Saturday 26 February 2011

Timeless review

Timeless
Alexandra Monir
January 11th
Delacorte Press

When tragedy strikes Michele Windsor’s world, she is forced to uproot her life and move across the country to New York City, to live with the wealthy, aristocratic grandparents she’s never met. In their old Fifth Avenue mansion filled with a century’s worth of family secrets, Michele discovers a diary that hurtles her back in time to the year 1910. There, in the midst of the glamorous Gilded Age, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life – a man she always wished was real, but never imagined could actually exist. And she finds herself falling for him, into an otherworldly, time-crossed romance. 

Michele is soon leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves – a quest that will determine the fate of both of their lives.



Timeless is a book about love, loss, learning and ultimately, Time Travel. (Yes, the time travel was the best part. Why? Because I'm a science/Dr. Who geek AND a history geek. I am in  love with the concept of time travel) But despite the topics of the novel, it didn't completely impress me.


This book was definitely plot driven, as I didn't really like the main characters that much, but I do love me some time travel. I the whole idea of the story, of Michele having to go back to several different key periods of her family's timeline (two of the were two of my favourite time periods, the roaring twenties, and the fourties) and I, being a history geek, loved the historical accuracy of the book. It is such a pet peeve when people get little details wrong in historicals...  And I thought the time travel was well done too, though the whole book kind  of reminded me of Fushigi Yuugi (which, for those of you who don't know, is a fabulous manga in which a teenager travels into Ancient China via a book) what with the starcrossed/time crossed lovers and all that jazz.


Michele did get on my nerves a bit though, and I don't think the character development was done well. It was just like 'And she learnt her lesson and went home and lived happily ever after and became a better person for the experince' Basically, it was way too clunky and obvious for me.But that's probably just me. Also she was so woe-is-me for the book. It grated on me. And as charming as Philip was, I'm not a big fan of instalove.


I also think that the last chapter should've been an epilogue, and I don't think that there's enough left in the story to produce a sequel... In my honest opinion, it should've been a stand alone. But we'll see with book 2. But I just feel like it would be an unnecessary addition. I liked the ending, but I don't like the prospect of a sequel.


Timeless was a book that I enjoyed solely for its time travelly plot and joyful side characters (I loved Lily!) but didn't entirely hit the right notes (music related joke! Unintended musical pun! If you've read the book, you'll understand the reference to music as it's pretty integral to the plot!) with me. 3.5 stars :)

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for your review :) I had this one on my wishlist, but will wait for more reviews before I pick it up (after my lowbuy/nobuy ends, of course xD) :)

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  2. Oh wow I am always pro sequel, need to read it soon and find out if TIMELESS is an expection. I really like your review, I am a fan of time travel aswell. I hope I'll the characters more than you did, need a kind of connection to like a book

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  3. I love time travel, I think I'll pick this one up and see how much I like it!! Thanks for the review, it was great!

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