Review: A Time Apart

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Olivia Donnelly has spent her whole life obsessing about how she will die. When tragedy strikes, reality comes crashing down and she’s forced to confront her fears head on. Hoping that a move across the globe will help her to cope with a devastating loss, she arrives in Ireland a broken down shell of a woman looking for a second chance at life. Almost immediately Olivia is drawn to places she’s never been, and to a man that she’s never met. When she crosses paths with the mysterious and frustratingly private William Macauley, her life is thrown into turmoil unlike any she has ever known. The two couldn’t be more different – she’s human, he’s a vampire – but Olivia can’t get him out of her mind. Having acknowledged her overwhelming desire for William, now she must come to terms with how her feelings for him will greatly alter her future. Olivia’s understanding of life – and death – take on new meaning as she examines the truth of the person she once was, the woman she was born to be, and how William is the key to her everlasting happiness.

Genre: paranormal

Publication date: February 2015

Mature content: yes

Review: I had this book on my reading shelf for a long time, leftover from the days when there were new vampire romances coming out every month, and only after I read it and went in search for the sequel I found out that A Time Apart has been in the meantime republished under a different name (it is now called Resurrection).

I loved the idea behind the plot of A Time Apart, though I didn't care much about the way it is written. It's repetitive in places and the editing could also be improved - and hopefully it has in the new edition.

In A Time Apart there were also lots of small details that didn't make sense, like how Olivia would know that a hotel employee she's never met before was Yugoslavian (less the poor woman wore a tag with her nationality spelled out for all to see) or how she comes to the immediate conclusion that her horrible dreams are actually memories - given her own dark moods, I would assume she was going crazy and not remembering past lives instead. And when the story alternates between viewpoints, it's a repetition almost word by word of what we've read before - something I hear has also been improved in Resurrection. The concept of A Time Apart is interesting and original enough, but the way it is put into words is clearly not the best.

In any case I'm obviously the one to blame for not researching enough to find out there was a newer version, because I would have read that one instead. And I still may as, despite all the shortcomings of A Time Apart, I'm still a bit curious about the sequel, Redemption, which according to the author's website, is coming in 2018. If you love the genre and are intrigued by the story of A Time Apart like I was, please get the new and improved version, Resurrection.

Happy readings,