4.5⭐️ – Have you ever felt like the time you were born in wasn’t the one you were supposed to live in? Like you don’t fit in your own life? What if it were true?

In 2004, Courtney is a twenty-year-old student working at her university’s archives. As part of the first real job she’s given, she has to read yearbooks from the 1920s and feels intensely attracted to that period, recognizing people in photographs when she shouldn’t know them, feeling more alone than ever when she has to let go.

I’m once again impressed by a debut novel, and it’s honestly one of my favourite things about reading. I started this book thinking it would be a historical novel (I didn’t read the blurb – I’m glad I didn’t, it gives away too much –, I liked the cover, it had been recommended to me by people I trust, that was enough) and it turned out to be that with a significant paranormal twist and a dash of romance that will probably grow in the next book.

The easiest way to talk about this story would be to speak of time travel but that’s not exactly what it is. And I’m not sure I should say what it is, as I enjoyed feeling lost at first – much like Courtney – then slowly understanding what’s happening.

The only thing I could have done without is the on-page abuse even if I can understand the author’s choice to include it. It’s not what I’ll remember. The characters, the atmosphere, the energy, the story, everything else took over.

I love the way Cassandra Yorke painted 1921, especially through the clothes the characters wear and the vocabulary they use. For 2004, the music Courtney listens to did the trick. As world-building goes, it’s simple and very efficient, Yorke doesn’t overwhelm readers with details, she gives what is needed.

As usual for me, what matters most is the characters, and I came to care a lot about Courtney, Sadie, Mary, Nettie, and World War I veteran Hazel Morrison. And that’s where reviewing can get very frustrating because I want to say more about them all, since they’re excellent characters, but again, I don’t want to spoil… All I’ll say is I want more of them, I want to see how the relationship between Courtney, Mary and Sadie develops, I want to see how Nettie fits in the group, how the four of them grow into their powers and what they learn from Hazel…

So now, when is book two coming?

Mary, Everything @ amazon

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