Review: Timeless by Alexandra Monir

Summary: After her mother dies in a car accident, high school senior Michele Windsor is sent to live  in New York City with grandparents she’s never met. They’re “old money” and live in mansion that’s a remnant of the Gilded Age. She gets to experience that time period for herself when a diary she finds sends her back in time. While meeting some of her colorful female ancestors, Michele also finds herself falling in love with Philip, a boy who’s appeared in her dreams throughout her whole life. Will their love be able to transcend time?

Review: Time travel romances are usually fun, yet inevitably complicated. Thankfully, Timeless didn’t hurt my brain too much, but neither was I totally captivated by this story. Monir has definitely done some research, and it was fun to imagine what New York City would have been like in the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties. Some of her fact-dropping, like a family casually discussing The Great Gatsby, was slightly heavy-handed however. The detailed descriptions of clothing were fun at first, but soon became repetitive.

This was a “destiny-based” romance, so it wasn’t quite as developed as I would have liked. Michele and Philip decide they are soul-mates in a very short span of time (even counting the time traveling). I did like that Michele was a lyricist and Philip was a composer. The author also has recorded the songs the characters write in the book, which is pretty cool.

I know there’s a sequel coming up, but it really is disappointing how little in the book is resolved at the end. It just…ends. While the “mini-episodes” where Michele helps her ancestors with their problems are resolved, the main plots of the book (Michele and Philip’s relationship, Michele’s parentage, how the time travel happens) are not wrapped up in a satisfactory manner.

In short: Pretty average book. I’d recommend waiting until the sequel is at hand before picking up this book.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Cover & Title: Because love is timeless, right?  The cover is really pretty, and the key Michele wears on the cover is important to the story.

Where I got the book: Shelves of the local library.

Review: The Hourglass Door by Lisa Mangum

Summary: Seventeen-year-old Abby’s life is safe and predictable. She’s known her boyfriend all her life, she’s planning on going to college with her best friend, and she spends her time as the assistant director of her high school’s production of Much Ado About Nothing. When curly-haired, glove-wearing Italian exchange student Dante Alexander shows up to drama practice, Abby meets with him to help him get up to speed on his part in the play. To Abby, there’s something mysterious and alluring about this boy, but weird things start occurring. A rock band’s music starts having a strange effect on the high school crowd, not to mention that time seems to flow differently when Abby is around Dante…

Review:  Girl has boring life. Girl meets mysterious, supernatural boy. Epic romance and as well as epic danger ensues…we’ve seen this before, haven’t we? It’s sort of the hot paranormal romance formula right now, first made popular with…Twilight…*shudders*. The Hourglass Door definitely sticks to this formula, but Abby isn’t  Bella Swan at least. It’s easy to identify with Abby’s college application angst, as well as her general insecurities. Then we come to Dante. He’s described as having dark curly-hair and he usually wears a dark peacoat. Coincidentally, there is a guy who fits that exact description who lives in my building. He’s usually seen involved in some sort of PDA with his girlfriend, though I doubt her name is Abby. Back to the review –   Dante’s a bit too good to be true. Don’t get me wrong – I like sweet guys who act like gentlemen. However Dante – and Abby – felt slightly bland, as did some of the supporting characters.

As for their romance…I liked that it was sweet and clean, and that the focus of it seemed to be on “light” rather than “the darker the better.” All this was appreciated. Here comes the “but”: I think it was the writing style that bothered me.  It was drippingly saccharine or flowery enough to make me roll my eyes: “[His eyes] were changeling gray – one moment they shimmered with the moon-white of reflected sunlight, the next they held the almost-blue edge of melting ice crystals, then they hardened to the shadowed gray of wet river stones.” And this is only on page 35…

In short: It’s a clean but relatively bland read loaded with too much purple prose. I’m not jumping up and down to read the sequels.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Something better: River of Time: Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren

Cover & Title: Not very exciting, much like the book. The title does fit the story though.

Where I got the book: Used bookstore. I’m glad I didn’t pay more than $3 for it.