Endless by Amanda GreyPublication Date: September 10, 2013
Month9Books
Source: Netgalley
Summary from Goodreads: Jenny Kramer knows she isn't normal. After all, not everybody can see the past lives of people around them.
When she befriends Ben Daulton, resident new boy, the pair stumble on an old music box with instructions for “mesmerization” and discover they may have more in common than they thought. Like a past life.
Using the instructions in the music box, Ben and Jenny share a dream that transports them to Romanov Russia and leads them to believe they have been there together before. But they weren't alone. Nikolai, the mysterious young man Jenny has been seeing in her own dreams was there, too. When Nikolai appears next door, Jenny is forced to acknowledge that he has travelled through time and space to find her. Doing so means he has defied the laws of time, and the Order, an ominous organization tasked with keeping people in the correct time, is determined to send him back.
While Ben, Jenny and Nikolai race against the clock - and the Order - Jenny and Nikolai discover a link that joins them in life - and beyond death.
Rating: 3 stars
Review: Overall this was a decent book. There are a lot of really cool elements in this book: oiji board, enchanting music box, the Romanov family, past lives, reincarnation, people "out of time" and time travel. But it felt like because there were so many, they weren't fully developed.
The pace of the plot really didn't work for me. The hook started out really slow; so slow that I had to force talked to keep reading. Eventually the book was interesting enough that I wasn't forcing myself to read anymore. The last chunk of the book moved really fast, which is mostly because everything crashes together.
All that being said, the book was definitely interesting. I enjoyed the fact that the story centered around Maria Romanov, who I've never read about. The unique take on time travel and reincarnation in this book is really interesting as well.
The book has a satisfying close, however I was left with a lot of unanswered questions. There were also a few loose ends that make me think there will be a second book in the works soon.
I'm on the fence about time travel books. I'm interested to hear that this one has it, but I'm worried about the pacing. My attention span is not the greatest, so I think I'd get distracted too easily from this one. Crossing my fingers that there's a second book to tie up those loose ends. It's frustrating when a book doesn't have a definite ending that answers all of the lingering questions! Great review, Emily!
ReplyDeleteHey Kristen,
DeleteSometimes I struggle with time travel books when they get too complex with how it works. But in this book two characters are reincarnated and one travels forward in time, so it's not so confusing. I've heard that there is a second book in the works, but I'm not positive.