Being a frequent reader of literary fiction— and being automatically approved for this title by the publisher! - I decided to preview it. Time travel to multiple eras, national conspiracies, family conflicts, and deep devotion… the book has it all, as promised- but needs a particularly dedicated type of reader to appreciate the involved story.

I was surprised to find out, after reading the forward, that this is the fifth book in a series. The title was not listed as such anywhere so I feel a bit misled. The sentence structure in the forward alone was almost unreadable, which concerned me given the title of the book. I ultimately couldn’t make it through this book because I couldn’t connect with the writing style. I didn’t want to post negative reviews on social media and marketplaces so I decided it was better to confine my thoughts here.

This is different than any other Larsen I've read, but I'm SO glad I read it. This was dark and inventive and I absolutely loved it.

Inventive, dark, thoughtful. Time travel, history, difficult family situation, young love, education, and above all, reading. Two young people, deeply in love, but separated by time and in an intolerable position.

This was a really well done novel, it had everything that I was hoping for from the description. The characters felt like real people and I enjoyed getting to read about them in this book. It had a great overall story and I’m glad I got to read this. Eric Larsen does a great job in writing this.