"Sifting Through Chaos" by Sarah Everest

Book two in the Untouched series picks right up where book one (Breaking Triviality) left off.  That's a great thing about a serialized series -- you aren't left wondering what happened between books!  I appreciate that.

In Sifting Through Chaos, modern-day teens Marit and Cas have time-traveled back to 1940s Rotterdam right when the Nazis were overrunning the Netherlands.  They meet Annelies and her family (who were in the split-time first book too) and work together to escape the bombings and take shelter at the family's farm cottage outside the city.  But that cottage isn't meant for living in, and they must find another solution.  

Along the way, they've acquired an elderly woman and an orphaned toddler to care for as well.  That gives Sifting Through Chaos some found-family elements, which I always appreciate.  The bulk of the book is about figuring out how to keep these people safe while also searching for a way to get Marit and Cas back to their own time.

Marit has had a crush on Cas for years, and she finds her feelings growing deeper as she gets to know him.  Cas has a girlfriend back home in their own time, but they have been drifting apart for a long time, and he begins to wonder if he should break things off with her if/when they return to the present.  This is partly because he is developing feelings for Marit, but also because he realizes his girlfriend is not someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with.  Meanwhile, Annelies realizes she is falling for her knew Dutch soldier friend Bastiaan.  All of this is handled with believable teenage emotions and ways of thinking.

Sifting Through Chaos doesn't end on quite as much of a cliffhanger as Breaking Triviality did, but it definitely makes me eager to read book three, Setting Time Free, which will release in August.

This book releases next Tuesday, July 14. I was privileged to be selected to read an advance copy from the publisher, but I was not requested or required to review the book; all opinions are my own.

Particularly Good Bits:

So many crushed dreams were scattered around my feet (Cas, chapter nine).

...there was just no right way to tell a three-year-old phoenix she would rise from the ashes and become the best, warmest, most understanding grandma a girl could ever ask for (Marit, chapter twenty-one).

Tears of defeat threatened to overflow, but a surprising defiance welled up inside me.  I wouldn't give the enemy the pleasure of stealing my hope (Annelies, chapter twenty-eight).

My entire world had been shuffled into ruin and nightmares (Annelies, chapter thirty).

Minutes ticked by to the steady rhythm of our feet (Cas, chapter thirty-five).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for wartime violence and an incident where a German soldier attempts to haul away a teenage girl and rape her (the word 'rape' is not used, but his intentions are clear, as is her growing fear of what could happen).  No gore, no bad language, and no smut.