Published: January 2nd 2018 by HarperTeen
In the kingdom of Sempera, time is currency—extracted from blood, bound to iron, and consumed to add time to one’s own lifespan. The rich aristocracy, like the Gerlings, tax the poor to the hilt, extending their own lives by centuries.
No one resents the Gerlings more than Jules Ember. 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. 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.
But going back to Everless brings more danger—and temptation—than Jules could have ever imagined. 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. Her decisions have the power to change her fate—and the fate of time itself.
I was extremely excited when I got my hands on this book. I loved the premise of this book and I was excited to see that other people had loved it as well. However, this book just didn’t live up to the hype for me. I was expecting something more than what I was given and I was left feeling relatively disappointed.
This book was extremely slow. I felt like it plodded along at a glacial pace and nothing seemed to be happening at all. Various things that were revealed as the book continued didn’t all come together until the last sort of 100 pages and I felt like things could have happened before this point to really help kick start this book. I had already guessed what was going to happen and who Jules was, so the ending wasn’t all that shocking for me either. There was one aspect of the ending that I wasn’t expecting and it didn’t really affect me in the way that it was probably supposed to because I had never felt a connection to that particular story plot (Don’t want to give away too many spoilers).
The whole thing felt extremely repetitive. Jules was doing things that a normal castle worker/person in her job would be doing and she was constantly getting angry at things that she was making no attempts to change. I felt like it was on a bit of a loop and it started getting old relatively quickly. I struggled to connect with her because I found her to be whiny and annoying – so I didn’t really care about what was going to happen to her.
There was one aspect of the book that didn’t make sense wen it tied into the ending. A good portion of the book is spent with Jules fawning over someone she can’t have but has been attracted to since they were children – basically written in a way that she was in love with him. So when the ending went down in the way that it did, I was extremely confused because it went against everything else that happened within the book and the other character relationships etc. It felt a bit whimsical and fickle in a sense.
I was drawn to Liam, more than his brother, from the beginning of the book. I have a thing for dark, broody characters (apparently there is something wrong with me?) and I didn’t really care for his more light hearted brother – who I felt that we were supposed like. I had guessed what Liam had done relatively early on, so when it was revealed at the end, it also didn’t surprise me as it probably should have done.
All in all, I found this book to be a bit predictable and slow – I was expecting better based off of the hype. I loved the premise and the idea behind blood being tied to time, but I really wish that something more had happened. I gave this book 2.5/5stars
Lauren's Page Turners 