• Make Time for This One!
4.5
Marking Time Book Cover Marking Time
Immortal Descendants
April White
Sci Fi/Fantasy Romance
Corazon Entertainment
October 30, 2012
438

Seventeen-year-old tagger Saira Elian can handle anything … a mother who mysteriously disappears, a stranger who stalks her around London, and even the noble English grandmother who kicked Saira and her mother out of the family. But when an old graffiti tag in a Tube station transports Saira to the nineteenth century and she comes face-to-face with Jack the Ripper, she realizes she needs help after all.

Saira meets Archer, a charming student who helps her blend in as much as a tall, modern American teen can in Victorian England. He reveals the existence of the Immortals: Time, Nature, Fate, War, and Death, and explains to Saira that it is possible to move between centuries – if you are a Descendant of Time.

Saira finds unexpected friendships at a boarding school for Immortal Descendants and a complicated love with a young man from the past. But time is running out for her mother, and to save her, Saira must embrace her new identity as she hides from Archer a devastating secret about his future that may cost him his life.

Make Time for Marking Time

April White delivers timely awesomeness

I love time travel; personally, I would love that to be my superpower.  I really fell in love with books related to this concept a few years ago with the Timebound series (we reviewed the last one, Time’s Divide, last year) by Rysa Walker.  My problem is that no other book has matched it – until now.

Enter Marking Time.

April White masterfully weaves a world within our world that is completely believable. In the Immortal Descendants series, magic exists in the bloodlines of Fate, Time, Nature, War and Death. In this initial installment of the series, Fate is explored through two different time periods – Victorian England and present day.

Saira is, as with most young adult heroines, a young woman who has no idea she’s “special”.  No one has told her that
she’s descendant of Time, and thus can travel.  No one has explained to her that if she were to trace one of the unique spirals she finds, she could end up lost in time.  And when her mother disappears as she does occasionally, Saira survives as she always has – until she’s embroiled in a drama and sent to live with her estranged grandmother in England.

And then her life completely changes.

As Saira negotiates the twists and turns of her new life, and the past, she meets new friends, new foes and maybe a cute guy or two. Note: Team Archer ALL. THE. WAY.

What you need to know is that this book is INCREDIBLY GOOD.  I was invested from the very first chapter, and Saira is such a unique and interesting character, lacking the whining drama many heroines inevitably ooze.  She and her love interests are all relatable and sweet, especially given their unique circumstances. The story delivers an enthralling mystery – something I am not usually interested in – wrapped in a thriller, tied with a romantic bow.

This book came out in 2012, and the last book in the series is due out this year.  You can grab the first in the series today for Kindle FREE!  Start reading it here: