So many things to love in this book. I love it that there are no all-knowing characters who the author uses to explain the world. Instead, what the reader gets from the characters is more like puzzle pieces. The different characters differ in their opinions of how their time traveling and time manipulation abilities work, and how the flow of time ("the river") is affected by them. None of them knows for sure what's going on or how to solve the problems connected to the "river". I've never seen such an imaginative treatment of time travel. The author's bottomless imagination just keeps coming up with new twists to keep you guessing throughout the book.

The other thing I really liked about this combination of science fiction, time travel and romance, was that the female characters weren't pitted against each other. I could imagine this going a very different direction once Nick was told to become Alva's lover, but instead of introducing a stereotypical siren to be Julia's rival, the author created a wonderful character in Alva, who was perfectly happy to be friends with Nick, even relieved that she didn't need to include the extra step of sex to their charade. I appreciated her compassion and matter-of-fact attitude, and her treatment of Bella's insensitivity made me cheer.

The book ended with much more to resolve, but it still left me satisfied and hopeful that there will be more books to come about our time-traveling friends.

( )

I really enjoyed this very different book. I have to say however that I really hope there will be a sequel. They story ended sort of but the major problem was not resolved. Well anyway I liked the tone of the book. The writing was well done and the feel for the regency era was pretty spot on. In fact it was more in depth than many historicals. While this took place in the regency era it was not a regency. It was a time travel/arcane powers sort of book. So the nitty gritty of 1815 London was more emphasized than it is in the stylized regency novel. I really appreciated that. I loved Nick, the main character. I loved how time travel had changed him and how his changes and the things that he struggled to change were so realistic. So he was a man of his time who changed in a realistic manner. The heroine was good also. She was strong and brave. All in all a really good read. ( )

I loved this book so much, can not wait to see what happens in book 2. ( )

This book was one I simply could not put down. I was glued to my chair, reading and reading, wanting to know more. I loved Julia and Nick and can not wait to continue their story. ( )

It's rare these days for me to get so caught up in a book that I can't put it down, but this book was surprisingly addictive! I had little faith when I read the premise - two lovers separated by time travel blah blah blah - but the characters and their adventures soon proved me wrong. Julia is such an upstart female character and I was pleasantly surprised when she basically took over the protagonist role from Nick. He's great, but she's the one with the real mystery and I can't wait to figure out how they're going to deal with time collapsing backwards. I'm also curious to discover how Julia's mother actually got across The Pale in the first place, and how she managed to conceive and birth a child along the way. The next book is forthcoming, so I hope that it doesn't disappoint. ( )