-ness things with the dialogue (usually I am too busy being swept off my feet by the male lead), but in this book there were a few sections of dialogue that made me want to pull my hair out, specifically when Ariele was telling Arizona about her theory as to why their lives were all messed up. This section seemed like I was reading an instruction manual or something, it seemed very robotic in a way (it was choppy and didn't flow well)- seriously, Ariele goes on for two pages explaining her theory without breaking whatsoever (I don't know how she could have talked for that length of time without taking a breath). And the name dropping. There was a ton of designer brand name dropping throughout this book, like "Here is that (insert designer's name here) clutch that you have been bugging mom about" or "I slid on my (insert name brand here) jeans on".

But all in all, I think that this is a great book and I am looking forward to reading the other books in the series!

Rating: 9.5/10