Gaele Hi
Never having heard of this author or her work, I was curious to see this book and if it lived up to the promise of love found, lost and found again between time travel, growth and heartbreak. And the premise of this one is amazing – a more ‘modern day’ theme similar to Outlander (my standard for these sorts of titles). So we have Julian working in LA, running a business and pretty darn successful. He was a bit vanilla to start – no real characteristics that made me curious about who he was at first, and it would take a bit of time for me to grab onto his personality. He meets Josephine and he sees stars, rainbows and unicorns. He is smitten and their whirlwind romance is everything to him – often to the detriment of everything else. For her Part – I was really struggling to deal with Josephine. She was vapid, unlikeable and utterly unable to tell the truth in any situation. And that was just to start – when you added in her manipulation of Julian ……. Well, it’s not manipulation if you discount everything else in your life to follow someone around like a lovesick puppy. The burst of interest was revived with the element of time travel – but if I’m honest, I’d checked out by that point and reading each chapter became more of a chore than a delight or an escape into another world. Leading a series with two characters in the forefront that are decidedly unpleasant, and leave you uninterested in their futures, then adding in secondary characters who are little more than despicable – this is what happens. I was hoping that Simons would turn this around and give me something,, no matter how miniscule, to grab onto something positive for any of the characters. Unfortunately for me, it didn’t happen, and I was sad for that. The rambling nature that felt very “slavic” in construct, the unlikeable characters and the overall fact that the actual story failed to meet the threshold of anticipation I had, and while others may love this book (and I am certain they will) I don’t find a reason to continue with this series or author. I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via Edelweiss for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.
Ewelina Chojnacka
I liked it very much. Especially the bits with going back into the past, the vivid historical background. It's excruciatingly sad, warmheartingly joyous and hopeful at last.
