Even though I got Endless several months ago and it just sat on my Kindle, waiting to be read, I was actually pretty excited to get into it. I mean, look at the summary! Jenny can see people’s past lives. She meets a new guy and they have the SAME DREAM about Romanov Russia. There’s some kind of ominous “Order” after her AND it has time travel. What’s not to like?
…a lot of things, it turns out.
For one, the characters are inconsistent. Is Jenny a loner, or does she make friends easily? Because she’s described as a loner, but she seems to befriend everybody she meets. Is Ben a jerk, is he a nice guy, is he a violent person, is he really sensitive… what is he? He seems to morph into whatever character is needed at the moment. Nikolai is simultaneously painted as a sort of weird, creepy guy who just shows up randomly in Jenny’s life, and her main love interest who is all sorts of awesome. Which is he? He can’t be both!
Also, I couldn’t get into the relationship between Jenny and Nikolai. It felt so forced to me. The author spends the first, what, third of the book building up a relationship between Ben and Jenny, only to tear it down immediately with the entrance of Nikolai. Nikolai, who is much older than Jenny, and honestly it’s pretty creepy that he’d pursue her. Even if they are “soul mates” and have traveled through time to be together. I didn’t understand why Jenny felt such a strong connection to Nikolai, either. Just because they knew each other in a past life doesn’t mean they’d still be connected in new lives. Maybe if Jenny had time traveled too, then I’d understand it. It just didn’t make sense to me.
The writing was childish. I felt like it was written for maybe middle school level. Everything is spelled out. There are no surprises. Plot points are created and never finished. (Where is the book? What happened to the music box? Can Ben and his mom be happy now? Can Jenny really trust Morgan?) The book felt like a watered down version of real fantasy. At least it was a quick read.
And finally, what’s with Jenny’s “power”? Why give a character the power to see people’s past lives if she’s never going to use it? She might as well have been able to teleport, or be immortal, or read minds for all the good her power did for the plot.
Overall, if you like time travel, if you like the idea of soul mates, if you like Romanov Russia, there might be something here for you. If you like your books well-written and well-developed, steer clear.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.
Final rating: ★★☆☆☆
The Bibliophagist 