Monday, February 27, 2012

The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams

Release Date: 1st March, 2012

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 256pgs

The Story

After spending six hundred years on Earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world's riches but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to take the bodies of other humans from jumping from one vessel to the next, ending the human's life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she's done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again.

Then sixteen-year-old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body while trying to save her. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she's inhabiting - and falling in love with the boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she's his again, and every moment she stays, she's putting herself and the people she's grown to care about in danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that's eluded her for centuries: true love?

The Review

A big thanks to Caroline from Simon & Schuster Australia for sending me a review copy of this book!

Whenever I hear the word reincarnation I tend to be put off from a book straight away. It's not as if I hate the reincarnation element because I absolutely love the idea of true love spreading across thousands of years and witnessing those two lovers reunite into the modern day, but to me it's more about how many books are written about reincarnation (such as Alyson Noel's Immortal series and Lauren Kate's Fallen series) and how so many of them haven't been so swoon-worthy or amazing . . . however in THE ALCHEMY OF FOREVER I was extremely impressed and as an end result, I have to say this book was probably my favourite reincarnation story so far! It was short. It was sweet. It was captivating. It was . . . awesome.

Seraphina Ames has walked the streets for over 600 years. At a young and vulnerable age, she had her life in the hands of the handsome and alluring Cyrus and he alone turned her into an Incarnate - a person whom remains young and lives forever all because of darkest secrets and magic of alchemy. But in order to remain immortal, every so often these group of Incarnates must switch bodies with another human being, while their previous body turns into ashes. For Seraphina, after all these years of changing hosts and living through many identities, she wants nothing more than to rid herself of the burden of taking so many innocent lives and to escape the possessive clutches of Cyrus . . . but it's easier said than done. And suddenly, when she finds her chance to be rewarded her freedom of death . . . everything changes when she 'accidentally' claims the body of another host and must soon take on this new identity of a mere stranger. With a loving family, a protective brother, different sorts of friends, and a new love interest found in the boy-next-door, this book will surely keep you there til the final pages.

One thing I enjoyed most about THE ALCHEMY OF FOREVER was how fast-paced and well-written it was. It's very rare where I find myself reading short-length books, but in this case I should probably read more often. For this book in particular, writing-wise it was excellent, story-wise it was entertaining, and character-wise it was bloody brilliant! The writing wasn't overloading your mind with character histories and considering most reincarnation books tend to go overboard with their character histories and the days of switching back and forth from past to present, I'm thankful that this book slowed down in that. Same goes with the storyline - it may have flew by very quickly with the events that occured, but there was never a dull moment in them. Even the characters had their own individual personalities and it was easy to identify with them on a personal level . . . so a big well done to the author!

Thinking back to reading this book, there's hardly anything bad I would have to say in regards to this book, except for that damn ending of William's, the romance section, and the book's length! Regarding the ending, while I'd already expected something of a terrible cliffhanger to happen and 'kind of' saw it coming my way, but I was still shocked by it and I have no idea which direction the author will take us to next in the sequel because it was definitely a whoa moment for me. As for the romance parts, while it was all cutesy love and you can't help but loving those cutesy moments, but I was hoping for a little bit more developed evolving between Seraphina and her new leading man, but I'm sure this will be resolved in book two . . . at least I hope so since the ending ruined all that relationship to hell. Sorry guys, I can't tell you anything even though I'm dying to! And last but not least we have the book's length . . . if only it was longer because now I'm deprived of William's crafty creation! Thanks a lot Ms. Awesome Author! I really need to get a life someday folks!

Overall, what a splendid debut novel coming from the very talented Avery Williams and I'll definitely be on the lookout for great things to come from her. She's an awesome writer! Along the same lines of L.J. Smith's The Secret Circle meets Rebecca Lim's Mercy series, and with a new breed of immortals and a new kind of love found in the most unexpected places, THE ALCHEMY OF FOREVER will surely please many of its readers and it's a MUST READ for all! I recommend it in a heartbeat!

The Rating

4 1/2 / 5 stars

17 comments:

  1. Oooh. This sounds great. I haven't found a book based on reincarnation that I've LOVED yet and this might be it! Thank god there was no character history overloading and the characters sound fun :D

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  2. I so understand your reservations about reincarnation in novels. I LOVE the concept so, so much but it's not always represented in a way that makes me gush like crazy about it. So I'm super excited to hear this impressed you!

    I just finished reading Article 5 (incredible, btw) and was contemplating whether to start this or Stolen Away. I do believe you have swayed my thoughts to Alchemy :D

    I've read a few mixed reviews, but the overall opinion so far has been 'enjoyable'. Your excitement though, makes me crazy eager to love this! Amazing review, Erin!

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    1. I'm getting Article 5 very soon. Can't wait to read it. Anyway there are mixed reviews and while it may not have been the best of the best, but overall it was such a great novel . . . even for short novel.

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  3. YES. THIS. EXACTLY THIS!

    I loved this book! <3 Reincarnation is definitely a hit or miss and Avery Williams took it to Level Awesome. I really hope there's an emphasis on the reincarnation in the next book. I thought the characters were really well-done too and OMG CHARACTER YOU-KNOW-WHO BETTER BE OKAY OR I SWEAR... Wow, that ending. I knew something like it had to be coming but I was still kind of stunned. Great review!

    Sonia

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    1. I hope there's more emphasis too. OMG YES! I hope YOU-KNOW-WHO is okay too! That was so cruel even though I kind of saw it coming. It was such a killer of an ending!!!!!

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  4. Ooh, your favourite reincarnation story so far? I'm definitely intrigued! I usually have reservations about reincarnation novels too, but I do like the sound of this one. And I'm really curious about this ending...:P. Great review, thanks! :)

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    1. The ending is cruel. That is all I'll say on the matter. ;)

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  5. Yay glad you enjoyed this book, I enjoyed it too. So this is your favorite reincarnation so far?:) me its the second, my first love was Anew. You might want to try it. Great review Erin.x

    LALAINE'S FICBOOKREVIEWS

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    1. I've never heard of that one but I'll definitely need to check it out.

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  6. I'm going to have to get myself a copy of this. I enjoy reading reincarnation books, but like you, I find them a little too similar. Elixir was good, but I didn't really like Devoted.

    Short books sound like a good idea too. Long books have been taking up too much of my reading time lately.

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    1. I was actually the opposite with Elixir. I thought the sequel was better but yes a lot of reincarnation books don't offer new things . . . so it was great to read this one . . . one that was different compared to many others.

      Haha I know what you mean! I get too many long books . . . at least short ones can be read within a couple of hours.

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  7. Oh my gosh, I agree with you completely about reincarnation! It's so easy to be a miss with this topic (I wasn't a big fan of The Immortals series or the Fallen series either), but The Alchemy of Forever was such a sweet book! And sometimes I prefer shorter books over longer books too, because they always seem to be more fast-paced than others. A novel doesn't need to be 600 pages to be made of awesome! ;)

    Amazing review, Erin! <3 You kind of want me to re-pick this one up... but I have a bunch of longer books on my shelf waiting to be read LOL! x)

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    1. Yes exactly! Don't worry you're not the only one. I have to finish this 900pg book and another long book . . . there needs to be more time in a day, right?

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  8. Oh, I AGREE! I thought the writing was beautiful... you know, it's interesting you mentioned it was fast paced. I was kind of struggling to get into it at first, and was thinking it was slow, but I don't think that's fair. The action is fast. So much happens, but Sera's so... introspective, it kind of gives it a... quietness of feeling, to me? I so agree with you, though! It's NEVER dull, and I LOVE the characters... even the 'evil' ones!

    Aaah! You're killing me! I haven't finished it yet, and I'm hearing so much about this cliffhanger! Eep! I'm nervous :S

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  9. Oh holly cow! the paperback of this book is coming out really soon! Im so gonna get it! thanks for the awesome reviewwwwww!! aaaaaaaah!! =D I havent picked this one yet cuz the rating in goodreads is a bit below 4 stars -_-... But you review totally convinced me to get it! thnx u my sweet!!

    have a wonderful weekend! muah!

    Dazzling Reads

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  10. I love this book too. I was so sad when it ended. It was so exciting and powerful. I hope what I (we) think happened to N didn't happen. I agreed with basically everything you said. This is my favorite debut i read this year so far.
    Fantastic review! :)

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