Endless by Amanda Gray

1st in a series
384p.
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC
Available Now
Source: From NetGalley and Publisher for review

Jenny Kramer knows she isn't normal. After all, not everybody can see the past lives of people around them. 

When she befriends Ben Daulton, resident new boy, the pair stumble on an old music box with instructions for “mesmerization” and discover they may have more in common than they thought. Like a past life. 

Using the instructions in the music box, Ben and Jenny share a dream that transports them to Romanov Russia and leads them to believe they have been there together before. But they weren't alone. Nikolai, the mysterious young man Jenny has been seeing in her own dreams was there, too. When Nikolai appears next door, Jenny is forced to acknowledge that he has travelled through time and space to find her. Doing so means he has defied the laws of time, and the Order, an ominous organization tasked with keeping people in the correct time, is determined to send him back.

While Ben, Jenny and Nikolai race against the clock - and the Order - Jenny and Nikolai discover a link that joins them in life - and beyond death.

My thoughts:
I do enjoy a time travel novel. Most of the times I can ignore the parts where a lot of people have to shout, "It can't happen like that!" because I'm more invested in the characters and their story. It was like that here. I did become invested in Jenny and Ben mostly. I did like the other characters, but these two were my favorites. I really enjoyed their friendship and how they started to slowly open up to each other.

When Nikolai came onto the scene, I was intrigued. However, for some reason I cannot put my finger on, I just didn't fully buy Jenny and Nikolai's romance. It didn't feel false, and how it came about make some sense, but I don't think my ability to ignore the "but" worked here. For example: I can see why there are intense feelings present but Jenny has lived a different life and why would she so easily succumb to those feelings without some reflection or a bit more questioning.  Perhaps it is because she is so young? Still, it was a bit fast for me.

I did enjoy the novel, but it sort of seemed like something I've read before. Not that something like that is necessarily a negative (don't we all read the same stories over and over because we enjoy the trope?) but I was wanting a bit more variation on my time travel story. I will fully admit, this might have been just me and where I was when I read it. I would still pick up the next story to see where it goes. I give this novel 3 stars.