Endless by Amanda Gray Blog Tour-Review

ENDLESS by Amanda Gray

Publication date: September 10, 2013

Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.

ISBN-13: 978-0-9883409-5-4

ISBN eBook: 978-1-939765-76-5

IN A RACE AGAINST TIME, HOW DO YOU KEEP THOSE YOU LOVE SAFE? 

Jenny Kramer knows she isn’t normal. After all, not everybody can see the past lives of people around them. When she befriends Ben Daulton, resident new boy, the pair stumbles on an old music box with instructions for “mesmerization” and discover they may have more in common than they thought.

Like a past life.

Using the instructions in the music box, Ben and Jenny share a dream that transports them to Romanov Russia and leads them to believe they have been there together before. But they weren’t alone. Nikolai, the mysterious young man Jenny has been seeing in her own dreams was there, too. When Nikolai appears next door, Jenny is forced to acknowledge that he has traveled through time and space to find her. Doing so means he has defied the laws of time, and the Order, an ominous organization tasked with keeping people in the correct time, is determined to send him back. While Ben, Jenny and Nikolai race against the clock -- and the Order -- the trio discovers a link that joins them in life -- and beyond death.

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Jennifer's Review:

Endless is a fantasy/sci-fi/romance book with a theme of "Soulmates will always find each other". Really, what's not to like about that?

Jenny's life was pretty normal in some aspects: she worked, she painted, BUT the one not normal thing is that when she touches people she gets visions -- so she tries to not touch people and wears cute lil fingerless gloves. This also leads her to not have many friends - through working at the bookstore she becomes friends with Tiffany. One night while out with Tiffany, she is peer pressured by a couple of acquaintances to partake in the calling to any "ghosts" or supernatural beings through the use of a Ouija board. Well if Jenny thought touching people and getting visions was wild -- now she's really opened the door to the other side and everything really starts to change.

It starts with the dreams --she alludes to having weird dreams her whole life, but the Ouija really opens up the "gates" (so to speak). During her sleep, Jenny dreams of a whole different life and time. Of a girl named Maria, a boy named Nikolai, a sister, and incredible danger for both the two of them and the rest of Maria's family.

Jenny meets Ben, who at first encounter is that he is a pretty angry guy (a "jerk). He is the son of one of her architect father's customers. While Jenny is exploring the house to help her Dad with measurements she comes across Ben in the attic and one thing leads to another and her & Ben find a mysterious music box. Of course they have to play with it and the box shows that they have something major in common and well you have to read the book....

Nikolai appears and slowly the truth begins to unravel before Jenny's eyes that she is most definitely not crazy. And while it seems that they are all safe (and that there is going to be an immediate "happily ever after"), as you progress in the story you find out that they are not safe and have some major obstacles to overcome. Nikolai made a vow to Maria that brings him to Jenny in this life and he will do anything to keep this vow and keep her safe.

Initially I thought the relationship between Nikolai and Jenny felt "rushed" or not real (Also I must disclose that I was really rooting for Ben) but as the story continued slowly I started to feel their connection and understood how Jenny was drawn to Nikolai. I will say the author could of put a little more into the initial dreams Jenny has to make the reader identify with their connection sooner as I felt it came across slowly and almost too late for me. So if you are not ok with a slow start this may not be the book for you.

I really liked Ben and I kept hoping they would get together. I never saw the book as a love triangle (thank goodness because I don't like love triangles) and I'm glad that Amanda kept Jenny's character on a pure friend basis with Ben (Jenny most definitely did not lead on Ben in my opinion) since that's where it ended up. I would not have wanted to see Ben's character led on. Perhaps Amanda could do a companion novel that takes Ben's character further and finds him a love interest as I really enjoyed his character and I can see Ben and Jenny becoming better friends and her totally pushing for him to a solid romantic relationship. 

The parts of this book that were really good:  Romanov history, Jenny and Tiffany friendship -- it felt real, something hard to do in books, and Ben's character - yep I really liked him :-)

The one major issue that I have is that I hope it's the start of a series because the way it left off is not ok if this is just one book. If it's part of a series then I can come to terms with the ending. I did some searching on the Internet and could not find the answer to this major question :-)

ABOUT AMANDA GRAY:

Amanda Gray believes in magic and fantasy and possibilities. She is a team of two bestselling authors who live only miles apart but have never met in person. They talk on the phone and are the best of friends and between them have written more than a dozen novels and novellas and have had their work appear on television.

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