Tomorrow, by C.K. Kelly Martin

I always feel weird making this criticism, but C.K. Kelly Martin's Tomorrow is Too Much Book. It crams enough action and drama for an entire series into a scant 250 pages, leaving readers more shell-shocked than anything else.

Tomorrow picks up several months after the events of Yesterday. Martin's protagonists, Freya and Garren, are refugees from a dystopian future who have hidden themselves in mid-1980s Canada. Unfortunately, other time-travelers from 2063 are lurking about, shadowy forces seem to be attempting to alter the future, and Garren and Freya are struggling with all the growing pains of any young couple—growing pains that are magnified and complicated by their shared secret.

The earliest sections of Martin's story hit the hardest. Freya and Garren's petty squabbles over dirty laundry and bad habits ring true, and set an enjoyably pragmatic, human tone that's frequently missing from YA fiction. Their love for one another is palpable, as is their near-constant irritation. But as the action starts hitting harder and harder (kidnappings and bad guys and amnesia, oh my!), it becomes more difficult to relate to the story, and too many plot elements have be resolved via a miraculous rescue. Martin's writing remains vivid, her setting inventive, and her protagonists sympathetic, but I sincerely wish she'd split this installment into two books, giving her action sequences more creative dénouements and her human interactions more room to breathe.

Review based on publisher-provided copy.