For all time is a captivating young adult contemporary romance that has all the elements to make your heart skip a beat. This book beautifully captures the essence of young love, friendship, and self-discovery, making it an irresistible read for fans of the genre. The pacing of "Title of the Book" is spot-on. It keeps you engaged from start to finish, with a perfect balance of romantic moments and plot development. While the book follows some familiar romance tropes, Miles adds a fresh and unique twist that keeps the story from feeling overly predictable. There are moments of tension, drama, and heartwarming sweetness that keep the reader hooked until the very end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

For All Time by Shanna Miles, 353 pages. Simon & Schuster, 2021. $20.
Language: R (75 swears, 1 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
The pandemic ruined Tamar’s lungs, and now she is dying with little chance of making it to high school graduation. Fayard doesn’t care how difficult it is to be with Tamar; he wants to be by her side, despite her walls. But this isn’t the first time Tamar and Fayard have lived out their tragic romance – and it won’t be the last.
Tamar and Fayard’s stories traverse time and space, putting them together in South Carolina, Mali, France, present, past, future, again and again. The reincarnation idea was fun and well organized; it flowed well despite the overlapping stories. The last few chapters got a little confusing, but Tamar and Fayard were also confused, so maybe that was on purpose. Overall, I actually like the suggestion Miles presents on how fate works and what it really means to love.
Tamar and her family are Black, and Fayard is implied Polynesian. Characters of various races and ethnicities are described throughout the book. The mature content rating is for mention of alcohol and drugs, illegal activity, innuendo, and mentions of brothels, attempted rape, nudity, and sex. The violence rating is for mentions of murder and suicide, child abuse, fistfighting, gun use, death, and fantasy violence.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

Unfortunately, I feel the premise outweighed the final product. However, I look forward to seeing the author's future books.

DNF @ 27%

I received an eARC from NetGalley for this book years ago and I've tried all that time to get into it, but the writing style is just too convoluted for me personally and I am SO confused, even this far in. There is so much going on at all points and it's very difficult to keep track of all the different timelines and people within them. It's just... a lot. And because of that, I'm finding it very difficult to connect to these characters that I know I should be connecting with. Ughhh.

I might pick it up someday on audio if ever available via my library, but I cannot do this one right now. I've been trying for yearsssss.

For All Time follows “ Tamar is a musician, a warrior, a survivor. Fayard? He’s a pioneer, a hustler, a hopeless romantic.”

Together they have lived a thousand lives. Having seen the world build itself up from nothing only to tear itself down in civil war, they have watched humanity take to the stars. But in each life one thing remains the same; their love and their fight to be together. Love story after love story. They never get to see how their story ends. Until now. When they finally discover what it will take to break the cycle. Will they be able to make the sacrifice? Or will the cycle continue?
I have a soft spot for books like this. I enjoy seeing people in different time periods, seeing them grow and change along with the world.
It is an original story, I have read a couple of things like this. You get different periods different points of view which, I have heard some readers say they find it a bit overwhelming, but I did not have any problems keeping up with what was going on. I enjoyed the writing style, Shanna Miles, does a great job of writing each scene as its own while still keeping the characters as who we know them but still true to each period.
A star-crossed lover story told throughout time with hard-hitting, raw characters who are constantly fighting for each other.

After spending more than a month just trudging through the first 70%, I don't personally think this book was for me.

To be honest, I really did not like it. The characters were underdeveloped and immature, the plot was confusing and just wildly insane, and the romance had absolutely zero chemistry. I just couldn't connect with anything, it was so so boring.

The different settings and time were kind of cool but I had no idea what was happening so !

Interesting idea, horrible execution

This book was unfortunately a miss for me. I DNFed it after 50 pages. Thank you for letting me read and review this book.

I am so disappointed in this read! I think its because I thought it was something that it actually wasn’t. My expectations were too high I think. The writing was good and the story wasn’t bad either. The story was good, but I was just expecting so much more. I really think this story could have been something special.

The disco ball twirled above their heads as they swayed to the music and relished the feel of standing in each other’s arms. They watched stars twinkle in the sky as the universe spun around them, lost in each other’s eyes. The scenery flew by the windows of the train as they sped to their next destination, the feeling of heat between them as their legs brushed against each other. Hand in hand they walked along the dusty street admiring what the merchants had on display. All these lifetimes and still they had each other. Could their love overcome it all?

For All Time is a YA romance, fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction mash-up that really took me on a wild journey. While I absolutely love the concept this book had… I thought it was a bit all over the place and confusing at times. As written above, this book was a fusion of a variety of different genres and it just didn’t flow as well for me.

Tamar and Fayard are in love and in every lifetime they have lived they fall in love. I enjoyed their love story and I enjoyed their characters, but I felt it was just too much packed into this book. Too many genres and styles which overshadowed the really cool plot line.

Overall it was a cute, unique read… just a little all over the place for me. If you’re a YA romance fan and love unique plots then you may really enjoy this one.

TW: Terminal Illness, Death of a Loved One, Physical Abuse, Misogyny, Plane Crash, Terrorist Attack.

*I received a gifted copy of this book from the publisher for my honest review.

DNF

I really liked the idea around the book however, it didn't work out for me. I tried reading it, I really did but it just didn't fit my taste. Maybe there was something I missed, but I felt that the story between the past and present were too chunky and broken. It didn't flow smoothly as I would have liked it to be.

Summary: Tamar is a musician, a warrior, a survivor. Fayard? He’s a pioneer, a hustler, a hopeless romantic.

Together, Tamar and Fayard have lived a thousand lives, seen the world build itself up from nothing only to tear itself down again in civil war. They’ve even watched humanity take to the stars. But in each life one thing remains the same: their love and their fight to be together. One love story after another. Their only concern is they never get to see how their story ends. Until now.

When they finally discover what it will take to break the cycle, will they be able to make the sacrifice?

Review: FOR ALL TIME is unabashedly romantic, heartbreaking, and a truly unique reading experience! I don’t think I’ve read anything quiet like this, especially in YA. Highly recommend for fans of The Sun is also a Star and Outlander.

In For All Time two people continuously come together throughout time; attracted by the forces of fate and romance. I really enjoyed the concept, and the different representations played out in different time periods: being Black, being disabled, being sick, and even the occasional reference of the main character being bi are all shown in the different contexts of time.

I liked how the characters had various meet ups throughout time, though I wish their romance was more convincing in parts: often, it felt like the author was relying on the concept of soulmates to do the heavy lifting instead of raw, compelling chemistry between the many characters of Tamar and Fayard.

It's important to note that this book has a heavy sci-fi plot unrelated to the time travel: a plot comparable to that of Enders game plays out as the climax of the book, which I wasn't a /huge/ fan of. I do wish the book was less heavy on the fantastical aspects and more heavy on the romance, though I did appreciate the look into the future of the world which was of course sci-fi heavy as the future has more technologies than currently.

I loved the first two/thirds of the book, but the last third lost me a bit in the action and plot twisting. I would recommend this book especially to the younger side of YA, or anybody who likes sci-fi.

Thank you so much @NetGalley and @simonteen for gifting me a copy of For All Time by @srmilesauthor in exchange for an honest review.

✨ Mini Review ☁️
I was so intrigued by the synopsis of this book. A vivid, romantic novel about two teens who relive their tragic love story over and over until they figure out what they must do to change their fates… I’m here for it! And I seriously enjoyed this book. I started out reading about half of it, and then got the audiobook and finished it that way today. The audiobook was very well done and the narrators did a fantastic job bringing the story to life.

Tamar and Fayard have a love like no other. A love that spans lifetimes. And it’s always such a beautiful love. I loved how this book was written. We get Tamar and Fayard’s current love story sprinkled with their other stories in between. I loved them all. I could have kept reading about them in different time periods. I loved how each love story started and grew. There were a few times where I got a little confused, but I blame that on myself and zoning out while listening.

I really loved the thought that no matter what part of time Tamar and Fayard were in, they still had similar personalities and were magnets to one another. There was no way they could pass each other without noticing one another. Swoon 🥰

If you like The Sun is Also a Star and Outlander, I recommend this book to you! I gave it ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

this book gave me YA outlander vibes! really enjoyed and appreciated the diversity! this took familiar tropes and made them feel fresh

Tamar is suffering with long-term lung damage, after an illness that is never identified as COVID, but that most likely was. No longer able to do the things she once enjoyed because of the breathing problems, and in failing health, Tamar is focused on the present, while her older sister is focused on helping her find a future. Fayard, Tamar's boyfriend (although they both go out of their way to not identify their relationship as boyfriend/girlfriend) wants to help her forget her troubles, and yet doesn't want to push her to do anything that makes her uncomfortable or that exacerbates her breathing problems.

Early on in the novel, Tamar has a dream - a dream that places her in the past, but still with Fayard, in a historically-accurate setting. Tamar dismisses it as just a dream - but the dreams keep coming, and they range from the past to the future. As the novel progresses, the dreams alternate between Tamar and Fayard, which can get somewhat confusing - be sure to watch the chapter titles for indicators of when, and where, the characters are at the moment. In a story that ranges from past to future and back again, Tamar and Fayard continue to encounter each other throughout their many lives, and seek to find a way to break the cycle of meeting, falling in love, and dying young.

Two teens are fated (or cursed) to live out their love story across time (and space). Tamar and Fayard have been reincarnated together in different times and places with the one constant of meeting each other, falling in love, and dying. Yet, they have been unable to break the cycle.

This story goes back and forth between past lives and the MCs' present lives. This was a really fun concept and it is clear Shanna Miles did a lot of research for the past lives--a lot of the descriptions of setting, clothing, and social norms were quite vivid. Unfortunately, the ended did feel a bit rushed and I had a hard time reconciling the passing of a side character in such an off-hand way that would have had a major effect on a MC. Also, the chemistry between Fayard and Tamar wasn't consistent throughout the past lives and relied so much on readers ~knowing~ that the two were fated to be in love. Overall, however, the concept was really cool and it was a fun adventure to figure out how they would break the cycle of reincarnation. 3.5 rounded to 4.

I really loved the concept of this book. Two teens in love and the parallel romances of their characters through different periods of time. Each different time period has different reasons why their romance is complicated or might not work, but their connection is so strong, they keep fighting. In the present time, Tamar is very ill and she attempts to pull away from Fay, but each era has different issues.

So the only major issue I had with this was that it jumped around rapidly from chapter to chapter. It not only jumped from era to era, but jumped from POV to POV. There were a few times where I had to look back at the beginning of the chapter to check and see which era it was in or who was telling the story.

My favorite of the eras was the 1920s story on the train. I recommend this book to romance fans, especially those looking for more diverse YA romance reads. It isn't a must-purchase, but I would say it's a secondary purchase.

#foralltime
#shannamiles
#NetGalley published 9/28/21
#simonsndshuster
#simonandshusterchildrenspublishing

⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 (rounding up for ratings)

In this #ya book, Tamar + Fayard continue to meet each other in each life but cannot see a happy ending for themselves. Yet. This novel is #romance, #fantasy and #sciencefiction/#scifi all rolled into one.

Ms Miles tells a great story. Several great stories of the 2 meeting over and over again. Each story pulled me in easily. Each time jump and pov jump was clearly marked. It made it very easy to follow.

The only reason why I took off a 1/2⭐ is bc at certain points I felt that the author was taking too long to get back to present day. I felt the need to see what effect these other times were having on the now of the couple.

If you like #yaromance and can suspend belief of the afterlife, or do happen to believe in it, then this book is for you.

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I was so interested in the idea for this book but it fell short for me. I wish more of the book had taken place in the Mali time because I found that most interesting. I did not like the part that took place in the future. It did not seem like it was well fleshed out and the action parts were very confusing. There were a few spots that I thought I was missing pages of the book. Overall it wasn't bad but I did not think it was well executed.