Timeless (Heart's True Desire Book 2)

by Kathryn Amurra

Rating: ****

When Erin Dovetree’s grandmother, Rose, mentions her new landlord, Will Abbott, to Erin, she is clearly trying to matchmake. Amused but not interested, Erin dismisses the ploy. However, when she meets the handsome, enigmatic Will, their attraction to each other is immediate.

Both fight against their growing feelings, but for different reasons. Erin has unresolved trust issues, and Will happens to be nearly one hundred and seventy years old, cursed to live an ageless existence of guilt and loneliness due to a past error of judgment that had unimaginably tragic consequences.

Timeless is part of Amurra’s Heart’s True Desire series*, but it stands alone. It’s an absorbingly lovely, sweet romance brushed with the paranormal and unfolded through two timelines set in Charlotte, North Carolina, one contemporary, the other based in the late nineteenth century.

Following a short Prologue that alludes to the ancient mysticism underpinning her narrative, Amurra takes the reader straight into patent attorney Erin’s life as she leaves work and visits her grandmother on the way home.

Twenty-six-year-old Erin is instantly engaging. Amurra writes with a smooth, effortless style, which is light and easy to read. However, as the reader follows Erin to her grandmother's, there are hints of emotional vulnerability and trauma in the young woman’s life.

Rose, at nearly ninety, is amusingly portrayed and nicely utilized to drive key plot areas without being too meddlesome or stereotypical. There are a couple of places where she frustrates, her attitude toward the estrangement between Erin and her father seems uncharacteristically weak. However, Rose’s subdued stance becomes more understandable when the father/daughter tangent is explored later in the novel.

Although Erin’s damaged relationship with her father is relevant to the narrative, Timeless is essentially Erin and Will’s novel.  Amurra strikes the right chord with Will, giving him the slightly haunted air of a man out of time, but ensuring his otherworldliness is depicted with nuance, making it a credible read. Refreshingly, it’s evident early on that Amurra is not taking the vampire route with Will, which spikes the reader's curiosity. The eventual explanation for his suspended animation is convincing within context and not over-engineered.

The chemistry between Erin and Will is beautifully calibrated and certainly makes you catch your breath with its soft yet persistent sizzle. Their meetings and exchanges are freighted with gentle intensity and the lure of unspoken temptation. Dialogue between them is wonderfully natural, laced with delicately flirtatious banter and humorous asides.

The nineteenth-century narrative that runs alongside until the last quarter of the novel is equally as captivating, if not more so. Amurra touchingly unfolds the horribly poignant tale of Will and his sweetheart, Bessie, from whence the crux of Will’s supernatural situation emanates.

During these chapters, which are simply yet beautifully written, Amurra subtly conjures the Gilded Age period in her language and social detail. The situation between Will and Bessie is as excruciating in its fluctuating ambiguity as that between Will and Erin, although that is where the similarity ends.

There are a few places of superfluity, but Amurra neatly ties up the story concerning Will with a clever yet uncomplicated resolution.  Erin’s law school friend, Blake, is a helpful addition who provides some straightforward humor despite his unrequited feelings for Erin, which Amurra leaves the reader to dwell upon.

However, one of Will’s younger sisters and his favorite, Martha, is the quietly powerful force within the narrative, together with Radka, the Abbott children’s old Bulgarian nurse. Martha is well-depicted, as is her profound sibling bond with Will.

Timeless is an intriguing and delightfully entertaining little novel written and constructed with deceptive skill. Highly recommended.

*Click here to read my review of Amulet (Heart’s True Desire Book 1).

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