Timeless by Alexandra Monir
pages: 304
released: January 2011
publisher: Delacorte Books
cover love: ♥♥♥♥

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. (from Goodreads)

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 11/08/2011 ON BOOKSLIKESTARS.NET

Review:

This book had me all over the place. There were times when it had me totally involved and then there were times when it had me totally flustered. I loved the premise of this book, a girl who can travel back in time to an old New York but Timeless ended up not being as great as I expected.

Michele moves to New York to live with her grandparents after her mother is killed in a car accident. Her grandparents live in the Windsor Mansion, an elegant and grand house that survived a century of the always up-and-coming city. She soon discovers an old skeleton key that can transport her through time to 1910. While stuck in the past, she meets Philip, a handsome young man she’s been dreaming about since she was a little girl. Now that she knows he’s real, she can’t let him go. She continues to elope into the past ages of her family to visit Philip, trying to find a way to make him exist in the present.

The storyline is what kept me holding on ’til the very end. I liked the way Michele could go back to the beautiful old fashioned city of New York, cobblestones and carriages, mansions lined up and down 5th Avenue. Not like it is now, still a huge city yet compacted and cramped. She was able to find out her family’s secrets and meet relatives she’d otherwise never be able to. And the author weaves pieces of the past with the present so everything that happened surrounding Michele, her family and Philip, made more sense.

However, the characters did not move me. I felt like there wasn’t much depth to any of  them and their dialogue was awkward, it didn’t fit the way teens talk in real life. Michele slipped in and out of time so easily it was hard to keep track of where she was and I also wasn’t a fan of the romance between Michele and Philip, it was a little too sugary for my taste. I thought this was a stand-alone book but surprise, surprise, a convenient sequel is in store for us next. That aspect kind of bugged me because if the book was an extra 75 to 100 pages, the story could’ve been concluded. I don’t think it was necessary to pull the series card.

Either way, Timeless was still a good quick read that I’m sure others will enjoy very much.

3