ARC Review: Timeless

Timeless by Alexandra Monir
Release Date: January 11, 2011

Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Pages: Hardcover, 288 pages

Young Adult
Source: Different Area Code Book Tour

Overall:

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.  Synopsis via Goodreads

My Thoughts:

In Timeless we are introduced to Michele, an only child who lives with her single mother.  We aren't given an in depth look at her relationship with her mother but by the way Michele regards her mother throughout the duration of the book, depends on her, and talks to her about her dream boy you can see that there is depth to their relationship despite the few pages between the start of the story and the tragedy that sets Michele's story into motion and offers the backbone for the underlying points to the plot.

The romance Alexandra Monir gave us in Timeless is quick and deep.  Some might be put off by the almost unrealistic impact the love has on Michele and her dream boy, Phillip Walker, but I think the relationship is not only justified as the story progresses but by the simple fact that there is a silent history between the two, a link beyond any typical circumstances.  What are the chances you find your dream boy, and you have the ability to lead a double life, in your time and in another?  What are the chances that your love can create something that imprints itself in history and that everything in your life seems to make more sense because of this one person?  What are the chances that you put your absolute everything into a relationship despite knowing the impractical and unbelievable odds and are selfless enough to have the ability to give the other up so you can look into the history books, or to the stars, and know that your true love is happy, not ever knowing if you will truly ever connect with them again?  When you have that kind of timeless and blind faith the depth of love doesn't even need to be justified only completely swooned over.  With this type of love following Michele and Phillip around it was hard to not be emotionally vested in them.

Timeless didn't just tell us the story of Michele and Philip, it told the stories of two prominent, rivaling, New York families, the love between Michele's mother and father, and the story of something so much bigger then anything anyone can understand.  The transitions between these underlying stories were seamless and bound together by the music and characters, past and present, that helped shape the story.  The overall story was well complimented with the unraveling of history and all the truths Michele came across in her journey. It really made the whole read enjoyable.

While we were left with a cliff hanger of the extreme kind, Alexandra tied up the story neatly leaving me feeling pretty fulfilled.  I felt like all of the high flying emotions that made the book what it was settled down, despite the bittersweet conclusions, and paved the way for time to give back to Michele for all it took from her.

Timeless is truly a timeless tale which Alexandra Monir vividly brings to life two different times and a connection that can't be denied.  This is a book which doesn't bring today's fads into the forefront making it a fabulous read now and twenty years from now.  Only time will tell what the rest of Michele's story and the story of the Windsors and the Walkers truly ends up being, after all the last page To Be Continued.

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