January 24, 2014

Book Review: ENDLESS by Amanda Gray


Book:  Endless
Author:  Amanda Gray
Publisher:  Month9Books
Genre:  YA Fiction.  Fantasy.  Paranormal.  Time Travel.

“Did you always know you would find me?”- Jenny
“Always.  But I didn’t know if you would remember.”- Nikolai
“…..That’s a pretty big risk.”- Jenny
“I’d do it a thousand times over for one chance to spend my life with you.”- Nikolai

Synopsis via 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 traveled 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.

My Summary:

Jenny can’t touch people, or at least not without her gloves as one accidental brush with her palm could make her see the person’s past, good and bad. So she kept to herself for years, preferring to have only one friend, Tiffany, with whom she works at a café bookstore. 

One night of peer pressure and a session with the Quija board changes her life.  From then on she starts dreaming of Nikolai, a man she has never met but with whom she has an unquestionable connection.  She also dreams of being Maria Romanov, one of the four daughters of the last Russian Tsar who was murdered along with his entire family in 1918.  In her dreams, she falls deeply in love with Nikolai.  There was also a third person in her dreams.  Sergei.  The son of a high ranking Russian officer with whom Maria was rumored to be betrothed.

Jenny meets Ben whose house her father is working on.  They become close friends and together find an old jewel encrusted music box that had instructions on mesmerizing (or hypnotizing) that made both dream of their past lives. 

Nikolai travels through time to find his Maria who has been reincarnated as Jenny.  Through her dreams, Jenny remembers her past life and ultimately, her strong feelings for Nikolai.  Through death and destruction their love for each other has not changed but they are running out of time.

The Order is a group whose main function is to put those who have jumped time back to their own or face eternal limbo… and they’re after Nikolai.  Together Jenny, Nikolai and Sergei work together to save Nikolai from the Order, only to realize how interconnected they are in the present and the past….

My Review:

The tragedy that befell the Romanovs has always been interesting to me.  I have researched about the family numerous times and have even personally visited their tomb in St. Petersburg Russia.  So reading fiction that touched on their last days, a YA book at that, made this doubly interesting to me.

But more than the Romanovs, I like stories that deal with time travel, unexplainable power and of course, Love.  Put them together, this book came out a real winner.  Apart from the premise itself, I like the way the author wrote the story. This was one of those with such seamless flow that I could barely put it down; not to eat or even sleep. The author built up the characters and their relationships with each other very well that when everything came together, it was just understood.
Though all the characters are likable, I loved Nikolai’s the most.  His love for Maria/Jenny is so powerful that it literally stood the test of time.  He is loyal, unyielding and would gladly take death over separation from his love.

This book is a very interesting twist on time travel, history and romance, something I would love to see adapted on the big screen in the future.  Based on the cliffhanger at the end, I will be (not so patiently) waiting for the next book.  I highly recommend that you read ENDLESS

Cover photo has been lifted from month9booksblog.com

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