Growing up in the 1300s, Seraphina quickly falls in love with the alchemist’s son, Cyrus, who saves her life in the middle of a dark alley one night when ruffians try to attack her. The price? All of eternity.

Cyrus injects her with an elixir, granting her the power to switch bodies when the body she occupies nears death, guaranteeing a never-ending life. But its only in the twenty-first century, does Sera plot her plan to escape Cyrus’s clutches and free herself from taking other people’s lives to sustain her own.

But Sera is faced with a difficult choice when she tries to save a young teen, Kailey Morgan, from a fatal car crash and ends up stealing her body. But this time things are different; Sera hasn’t been a teenager since her own time, and is finding her heart warmed by her new family and the boy next door. But Sera is far from safe, even as Kailey, as Cyrus grows closer to finding her…

I received The Alchemy of Forever from my friend Chelsey, with whom I met up with very quickly on Saturday. I had baked her a batch of my sugar cookies and wanted to give her a book, and she gave me a copy of this, which I enjoyed reading on a dark and gloomy Sunday.

This was a nice quick and enjoyable read; there wasn’t too much depth, but I did enjoy what was there. Parts of this story reminded me of The Taker, which I LOVED, but obviously didn’t have the same nuance or depth. Sera is bound to Cyrus, even though she doesn’t love him, and this was somewhat similar to Lanny’s relationship with Adair. Both villains enjoy a sense of control over the heroine, and are successful in manipulating people.

I haven’t read many reincarnation stories, but did find this one not too complicated. I would have like some more depth from Sera, who has lived for several centuries, but she proves to be rather naive and ignorant, especially when she starts to pretend to be Kailey.

Something I found rather silly was how her family believed that Sera was actually Kailey. Sera has absolutely no knowledge about Kailey or her past, all she knows is what’s on her Facebook page and in her room. It might be easy to fool teachers at school or casual friends, but I had a hard time believing that her family wouldn’t find something suspicious in the sudden change in her personality, and also in the way she talks and acts. Every single person has a unique flavour, a certain way of talking and walking, and its very difficult to mimic this, especially with no previous study, so this was a bit unlikely to me.

The relationship between Sera and Cyrus was talked about, but there wasn’t too much interaction between them. I would have loved to see more about their relationship, and learn what led Sera to turn against him, especially since she was so besotted with him at first.

My biggest problem with this novel, though, was the ending. I understand that this probably part of a series, but that doesn’t excuse the completely open-ended ending that seemed cobbled together. It’s hinted that there is something unsavoury about why Kailey was where she was when she got into the car accident, yet this isn’t solved in this book. The villain somehow ‘magically’ disappears, with Sera doing absolutely nothing, which is just really strange. It’s obvious that he isn’t truly gone, but the way the book ends is abrupt and awkward. There is no sense of closure.

All in all, this was a quick read, and I don’t regret reading it. I wish the idea could have been executed well. I’ll probably read the sequel, if only to find the answers to the questions raised in this novel.

3/5.

Thanks for reading,

Ikhlas

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