Review: Timeless by Alexandra Monir

Timeless
Author: Alexandra Monir
Publication: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (January 11, 2011)


Description: 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.



My Thoughts: I just finished Timeless and I am still wiping the tears from my eyes. This was a fascinating and emotionally wrenching page-turner. It starts with tragedy. Michele is sent to live with the grandparents she never knew after the sudden tragic death of her mother. Once in New York and in a lifestyle that she could hardly believe was real, she is further knocked off balance by traveling in time and meeting and falling in love with the boy she has dreamed about for years. 


I liked the romance but it was heart-breaking. Falling in love with someone from a different time can't have a good ending. As Michele moves back and forth in time she meets a number of her female relatives who all have shared her new bedroom. She learns about them and, as a result of her visits, change their lives and has her life changed too. I loved the descriptions of New York through the various times and all the gorgeous houses. 


I liked how Michele's relationship with her grandparents changes through the course of the book. I liked how strangers could gradually become a family. I liked how Michele's travels in time gave her a new insight into her grandfather. I liked Michele's relationship with her new friends in New York. But I wish that more of the story would have been devoted to her 20th Century life. It sometimes just seemed like filler between her trips to the past.


I don't want to spoil the book for anyone but I had some serious reservations about the end of the story. I do very much look forward to the sequel and hope that my reservations are unfounded. The book does end with some questions unanswered and some topics unexplored. It might, in some senses, be considered a cliffhanger ending. 


I was interested to read that Alexandra Monir had compiled a song list for the novel. Given my age, I was familiar with most of the older songs. I think that the music, which plays a big part in the novel, adds a richness to the whole story.


I recommend this book to young adults who love romance and who also love sad stories. I know my students will love it.


Favorite Quote:

In the most terrifying motion Michele had ever experienced, the diary seemed to pull her into its binding, and she found herself falling headfirst into an abyss of pages. She screamed at the top of her lungs, her stomach swooping sickeningly, as though she were on an upside-down roller coaster.

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