Time for Alexander Archives - Proud Book Reviews

March 20, 2020January 18, 2021

The Eternal Banquet – Jennifer Macaire

Welcome back everyone, we’re up to the last book in the series and I can’t believe I’m finally done with the series!

Those little things that frustrated me in the last book were all corrected in this book while Ashley, Alexander and Plexis found their way through the rest of their lives.

The focus of this book is on their travels home from the land of the Eaters of the Dead. There were several revelations that, for the first time in this series, made me think about something philosophical. Normally I’ve found this series to be a great relaxation read rather than a reflective and learning kind of book.

The moment that hit me was when they were leaving Carthage for Rome. If you read the book, you’ll know what I mean with that moment. I was left wondering if maybe she was always meant to travel back in time to ensure that history played out exactly as it was meant to. Maybe every time traveller that got stuck back in time had a vital role to play in the history of the world and the Institute of Time let them make changes while also keeping up the reputation of wiping them from the Earth to discourage too much control.

As much as I loved the story, the style of the writing felt a touch off at a few points. Even the last couple of chapters felt a little bit rushed. Yet I can’t see how the ending would have been satisfying any other way.

Given the difference in the whole story compared to history, I can see why we needed the wrap up of what happened to Ashley’s children and where she ended up. I’m not sure if the main reason I didn’t like this was because I didn’t want the story to end, or because there really was something missing.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week that last instalment of The Circle Opens quartet will be reviewed. After that, I’ll be starting a new set of series to replace this one.

February 21, 2020January 18, 2021

The Soul of Time – Jennifer Macaire

Welcome back everyone, today’s review is the second last book in the series. We’ve moved on from the filler book and it’s now full of action and everything I love about this series!

We pick up the start of this book right where we ended the last book, Chants to Persephone with everyone heading into the Eaters of the Dead territory. One of the best things about this book is that it’s full of suspense, action and surprises.

The prophecies Alexander and Ashely heard in the previous book start to make sense, bit by bit.

I found myself held in suspense for the majority of the book wondering what would happen. So many questions were raised and answered one at a time in this book. Yet, if I tell you any of them, I’ll probably ruin the story for you.

Although I loved the story and the action and how it all played out. There were a few small details that were a little bit off to me. One of them was how many pregnancies Ashely had had. In the first 4 books she’d been pregnant 5 times (possibly a 6^th, not 100% sure without going back through them) yet in this book they said 4 times.

It might have been a mistake. They do happen. But it did throw me for a minute, and I had to go back through my memory and count all her pregnancies.

The other thing that started to bother me in this book was Ashely getting prophetic dreams. She hasn’t had them in any of the previous books (except maybe a brief introduction to them in the previous book) and I don’t feel like this is something that someone would develop all of a sudden.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I will be picking the Tamora Pierce series again. So stay tuned!

January 24, 2020January 18, 2021

Chants to Persephone – Jennifer Macaire

Welcome back everyone, I’m finally back into my series reviews so I hope you’ll forgive me for kicking it back off with The Time for Alexander series. I couldn’t help but come back to it!

Last year I read the first four books in the series and I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy the rest of the series coz I loved them!

After the ending of the last books I was desperate to see what Ashley would do next. Since I hadn’t read any of the blurbs for the remaining three books, I had no idea who was alive, who was dead and where the stories were set. Given how much travelling Ashley and Alexander did in the first four books I assumed that there’d be more travelling.

The overall feel of this book was that we needed context and background on the latest adventure to understand the future books. I know series need these, but it also makes me feel a little dejected when I do read them.

As we’ve seen in previous books the oracles prophecies tend to guide the actions of those in the past, but they are just plain weird! I honestly don’t know how people back then managed to decipher anything to be able to go about their lives. Yet they somehow manage to do it and find their way through horrible times.

The final thing that felt different to me was that we had a clear direction for the next book. The other books had a general direction, but nothing set in stone. This time we were left knowing exactly what we were working towards, who was going to be involved and a general idea of what the outcome is going to be.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I restart the Tamora Pierce reviews and in two weeks I’ll be reviewing Legend of Love by Lisa Kessler.

July 1, 2019January 18, 2021

Storms Over Babylon – Jennifer Macaire

Welcome back everyone, we’re back to Ashley and Alexander in the Time for Alexander series. I swear I become more and more obsessed with this series with every book I read. Please hurry up and let me read the next three!

I chose to stay up on my flight to Brisbane to read this one instead of sleeping. To put this into context, I normally go to bed about 9pm and my flight took off at 9.30pm. To say I was dead tired when we arrived in Brisbane a couple of hours later is an understatement.

But I did smash out like 90% of the book in that couple of hours on the plane. And man was it good! I actually checked how long I had left to finish the book because I didn’t want to have to stop to get off the plane. Luckily, I finished the book with 5 minutes of my flight to spare.

If you’re familiar with the previous books (not just my reviews of them) then you might remember that Plexis was told all his questions about Ashley would be answered on his death bed. Well, Ashley is faced with the knowledge of when he’s meant to die alongside Alexander being adamant, he doesn’t want her to save him.

Well in this book we get to discover how Plexis dies, along with Alexander a few months later. Knowing that there’s a fantasy element to this story and just loving Ashley’s relationships with Alexander and Plexis and that this is only the 4^th of (currently) 7 books, I was left wondering when this book would end.

Well, spoiler alert! (not really) It ends When Alexander dies, and his kingdom begins to crumble with Ashley and her family fleeing the violence. As soon as I was finished, I was like “NOOOO!!!! I want more!” So rest assured, once the 5^th book comes on tour I’ll be jumping for a spot to give you more deets!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, tomorrow (yes you read that right!) I will be reviewing The Determined Lord Hadleigh by Virginia Heath. Continue to read
further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

Jennifer Macaire lives with her husband, three children, & various dogs & horses. She loves cooking, eating chocolate, growing herbs and flowering plants on her balcony, and playing golf. She grew up in upstate New York, Samoa, and the Virgin Islands. She graduated from St. Peter and Paul high school in St. Thomas and moved to NYC where she modeled for five years for Elite. She met her husband at the polo club. All that is true. But she mostly likes to make up stories.

May 13, 2019January 17, 2021

Son of the Moon – Jennifer Macaire

Welcome back everyone, I hope you enjoyed my review of One?. I found it difficult at times as an Aussie but still enjoyed it, but time to get back to a series I’m really enjoying, the Time for Alexander series!

Writing Style

The first thing I want to say is that it seems Jennifer has either gotten over those overly direct sentences, or she got a new editor for this book that managed to get rid of almost all of those annoying, jarring sentences. YAY!

That left me being able to focus more on the story rather than feeling like I was thrown out of it because of a string of short sentences that just felt weird to read.

Overall, I feel like there’s a maturity to Jennifer’s writing that hasn’t quite been there with the first two books. And I’m loving it. It feels like the story is more cohesive and purposeful rather than a string of great ideas and plot points strung together.

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the first two books. It means that I found this book much easier to engage with which meant I could enjoy it much easier and quicker.

Initial Thoughts

I’m struggling to remember what exactly happened at the start, but I remember that I was a little on edge wondering if Ashley and Alexander would find their son. Given there are 7 books in the series I wasn’t sure if this quest was meant to span all those books or whether there’d be more to their story if they found him.

After a harsh climb up a mountain pass, they were met by an old man who welcomed them but seemed to be delaying and delaying them seeing their sun. Which of course made me wonder if their son was even still there or had yet again been stolen away from them.

What they discovered was certainly not what they, or me, were expecting which brought about another question. What were they going to do now?

And that’s what drove the rest of the books story.

Final Thoughts

As usual, I finished this book dying for the next book. Which makes me think, if anyone wants to know what they should ever gift me (in case you were wondering), get me this series with matching covers in paperback. Coz this is a series I will come back to again in the future (I can already tell) which mean’s I want it in my burgeoning library for proud display.

I’ve mentioned already that I really engaged with this book better than the first book. I loved the battles, I loved that Ashley sacrificed for love and I love that she’s willing to ask for what she really wants. A full life with Alexander where they can live in peace without the people from the future killing them and erasing them from history.

This really brought me back to the start of the first book which made me wonder if this was a clue as to what was happening then. Maybe, maybe not. I’ll have to wait to find out.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I will be reviewing Probably the Best Kiss in the World by Pernille Hughes. Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

April 15, 2019January 17, 2021

Legends of Persia – Jennifer Macaire

Welcome back everyone, last week I participated in a pretty epic book tour, so I hope you checked out some of the other’s involved in that one.

When Rachel put out that Jennifer had come back pretty much as soon as the tour for the first book was over to have the second book reviewed, I did not waste a second replying and pretty much begging for a spot on the tour schedule.

And lucky me got a place! Yay! If you haven’t read my review of The Road to Alexander, I suggest popping over there as well.

Writing Style

I really love the way Jennifer writes about Ashley and Alexander throughout the book. It’s done in a way that captures my attention, and better yet, HOLDS my attention. Whenever I have to put this series down I hate it, and I just keep thinking about what could be in store for them.

My one grumble about the writing was that a few descriptions felt a bit jarring. Like they were so to the point with no preamble that it felt a little off-putting. I don’t really remember if this happened in the first book or not. But after 2 or 3 chapters I stopped noticing it because I was so wrapped up in the story again.

Initial Thoughts

Jennifer recapped the previous book in the first chapter, which is great for newbies or those that haven’t read the first book in a while. And I think this is important to do, especially when you’re writing a longer series.

After we got past the recap we jumped straight back into where we left off last time. Maybe fast forward a week or two. Which is great for me because I didn’t want to miss a minute of the story! What I also loved was that Jennifer also referred to the modern-day names of many places which meant I could jump onto Google Maps and check out where they were.

Sometimes.

It’s not always easy to tell, and in a few cases I had to kind of guess roughly where they were. But that might just be me liking to know where people are when they are travelling. Does anyone else like following characters along on a map?

Final Thoughts

I love that Ashley seems to have grown bolder with Alexander in this book. In the first book she often deferred to him which I thought was a bit odd given how strong her voice was in her own time. An example of this is when Alexander is drugged and doesn’t notice Ashley being raped because he’s off with some other woman.

Boy did Ashley tell him where to stick it then! And the fact that she knew what was going to happen and essentially told him that she wouldn’t wait for him was pretty cool to read.

The one part of this section of the story line was that Ashley talked about her being from the future when others were in their tent. I thought no one could know this? And yet she’s blatantly telling Alex what his future is with like 3 other people in their tent who could hear them? That didn’t really make sense to me, and actually bugged me a little bit.

So please, I beg you Jennifer. Keep the rest of the series coming to Rach Random Resources so I can save my money to buy physical copies of the books!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I will be reviewing Truth of Bear by Zoe Ashwood. Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

January 18, 2019January 20, 2021

The Road to Alexander – Jennifer Macaire

Welcome back everyone, this review is an extra sneaky special one for a couple of reasons. The first is that I lost track of how many Blog Tours I signed up for because there were so many books that sounded interesting on offer!

And secondly, I love ancient civilisations and I’m fascinated by how others see them and then convey them to others in their books.

Story overview

With this one we start of in the future, roughly 2300 (I don’t remember exactly), where time travel is possible to the point where they send one person once a year to go back in time to interview someone famous. Only problem with this is that you can’t do anything to change history in any way otherwise your time there will be erased.

So our main character Ashley is sitting in the chair preparing to travel back to interview Alexander the Great before he went and conquered all the way to India. As she’s sitting there waiting for the storm and for the time travel to occur, we learn a little bit about her life up until then. And boy does it not sound pretty!

After a not so successful interview of Alexander the Great, Ashley walks back to where she came in ready to be taken back to her own time. Only problem is, Alexander decided he liked her and wouldn’t let her go and inadvertently stopped her from returning to her own time. And this is where it starts to get really interesting!

Up until this point it’s been kinda standard kind of time travel going back in history kind of themes. But now we’re solidly back in Alexander’s time with no possibility of getting back to the future, but every possibility of being erased from history forever. From this point I really felt for Ashley. It’s one thing to keep a secret for 20 hours, quite another to do it for a lifetime. Especially when she doesn’t know the customs or languages.

My thoughts

As we progress through the book, we start to learn why Alexander was so determined to travel east and conquer everyone in his path. But remember this is a work of fiction, not fact! I found it easy to get wrapped up in the story and found myself wishing I could travel back in time to see the world as it was then. But the sad reality is if that technology does
get invented, it won’t be in my lifetime.

There were quite a few points in the book where Ashley’s relationship with Alexander made me wish she could tell him everything. To see how he’d react to that kind of news. I can’t even begin to image how hard it would have been keeping your entire history before you met someone a secret would be. I’m pretty sure my partner knows pretty much everything about me, including how much credit card debt I stupidly wrack up!

As I creeped towards the end of the book, I began to wonder how we could possibly get back to the point in time where the prologue was set. And I got my answer when I finished the book and it said, “End of Book 1”. So bad news was, I didn’t get all the answers I wanted. Especially to the driving force of the story. But the GOOD news is that there will be a second book! Yay! Hopefully I get to participate in that tour too!

Thank you for taking the time to read another review today and I hope you enjoyed it, on Monday I will be reviewing Love Heart Lane by Christie Barlow.

Author Bio

Jennifer Macaire is an American living in Paris. She likes to read, eat chocolate, and plays a mean game of golf. She grew up in upstate New York, Samoa, and the Virgin Islands.

She graduated from St Peter and Paul High School in St Thomas and moved to NYC where she modelled for five years for Elite. She went to France and met her husband at the polo club. All that is true. But she mostly likes to make up stories.