For All Time is a dual POV story that spans centuries and lifetimes. With a premise of finding each other over and over again, but never being together how could I not fall in love with the premise? And I keep going back to this kernel over and over again. Because, even after finishing, I'm still so intrigued by this concept. This idea of fate, of something, stopping us from being together across lifetimes. And while I love the idea, I had a few issues with the story.

First of all, the pacing of the story is somewhat slow compared to the last 25%. To be fair, Miles has a lot to set up. There's four different timelines and characters, situations, to set up. And while I greatly enjoyed this foundation - that's one of the main reasons I picked it up - I found that all of a sudden the pacing picks up speed like a runaway train. Because it's almost like at one point the plot just breaks free and there's all these threads which come together and unravel.

Considering the sizable increase in speed in the last 20% or so, it gave me a small case of whiplash. But the reason my feelings are so complex, is because at the end, I really love the way the threads to (un)ravel.

Full review on goodreads
This one jumped around and didn’t develop the different past lives of the characters well enough. Then throw in the future selves, and it lost me. Disappointed.

Tamar and Fayard meet and fall in love throughout time. But they only see, dream, live, a portion of their relationship. What happens after the first blush of romance? Readers travel along on this time-bending journey with the pair as they navigate their complicated relationships. This was almost a DNF for me, but I stuck with it to see where it would end. I thought the twist was a bit "hokey." But I can see this novel finding an audience with teen readers who are looking for a different type of romance.

I appreciate the fact that this novel is different from most of the YA romances out there. The shifting timelines was off-putting at first, but I got used to it. I requested it because the description said it would appeal to fans of Outlander, but I have to disagree with that statement. Just because it involves time travel doesn’t mean it will appeal to me for the reasons I love Outlander.

Overall, not one of my top favorites, and it won’t be widely appealing in my school library, but it is worth reading for the intriguing concept.

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 2/5 stars.

Look, I really really REALLY wanted to like this. I love the idea of starcrossed lovers, the possible relations I could do to R&J, but I just couldn't get into it. At all. Yes, I finished it...but I wanted the ending to come ASAP and it took me almost 2 weeks to read it. Tamar and Fayid's love story is unique and so is the concept...but it just wasn't good? I would have preferred 2-3 stories of the timeline more in-depth, and the sudden science fiction element just felt thrown in there to serve as the plot point. Oh no, fancy space egg! Like...yes it's cool and I think people will like it, but it just wasn't for me. I don't think it meshed well together, and I don't think the explanation of why it kept happening to them was explained well at all, nor does the ending make sense in regards to the 'prophecy.'

This had SO much potential and it just fell flat.

For All Time is a romance that transcends time. It follows Tamar and Fayard in different lifetimes, showing their first meetings and what happens to them in each period. Only, their ending is never shown, we don’t know whether they have a happy ending or not.

‘Tamar, I may not be able to lay the moon at your feet, but please allow me to give you the stars.’

I really liked the concept of this book, I thought the idea was quite unique and really think it had potential. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a big fan of its execution. There were times when I felt quite confused. The story swaps from different time periods, and could feel slightly disjointed as I would get sucked into one story to suddenly have to start another before the previous one had ended. I also thought the storyline would be slightly different from what I’d got from the synopsis, and felt like it didn’t really fully make sense to me until the end.

”I love you, but first I’ve got to love me.’

Nevertheless, I did still enjoy the romance aspects of this story. I think my least favourite was the present storyline, and I would almost have preferred a full version of the future storyline, or the past ones, as we saw more of that. In the present storyline, Tamar is ill and is moving away for treatment, and Fayard is her boyfriend. He follows her to the airport, as he loves her and doesn’t want her to leave. Both Tamar and Fayard are having dreams where they see themselves in another time period and watch their lives pan out, but they never see the ending. From the synopsis, I thought they would be actively trying to find a solution to this cycle, but that is not what the story is about. For All Time is more about love and the lengths the characters would go to for each other.

DNF @ 9%

I was not aware upon requesting or starting this one that it dealt with the long-term medical effects of the pandemic. Unfortunately I'm not mentally ready for that type of content and won't be able to continue on with this book. I really loved the writing style and characters. And the premise is still one I'm highly interested in. So maybe one day I'll be ready to return to this type of story.

What a fricking wild ride. The first half was slow and I can definitely see people not making it that far, not feeling invested enough to power through. But at about the 75% mark, things REALLY ramp up and kept me on the edge of my seat. I'm a reader who doesn't mind being confused, so that didn't deter me in the least. I don't think I even still understand what exactly happened, but I don't necessarily think "understanding" is the point. I really appreciated that they were themselves in each life - I think trying to have their reincarnated bodies look different in each time they live would have felt too gimmicky to me, and the same bodies allows them to really lean into the feeling of recognition, which is harder to pull off if they're always in different bodies. It's about love across space and time, about time travel, about reincarnation, about sacrifice, and discovery. Going to be pondering this one for a minute. 3.5 stars, rounded up.

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

4.5/5 stars

This book is truly so fascinating. I absolutely loved reading about all the various lives Fay & Tamar lived. They are such captivating characters, consistent yet different throughout time. In many later lives their connection could reasonably be called "insta-love" but, and importantly, I don't have a problem with insta-love and ALSO their past lives/the glimpses into their other connections honestly make it make sense.

Toward the end the book got really twisty and a little confusing, but the ending is ultimately very satisfying. I like the dual POV nature of the story and also loved the way Shanna Miles tapped into and was unafraid to explore darker themes — like issues of race, class, social ills, and even death.

Ultimately, I'd recommend this book if you like with time travel, shifting narratives, and twisty turns. Oh, and love!

Wow.

I don't even know how to begin to describe this book, aside from the fact that the comp titles of Outlander meets Cloud Atlas with a healthy dash of science fantasy and a load of wtf is even happening in that final third act.

However, I really, really enjoyed this one, although I wanted more resolution at the end (although the actual ending is just fine). There were some timelines I wanted to explore more of, and I enjoyed the bouncing between 14th century Mali, 1924 America, the 23rd century, and a five-minutes into the future present day. The level of research and Black history and deft hints of other lives lived is encompassing and so well done, all wrapped into a love story arcing across a millennium (or more!).

At first it was a little hard to follow, because even though Fay and Tamar *technically* stay the same, they are not the same people, and their families, friends and environments shape them as they are—although there are some elements that remain constant: Tamar's ability with music, Fay's constant hustling, and the immediate chemistry that sparks and spits between the two until there is nothing left but their consuming love.

Anywho, definitely a book to pick up. It's well worth a read!

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review

Unfortunately this book didn't meet the high expectations I had. I wasn't interested in the characters at all. The combination of their Christian background and the fact that the female character was very seriously ill felt too A Walk to Remember for me. (It was also definitely too soon to be talking about COVID in a YA novel). There was nothing to get me invested in the characters, not in their present day incarnations, nor in any of their others. I also found it disappointing that in every life, they were still a young Black woman and a young Black man. It would have seemed more realistic and more interesting to me if their races, genders, orientations etc had shifted around from life to life. I was also disappointed in the way Tamar's visions were introduced so casually as something she had already been dealing it - it would have been a lot more interesting to have been there when she made that discovery. Unfortunately it all just fell flat.

dnf this because I was just so confused. I was really excited about this (a reincarnation romance??? yes please!) but it was confusing and I couldn't get into it

Honestly I’m amazed at how the author was able to keep up with every single story. That takes incredible skill. But my honest opinion is that it was a bit confusing and hard to follow along. Sometimes it would get a really confusing and I’d just be like “huh?” Then I’d just continue reading then it would get WAYYY more interesting. So there’s parts where I’m just rubbing my head questioning what’s going on but there were also times where I was sucked into the book reading every single word to word and not looking up.

I loved this story. The interwoven stories from the past lives and the present held my interest and kept leading me to the next chapter.

This was a really interesting story that I enjoyed. It was well written and did a good job showing us two lovers that keep meeting over and over again. It describes each of the time periods well and left me unable to stop reading. Their love though sweet, sort of felt uneven and not as clear to me. Each instance showed a head over heels Fayard and a reluctant Tamar which felt kind of lopsided. I was also confused about the plot in each time period because it just seemed like two people who kept randomly meeting and falling in love. The ending was a little difficult to accept because the issue between them isn’t apparent throughout the book. Overall, I liked the story. I thought it was imaginative and beautifully written. I’d recommend it as a solid read.


Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for ARC.

Who doesn't enjoy a cool reincarnation romance? That's what For All Time gives you: Fayard and Tamar are two souls that keep coming back to each other in different lives. You've got ancient history, recent history, modern day, and the future. But how do they break the cycle and finally have an ending that isn't tragic and cut short? The main storyline is held in present day, which had a sorta slow build-up, with tangents throughout the book of different eras of the two lovers encountering each other. The real crux of the story didn't hit until about 75% through the book. Then it gets a bit interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I did constantly feel like I was missing something. I don't think that feeling was resolved by the end, even though I thought the climax and resolution was interesting. The idea was definitely a good one, for the most part it was all fleshed out, and the final ending was satisfying, but that feeling of missing information and not really knowing what the true timeline was threw me off. Recommended for fans of star-crossed lovers, and YA sci-fi storylines! 3.5 stars!

Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the e-ARC!

This book was looking like a strong contender for me when I read the blurb. A couple destined to be together throughout time? Being ripped apart only to find each other again and go through the same cycle until they can break it? I was excited. It reminded me a little of The Fountain in its description.

Unfortunately, in my opinion it didn't live up to my expectations.

I kept waiting for the plot and it took a while to really get going. There's mentions of COVID and that's a bit heavy right now. Some people may be fine with it but I wasn't one of them. I tried not to let that taint my reading of the story.

What was the biggest let down was the fact that it was so disjointed. Not all of the plotlines added up. The book could have benefitted from either being longer or dropping some of the threads because they weren't delivered on in a pleasing fashion. Especially since we're dealing with different versions of the characters there wasn't enough time to flesh them out and make them stand out so they fell flat.

It was also hard for me to get to know the characters. I just couldn't fall in love with them although in the beginning they're written very well. And the writing itself is amazing. The author has a great style and I really like it. I just wish there were more pages so we could have gotten the full effect of it.

I will put content warnings for the book. I know some disabled individuals may not do well with it because of how convincingly she wrote about the frustration and heart break associated with just not being able to be a normal kid. I know that brought up a lot of unpleasant memories for me but hey, the author got a genuine emotional response out of me that I wasn't expecting because of her skill with words.

Other things to be aware of are racism, colorism, which yes, are different and serious issues that affect the Black community and even other minorities. Hospitals and illness, COVID, the threat of rape--which could be jarring to some-- and a plane crash. There's loss of a loved one and suicide is mentioned as well.

While I don't think the author should have avoided these topics, I do think a detailed trigger warning at the beginning of the book would have been good. As I read this through the Netgalley shelf APP, I didn't see the warning there. Just say it has themes of violence, racism and colonialism due to time travel. And always mention when rape is mentioned in a book. Trigger warnings exist for a reason.

I will say, the author has a good future ahead if the next book is long enough to really get the story fleshed out and the characters the time they deserve.

A three (3) star read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A solid 3.5/5 stars!
When I finally decided to pick up my e-ARC of this (thanks, NetGalley!) I had completely forgotten what it was about.
I was immediately slightly thrown off because of the fact that there was a lot of talk about the pandemic, and I really don't enjoy reading about COVID, especially in books, which I use as a form of escape. However, I immediately got drawn into the story and fell in love with the characters.
Despite the engaging nature of the story, I do think that an extra 50 pages could have been added to give everything a little more depth. Because there were so many timelines to follow and so many iterations of the characters to develop, a lot of them fell a little flat. There were a lot of unanswered questions in this book, and I think they detracted from the quality of the story itself.
I will say, though, that I was super excited to realize that this was a sci-fi adjacent story. Sci-fi is one of my favorite genres, and realizing that there was a science-y, space-y, supernatural element made me love this a lot more.
The quick pacing of this made it impossible to put down, but I think it just lack true development and tried to shove too many plot lines into one relatively short book. It was super fun and super romantic, and I would definitely recommend it to any friends looking for a reincarnation, sci-fi adjacent romance.
Definitely a book worth a read, and I'm super excited to see what this author puts out next!

This book was a 5 star prediction for me, but unfortunately, I really didn't click with it. I was hoping for drama and tragedy but instead I got a really confusing book that seemed to lack a clear plot that I couldn't get emotionally invested in. In fact, I can't believe I'm even going to say this, but I liked the "present day" parts best and wish those were fleshed out more. Everything just felt really underdeveloped to me.