I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review.

I usually get interested in a book based on it’s cover. This is what drew me to this book at first. After starting the book the writing and plot kept me interested. Emma, a fifteen year old girl, born to a high class family in 1895 and Sonnet, a fifteen year old girl visiting cousins in 2015, are about to share a life changing experience. After accidentally swapping places and times periods, the girls are forced to live each other’s life for fear of being found out, and will find help in the most unexpected of people, coming to discover a great about themselves and each other in the process. The story was such a great read and it was so hard to put the book down. I finished this book so quickly because it was so good. The characters and the writing style were pretty simple, making it such a quick read. I do however, think that this book was geared towards people who are a little younger than I think is intended.

I received an ARC copy from netgalley for my honest review, so thank you netgalley and publishers for offering me this book! ♡
The cover and title is what originally drew me to this book.
Could she be everything you aren't, but somehow—still be you?
It’s the year 2015 and Sonnet McKay is the daughter of a globe-trotting diplomat, home for the summer from her exotic life. Everything would be perfect if not for her stunning sister, whose bright star has left her in the shadows. In 1895, Emma Sweetwine is trapped in a Victorian mansion, dreaming of wings to fly her far from her mother, who gives her love to her sons, leaving nothing for her daughter. Fate puts them in the same house at the same moment, 120 years apart, and the identical fifteen-year-olds are switched in time. In their new worlds, Sonnet falls in love with a boy, Emma falls in love with a life, and astonishing family secrets are revealed. Torn, both girls want to still go home— but can either one give up what they now have?
But Not Forever is an enchanting story of love and longing, and the heart's ultimate quest to find where it belongs.
This was my first book by this author. It was alltogether an easy read. ♡ I give this book a
4.5 star rating!

Emma, a fifteen year old girl, born to a high class family in 1895 and Sonnet, a fifteen year old girl visiting cousins in 2015, are about to share a life changing experience. After accidentally swapping places and times periods, the girls are forced to live each other’s life for fear of being found out, and will find help in the most unexpected of people, coming to discover a great about themselves and each other in the process.

Overall I enjoyed this story; experiencing two different time periods, unravelling the family dynamics, exploring the doppelganger idea, it was definitely an easy flowing fun story to sink into.

Let’s start by looking at what made the book really good:

The Doppelganger Theme
I have a love hate relationship with time travel stories. Occasionally, you strike gold on a story like Deja Vu or Back To The Future. But more often then not the writers go so far into ‘specifics’ that the plot holes drag the story down before it’s even gotten started. What was nice about But Not Forever was the refreshing take on two identical girls of the same age switching places with each other. And not because one of them unlocked a time machine, or they partnered up with a Time Lord, just because the universe wanted to play a game! The author built on this by exploring the Loken family and their parts in the story and it was a really enjoyable aspect to the tale!

The Family Dynamics
Between the two girls, I found myself instinctively more interested in Emma’s character. A girl starved of parental affection, who searches for it in this new time period. The scenes between her and Aunt Kate were beautifully captured and made her character so much more relatable and admirable!

Exploring The New World
It’s always fun reading about a character who is out of their element and discovering the world around them, and that was the case with Emma and Sonnet as they explored their new time periods. Actually, I thought the author could have spent more time showing them 'learning the ropes', as what we did see had me yearning for more!

And now a few unfortunate things that did jar with me (warning, there are a few spoilers here):

Everyone Takes To Time Travelling Far Too Well
At first it’s the teenagers in 2015, who are very quick to go from, ‘Hey, Sonnet, what’s up with you?’ to ‘Oh, you’re not really our sister, just some girl from 1895 who looks EXACTLY like her. This couldn’t possibly be a prank.’ This did irk me, and if it had of been just the people in 2015 who acted this way, I might have been able to brush it off. However, in 1895 there’s at LEAST 4 people who just accept that Sonnet is a time traveler. Having so many people become aware of the switch and not one of them doubt it, felt very disconcerting! Especially on Sonnet’s side. It doesn’t take her that much effort at all to convince everyone she is who she says she is. (I actually expected Tor to be more antagonistic when he found out the truth. If he had have reacted the way most men of that era would have and thought Sonnet fit for an asylum, his character could have been played out far more interestingly. Which brings me neatly to…)

Tor
This guy. Umm… what’s this guy’s deal? I seriously expected him to end up being an antagonist, or maybe an anti hero. Nope, he’s just a guy in love with a girl who has no problem kissing another girl (multiple times) that looks just like his love interest. I couldn’t wrap my head around him being a ‘nice guy’, after doing stuff like that.

A fun, lighthearted adventure story, the perfect companion for a summer day out!

My thanks to NetGalley and SparkPress for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

'But Not Forever' was a quick read about two doppelgängers living a century apart--Emma, living in 1865 and Sonnet, living in 2015--and how their time lines cross and they become friends. The time travel plot is relatively simple since no one around the girls really questions it and there are a few facts that aren't checked by the author, but I don't believe in taking these things too seriously. Both girls must navigate the others' situations in time while dealing with family, friends, and relationships. Of course, the struggle is real and they both learn about each other and themselves as they struggle to return home.

The biggest thing I did not like about this book was how the POV's between the girls switched between first and third person. This drove me crazy! I would have really liked one consistent POV! My favorite thing was all the time travel and how books like this one make you think about the impact that your actions have on everyone and every thing around you.

While this book is definitely not the best book in the world, it's such a fun read. I really enjoyed reading But Not Forever and finished it in two days. It was an easy, enjoyable book that reminded me a lot of Caroline B. Cooney''s series The Time Travelers which I read when I was younger.

This book follows two girls named Emma, who's from 1895 and Sonnet, who's from 2015 as they switch places in time. Emma is thrust into the present and Sonnet is thrust into the past. It was really interesting watching as the two struggled to get back to their own time, while also dealing with the problems of living in another time and another person's life.

While none of the characters really stuck out to me as being fantastic, I loved the plot of this book. It was fun to think about what I would do if I was in Sonnet's situation and who would help the "other" me. I loved watching the challenges they faced and seeing different aspects of their lives. I also think everything wrapped up in a way that was satisfying and that I was happy about.

While I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone or at any time, I think for the target age group it would be a hit and inspire many good memories and daydreams. And, in a way, isn't that a mark of a good book?

This was by far more interesting than I thought it would be. It started off fair, but it kept getting better as I got into it.

Okay, let’s be honest here. This book is pretty cool. It has time-travel, it has doppelgangers, it has familial history that winds in many different ways, all against the beautiful backdrop of the Pacific Northwest. What more could you want in a book, really? I’m about to lay out a bunch of reasons why maybe you wouldn’t consider reading this book, but the truth is, they don’t add up to all that much. At the end of the day, I liked this book a lot, but you know, what’s a review for a publisher without pointing out a few things that maybe don’t work?

But Not Forever is about two identical girls who switch places in time (but not space) and end up having to live out each other’s lives and relationships, all without letting suspicion arise to those but a select few around them. They also have to do it without any communication with each other, or really any knowledge about what happened in the first place or how to return home. Emma and Sonnet are basically the same person, but in two separate time periods 120 years apart. Both girls are thrust into worlds nothing like their own and struggle adjusting to them – Sonnet without the luxuries and freedoms of the modern period, and Emma surrounded by new-fangled inventions and slang that doesn’t make any sense. Both girls are pretty solid characters, with mistakes and flaws and lovable sides. Sonnet is your typical modern-day fifteen-year-old, madly developing crushes on first sight and wishing she wasn’t spending her life in her sister’s shadow. Emma struggles with not being loved by her own mother and living in a world that she doesn’t feel welcomed into, yet being forced to take part by virtue of her gender, birth, and societal expectations. Rounding out with supportive supporting characters, we are faced with an ensemble adventure mix-up where the two main characters can’t ever meet – for fear of death, paradox, or something equally as dramatic.

The first thing of note for this pretty cool plotline however is that nobody seems to question the time-travel business. I mean okay, Sonnet is from 2015, a pretty modern time period where time travel is, while perhaps not necessarily commonplace, at least known about. But 1895? I mean sure, H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine was published in the same year, but I don’t expect Emma or Kerry or anyone in that timeline to have read it. Or even to be interested in reading it. Just the very fact that Kerry hardly even blinked when Sonnet claimed she wasn’t Emma was a little far-fetched. Even the adults that helped the group didn’t even question it – from either time period. You can’t tell me that any reasonable adult wouldn’t slightly be concerned when a bunch of random kids claimed their friend was unwillingly snatched in time – especially when equally confronted with someone who looks an awful lot like them right in front of you. Especially Sonnet in 1895 – no questions of insanity? At all? It doesn’t exactly make any historical sense.

First let’s have Tor, Emma’s betrothed, who jumps from being in love with Emma to being in love with Sonnet faster than you can say “Victorian”.That’s another issue I have with this story as well – Emma is so hopelessly in love with this guy, a guy who can’t even stay faithful to his girl through one teeny body-switching fiasco. It’s hard to believe he “needs time” to adjust to Sonnet’s reveal when he’s already cuddling up to her. The second Emma was gone and Sonnet was in her place he proposed to her, as if all he wanted was a wife and didn’t care what she was like on the inside. All I can say is tread carefully, Emma. The one part about Tor I did like was his immigrant backstory from Sweden to America. That gave him a little bit of redeemable depth that I wasn’t expecting but certainly welcomed.

I do feel bad for Sonnet though. It’s one thing for Emma to jump forward and have nearly everything she grew up with simply upgraded and automatic, but for Sonnet to jump back and have everything she knows resemble a rudimentary version of itself has got to be difficult. It took one utterance of the phrase “makeshift toilet squatting in the middle of the room” to realise that Sonnet definitely got the short end of the stick. This is not a criticism persay, just an observance that Sonnet deserves a little more brownie points. But Emma did struggle too. I found it a bit mean when Sonnet’s family criticised Emma for acting the way she did around Aunt Kate and the rest of the unknowing family. They don’t know anything about her, her upbringing, or her relationships with others. She has an abusive mother – more on that later – so yeah, of course she’s going to get emotional when Sonnet’s aunt treats and loves her like one of her own.

Okay, so Emma’s “mother”. Having since read the whole novel, I kind of feel like it was a bit obvious from the beginning that something was up. I mean sure, girls always get the short end of the stick in history so it didn’t seem too far-fetched that her mother would like her sons more than her daughter. That’s the way people tended to think. But after awhile, it became pretty clear that something more had to be occurring. I mean, she was cruel. She was abusive. To be quite honest, even though I know women are just as capable of being the abuser in a relationship just as much as men, I found it terribly hard to believe that she just downright hated her own daughter. So of course, it is revealed that Emma is not actually her real daughter after all, but her niece from her husband’s previous marriage to her sister. I can’t believe I didn’t call it until right before that was revealed, because like I mentioned, duh? Her actions still seemed a little intense – I feel that it would have made more sense if Emma was the offspring of her father and perhaps a mistress, instead of a previous marriage. But I guess if Emma’s “mother” hated her sister that much, it could make sense.

The time-travel part, while obviously being a major part of the story, did seem a little weak. Besides the whole “oh time travel oh yeah totally believable” thing that was going on, it wasn’t entirely complex or interesting. It took them ages to figure out how to get the girls to switch again, and in the end, it wasn’t that complicated of a task. Just get them to inhabit the same space again. I guess there’s also the additional detail of a deadline, before either girl goes back home/to boarding school, but that urgency wasn’t exactly there, just as an additional fact. It’s because of this that it feels more like a middle-grade book instead of purely a YA. YA books are so much more complicated these days that it makes this one feel a bit juvenile. And especially the instalove – the instalove! The word love is thrown around like no tomorrow. Did Sonnet actually love Tor? “Yeah, I did love him.” Sure you did, girl. It was a full two weeks, after all. I didn’t even realise until later on that Rapp had only met the group just before the incident – like, the night before. And the next day, Sonnet disappears. For like two weeks. But the moment she gets back, it’s as if she’s “reunited” with Rapp and they’re looking forward to the next summer with each other. After knowing each other for like, a collective 24 hours. But anyway.

The best part of the novel is definitely the little twist at the end where Sonnet (and Evan and Jules) are Kerry’s ancestors. I really wish this had played out or was hinted at sooner. The moment their grandfather mentioned that his grandmother came from Ireland to America alone and her name was Katherine, I knew. I mean, I guess maybe it was hinted at when Sonnet told Kerry to find her relatives in Seattle. But perhaps not enough? Also, it makes it a little difficult for me to then determine the relationship between Kerry and Emma – so Kerry is Sonnet’s great-great grandmother, but Emma is also the doppelganger/different life version of Sonnet? I would have assumed that Emma was the ancestor and Sonnet was her reincarnation. And the part about Tor and Rapp being related was also a neat little detail, especially since it gave Rapp a little more purpose to being there. So Emma + Tor = Sonnet + Rapp, but also Kerry is Sonnet’s ancestor. So Emma is the previous life version of Kerry’s great-great granddaughter? Maybe I’m looking too far into this. Also, if Emma and Sonnet are long-lost, separated by time and space, twins, what does that mean for Evan? Sonnet's real twin in 2015? Where's his historical doppelganger? Anyway, the letter that Kerry left for Sonnet was a nice touch. It reminded me a lot of that Doctor Who episode with the Weeping Angels – Blink. Which kind of matched the aesthetic vibes I was getting from the book.

Okay, so even though I’ve laid out a lot of problems and holes I found in this more than the things I loved, I did like it. But you can’t really read into it a terrible amount, or you might end up despising it when it really doesn’t deserve that. Is this book terribly deep and complicated? Not really. It is a fun little time-travel adventure that has a definite beginning, end, and happy resolution? Yes. Is it a little hidden gem that you should still give a chance? I would say so. I almost looked past this book entirely because frankly, the cover isn’t that appealing and neither is the title. They’re a bit boring to be honest, and definitely don’t scream “time-travel adventure”. If anything, they point to a fun little moody contemporary love story, which this really isn’t. At the end of the day though, it’s a bit of an under-the-radar problem/resolution time-travel kind of story, and I didn’t regret reading it at all. And for a debut novel, it’s pretty good.

But Not Forever just didn't do it for me. I really struggled to understand the target audience -- the characters are all teens, but the writing style, story logic, and dialogue was far more suitable to a middle grade audience. I think this would have been a better story if all the characters had been around 12 years old and there had not been any real romance involved.

Thank you to NetGalley and SparkPress for providing me with a free electronic ARC of this book.

I will be honest and say that I Did Not Finish. I tried a number of times to read this book, as I really liked the premise, but I found the language to be too flowery and full of too many metaphors and the like. It felt like every line needed to be more descriptive than the last, and I thought it would work better a little more paired back. But that's just my opinion!

Rating: 3.25 stars

Initially, I thought I wasn't going to like this book at all. The first chapter jumped right into the story with little background and the switch between Sonnet's first person POV and Emma's third person POV was frustrating. However, the story turned out to be enjoyable enough.

The biggest problem I had with this book was that everyone, whether in 1895 or 2015, was quickly and completely open to accepting the fact that these two girls had time traveled into each others' worlds. There was little questioning about it all, especially with Emma in 2015. If my sister came out of a closet claiming to be another person from 120 years in the past, I'd roll my eyes and tell her to come up with a better prank. But everyone just accepts it like it's the norm when Emma and Sonnet "switch places".

Another issue I had with this, albeit small, was that there were some discrepancies with the time line. I knew this would be an issue as soon as I read that one of the settings is in 1895. I've found more often than not that authors do not always do the proper research to make a setting this far back believable. For instance, though this is small, Sonnet eats cotton candy at a fair in 1895, but cotton candy wasn't actually invented until 1897, and was not released to a larger public until a fair in 1904. Now I know this isn't just common knowledge, but it's easily accessible information that the author didn't look into. I also found that some of the dialect spoken in the 1895 setting didn't feel quite right for that time period.

Now, let's talk about the good things! This was a fairly quick read and once you get past the fact that everyone is just okay with two girls casually time traveling, the story pulls you in. I found that I was genuinely curious about how Emma and Sonnet were each going to get back home. I preferred to read about Sonnet in 1895, as this was just the more interesting POV between the two, but I didn't mind Emma's. The mix of the two made for a cute, magical realism type of story.

My favorite thing about this was that it really gets you thinking about how the past and the future are connected. The book discusses reincarnation and doppelgangers and I actually really loved that. I always love getting into something that reminds me that our present - and future - is built up by the tiniest moments and decisions in the past, even before we are born. These kind of stories are just really intriguing. I liked the way that the author decided to connect everything towards the end of the story, but I do think that it should've been done a little more carefully, since our past is not altered by our future as this kind of indicated, but instead the other way around.

Overall, this was something nice to really get you thinking about some things you might not always have on your mind, and the story is compelling enough to keep it interesting. I'm not disappointed.

Thank you Net galley for the ARC.
I will be honest, this isn't my cup of tea. I'm not a big romance person (I'm super cynical) so reading a cute and touching romance didn't capture my attention.
If you are in to time travel and romance, this is def the book for you though

I really enjoyed reading this book. We have two main characters, Sonnet and Emma. Emma lives in the year 1895 and Sonnet in the year 2015. In a crazy coincidence of fate, they switch places in time. Sonnet and Emma are Doppelgängers, and when they switch, it takes some time to find help in order to get back to their own times. The characters in this story are well written, the romance is present and it is sweet. The story has enough twists to make the plot interesting and the ending of the book was well done!

https://booksensationlife.wordpress.com/2018/05/23/but-not-forever/

The plot of a time-traveling-romance is what initially drew me to the book in the first place. That's my favorite genre to read, because I just love the idea of a couple who's not supposed to meet (because they're from different eras) do and fall in love. And this book is going to be in my top 5 of that genre.

I thought the first person narrative from Sonnet and the third person narrative from Emma worked well. It gives the readers a good look at the late 19th century, and an interesting look at how Emma sees our present.

I enjoyed the slight spookyness of the Sweetwine's house in 2015. Part of me expected a ghost to float in, not a living person to emerge. The other settings...the rich descriptions made me feel I was actually there.

I love that the story continues on even after Sonnet and Emma switch back to their respective times and learning how their lives still lie into one another's (no spoilers here). It was surprising and interesting and made me smile.

For fans of teen romance, or time travel, or both, this book is a must. You will not be disappointed.

A very intriguing storyline Two teenage girls have their lives forever changed on afternoon during a thunderstorm.

Sonnet in 2015 and Emma in 1895. Sonnet is investigating an old mansion and hides in a closet to scare her cousins when the wind slams the door shut and the space inside the closet changes and the floor gives way.

Emma is in her room making a space for a large doll in her closet when the wind slams her closet door shut
and the walls of the closet give way.

When Sonnet wakes up she is in 1895 (Emma's time period) and Emma wakes up in 2015 (Sonnet's time period).

The closet acts as a time portal and causes the girls to switch places as they look alike..

Sonnet finds it hard to be Emma with all the restrictions and expectations of a young lady.
Emma finds the modern world fascinating as everything is much more relaxed.

They both encounter people who enable them to try and switch back, The must do so in a hurry as Emma (Sonnet) is due to be shipped off to boarding school.

They must wait for the right circumstances to occur (a thunderstorm) in order to be switched back. As the switch happens they glimpse each other.

Each of them has changed since the first switch occurred Sonnet learns about her ancestors and Emma gets a chance to choose what she wants in life.

A very fascinating book.

A cute time travel book with a nice cute romance with distinct and realistic characters that makes for an interesting and exciting read. This book kept me so interested I couldn't put it down and ended up staying up late to read it. Overall I would highly recommend it!

A time traveling twist sets up a parallel story that manages to interweave the past and present together to give us a cute ya read.

“But Not Forever” begins in 2015 with Sonnet and her family investigating an abandoned mansion when she finds herself in a daze and trapped in the closet only to be pulled out by an unknown woman calling her by a different name. On the opposite side of the same coin we have Emma, a young woman in 1895 struggling with an abusive mother and a secret love who finds herself stumbling in and out of the same closet only to the company of strangers. As both girls try to navigate their unique situation the struggle to come to terms with the differences in both of their lives while also doing everything they can to make it home.

This book is sweet and I know there’s supposed to be a romance element at play but it’s so minimal, at least to me, that I sort of brushed past it in order to focus on the bigger theme of these two young women from very different upbringings and societal constraints of the time in which they live coming into their own and growing as individuals. We have a girl who is starved for affection that she welcomes the tiny moments with the Aunt of the girl she’s pretending to be and the shy Sonnet is making waves in a time where women were supposed to be seen and not heard and that was wonderful to see.

My biggest critique and I know this is a personal thing and reality is no excuse for fiction but so many people were told of this time travel switch and not one person questioned it. Not one person. In a time when women were sent to asylums for the slightest thing we somehow manage to convince a large amount of people from the beginning that the girl they believe is Emma is actually another girl from the future and no one bats an eye.

All in all this is more of a personal growth type plot with the addition of time travel to really convey the push and pull of certain constraints on both women as they become the person they were always supposed to be with the help of family and friends who have always known how great they were and that makes for a good story.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!**