I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Lara Crane has been spending the past ten years missing her mother. She's told that her mother was murdered during a mugging; a senseless murder. On Lara's sixteenth birthday, her father gives her a gift certificate for Rewind, a time travel agency, so that she could revisit her first birthday and see her mother. Her first visit will not be her last. Lara is more determined than ever to break all the rules, travel back and save her mother. She begins revisiting the timeline to train herself to get to the destination within her allotted fifteen minutes to prevent her mother from getting shot. Not only does she find out it wasn't true, the outcome is nowhere near what she expected; every aspect of her life is completely different. She didn't expect her entire life to change, but it does. As she tries to figure out a way to right everything that she sees wrong, she inadvertently places everyone around her in danger.

Time travel novels have always been a favorite of mine. Jill Cooper certainly keeps us completely intrigued throughout the book, with lots of twists you won't see coming. There's even two gorgeous teenage boys vying for Lara's attention! The characters are all realistic and you can understand completely why Lara wanted her mother back. This story does a wonderful job showing how something presumably harmless can change your surroundings in a big way. This was absolutely amazing and I can't wait to read the next book in the series. ( )

Good book, the ending was a little confusing ( )

An interesting time travel suspense story, geared towards the YA market. Cooper leverages the time travel concept as a mechanism to keep the plot shifts coming fast and furious. As a character lead, Lara is more or less your typical teen, struggling to make sense of what any reader of time travel stories can tell you to expect: The ripple effect that can occur when one changes an event in the past. Not surprisingly, things go to hell in a hand-basket pretty darn fast. As much as I like complicated/convoluted plots, near the end, the time shifts (and the blurring of one time line and the memories of another time line) where happening so frequently that I found myself having to re-read some paragraphs just to get things straight in my mind as to what Lara was experiencing in the time line she was in versus the memories playing out in her mind.

Overall, a faced-paced, somewhat confusing read with a conspiracy angle I wasn’t expecting, and which proved to be the best part of the story for me. ( )

A descent read

The time travel aspect was interesting. The author had a great idea. I did get lost with all the time jumps. The plot line was so intricate that I felt like I was missing something or that some important facts were getting jumbled, but I just rode the story out to the end. No juicy romance, which is what I prefer. Clean read. ( )

"15 Minutes" is a YA science fiction thriller that deals with times travel. As I am a sucker for time travel, I felt this book would be right up my alley, and I was not disappointed. Along with paradoxes time travel stories have to offer, there are also a couple of love triangles involved in the story. All in all, I think it is the perfect YA novel and suitable for adults also.

Lara Crane's mother was murdered when she was very young. Being raised by her father is fine with her, even with him not earning great money. She loves her father and he loves her. What Lara misses is her mother. So when time travel becomes available, Lara saves her money and buys a package of several time travels for one low price at Rewind. When people travel back in time, they are only supposed to be holograms and would not be able to interact with their surroundings. But Lara is different. She finds on her very first trip back that she is able to physically touch items and people. And so the plan forms in her mind to save her mother. How great would it be if her father, mother and herself were a family once again.

But Lara has only 15 minutes in each time travel. She has practiced the quickest route to get to the alley where her mother was shot. And so with her last paid time travel, she races to the alley and takes the bullet meant for her mother and thus saves her life. When she wakes up, she finds that more has changed than just her mother being alive. Her father has been imprisoned for the attempted murder of her mother, her mother has married Jax Montgomery and her name is now Lara Montgomery. Her old boyfriend Rick, with whom she shared a special bond, was never involved with her. Living in the well off district, she is now dating Donavan James, son of Senator Patricia James, and only known in Lara's other past as a playboy out for a quick score. And Lara's mother is always working, at Rewind she discovers, and she still never gets to spend any time with her.

She has deep feelings for Rick, but the more she is with Donavan the more her feelings for him grow. She is confused that the past she remembers does not mesh with the present she is living. She is unsure who to turn to with the news of her changing the future. Not to mention her father being in prison, still in love with Lara's mother Miranda, and trying to prove his innocence from behind bars. Lara must find a way to free her father and re-unite their family again. But it isn't going to be easy. Senator James has been secretly funding Rewind's research, most notably Miranda's, which they are hoping to find a subject that can interact with the past for he own sordid gain. When they discover that Lara is the one, the search is on to capture her.

The plot was tightly woven and very readable. I found myself pulling for Lara even though the odds were against her. I heartily recommend this book to any time travel fan as well as those interested in YA reads to fill their summer. A 4 star plus read for me. Very well done. ( )