In terms of the plot, I felt like there were a couple threads that got dropped, or else where I missed their connection to the larger story. I liked the other characters, though, from the stable hand Jules recognizes from her past to her best friend in the village even to Ina Gold. Yeah, okay, they were childhood playmates, but what’s admirable about him besides his good looks? I kind of kept waiting for the shoe to drop and for Jules to discover some deep fault in him. I wasn’t impressed with her infatuation with Rowan Gerling. And Jules is immediately a likeable character since what she wants most is to save the person dearest to her, at any cost to herself. This premise set up some interesting stakes straight from the opening of the story.

I love the concept of the story-the idea that time and blood are connected and you have the choice (or are pressed to) spend from your allotted lifespan to purchase things. Her decisions have the power to change her fate-and the fate of time itself. Soon she’s caught in a tangle of violent secrets and finds her heart torn between two people she thought she’d never see again. When Jules discovers that her father is dying, she knows that she must return to Everless to earn more time for him before she loses him forever.īut going back to Everless brings more danger-and temptation-than Jules could have ever imagined. A decade ago, she and her father were servants at Everless, the Gerlings’ palatial estate, until a fateful accident forced them to flee in the dead of night. No one resents the Gerlings more than Jules Ember. The rich aristocracy, like the Gerlings, tax the poor to the hilt, extending their own lives by centuries. In the kingdom of Sempera, time is currency-extracted from blood, bound to iron, and consumed to add time to one’s own lifespan. Published on JanuAmazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Sara holland