Scattered Souls

I'm even more confused than I was at the end of the first book! The first book implied one brother was good and the other bad, but in book two it's reversed. There are so many rules to the time travel and it seems Book 2 was all about trying to reverse the curse with no luck. This book ends at the beginning. And now I feel like I'm talking in riddles.

As much as this series is hard to keep up with, I'm totally enjoying the story. It's unpredictable and I just don't know how the author is going to fix everything. We end on another cliffhanger and I can't wait for book 3! ARC provided by NetGalley.

After a prologue to give some background information about what happened with Laith and Maddox in the past, chapter one starts off as a direct continuation of the first book. This made me wonder if this one would end in a cliffhanger as well and decide I was finished with the series if it did.

Questions of who Ava loves and which is the good brother get more complicated in this one, but we get a nice trek through history and even meet a famous person or two along the way.

I felt the twists and turns in the plot of this one were less believable than in the first book, but it kept my interest and I enjoyed the read, even if I did sometimes want to tell Ava not to do something stupid! We see different sides of both Laith and Maddox, which is where I had a little issue with consistency.

The historical aspects of the story fit well enough and while I'm not an expert on any of the periods we traveled through, they rang true. The convolutions of time travel worked well and I enjoyed learning more of the 'rules' that affect the twins as they move through time, though the source of the ability was magic rather than science.

I could see how this one needs to end, but the chance was missed to keep the story going through another crisis. It didn't actually end on a cliffhanger, but definitely set up for a next book. My only other complaints is that though sex wasn't actually graphic, it was a bit much for a YA book. Pre-teens read these after all.

A generally enjoyable time travel book, but I feel the plot has lost its way.

Scattered Souls is the second installment in the Flames of Time Series. It is highly recommended that readers interested in the book pick up the first book, Splintered Souls, before reading Scattered Souls because the book picks up right where the first book left off. Where Maddox was the primary focus of book one, Laith's side of the story is told here. Just when this love triangle begins to resolve itself, it winds up imploding at the end of the book, leading Ava to take a huge risk that results in her starting all the way back to where she was at the beginning of the series. Still not sure how I feel about the brothers essentially treating Ava like a piece of property. However, Ava starts to grow up a bit here and make her own decisions, which was a nice character development for her from the first book where she came across more as a young girl who is distracted by cute boys. More secrets and nuances regarding the time travel aspects of the series are revealed, which was something I was wanting to get more of after reading the first book, so thank you to the author for covering that. Overall, not a bad book. Very interested to see where the author goes from here.

Scattered Souls is the second book in the Flames of Time series by Erica Lucke Dean. The story revolves around a set of twin brothers who were cursed because their mother had gone to a witch to cast a spell on her unborn baby wishing it would always find it’s soul mate. With the brothers being twins instead of one child they are said to share a soul with both being connected to one girl’s soul all throughout time.

The story in Scattered Souls picks up right after the cliffhanger ending in the first book of the series with Maddox, Laith and Ava dealing with all being tied together due to the curse. Laith has taken Ava to the 1920’s to show her that he is not the bad brother and let her get to know him better. Meanwhile Maddox is stuck in the present not knowing where his brother has gone with Ava and vows to search for her across time until she is found.

Now I know that the Flames of Time series is not going to be for everyone with the insta-love and love triangle involved in the story but I have to say it’s got me quite hooked on the story and just what will happen with this trio. I’m not usually even a fan of a story with a love triangle involving siblings but with this relationship being based on a witch’s curse and the brothers traveling through time for hundreds of years to find their soulmate it didn’t take long to become engaged.

The writing in this series is absolutely wonderful so that certainly helped gain my interest in the series. It’s also full of twists and turns for the characters as the story goes along and while I found the character building good in the first book it got that much better in the second as I got to know them all a bit more. There was also a lot more time travel involved in the story in this second installment which made the story that much more intense and interesting.

Overall, great series so far and after another cliffhanger ending keeping me on the edge of my seat I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley.