Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness

Thank you Viking Books for my free copy! All opinions are my own. 

Did you read the All Soul's Trilogy by Deborah Harkness and immediately wish there was more to the story? I think most of the time I feel like that after immersing myself in a series. The setting and characters become almost like family and if its well written, you just really don't want to say goodbye when its over. When I finished the last book of the All Soul's Trilogy, The Book of Life, I was sad and also a little disappointed. The third book wasn't my favorite but I loved Diana and Matthew regardless. Book two, Shadow of Night, where both characters time travel to Elizabethan London was my favorite of the series. 

So you can imagine my absolute delight when I started Time's Convert and realized we were going to travel back in time with Marcus (through his memories), to the Revolutionary War. I love historical fiction and whenever a bit of history or time traveling is involved in a story that I'm not expecting, it makes me really happy. What I loved about Time's Convert was the character development, specifically to Marcus and Phoebe. I'm glad Diana and Matthew were given large parts in this story as well, because I would have missed them too much otherwise. 

What I found different about this story from the All Soul's Trilogy was the lack of excitement and energy. In the present day story line, not much was happening. Phoebe and Diana spent a lot of those chapters learning and growing as members of the De Clermont family. Marcus shared his past and the path his growth as a new vampire took. Both storylines, to me, were equally interesting and insightful. There just wasn't an exciting conflict happening along the way to keep the pace of the story moving. This almost felt like a bridge between The All Soul's Trilogy and perhaps a new series Harkness is thinking up. As a reader, I hope that the knowledge I gained regarding becoming a Vampire as well as getting to know Marcus and Phoebe on a deeper level will be useful in the future. 

All in all, I loved this story. Revisiting a family of characters I hadn't spent time with in so long was such a treat!