Categories: Fantasy, Young Adult, Graphic Novel, and Adventure.
"The first rule is that you don't fall in love, ' he said... 'There are other rules too, but that is the main one. No falling in love. No staying in love. No daydreaming of love. If you stick to this you will just about be okay."
A love story across the ages - and for the ages - about a man lost in time, the woman who could save him, and the lifetimes it can take to learn how to live
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. Tom has lived history--performing with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald. Now, he just wants an ordinary life."
To be fully honest, this book was an actual disappointment read to me, originally added it to my TBR because it was recommended to me by "if you love this, you will like this" posts, and I love the Beast and the Beauty retellings and this was an advertisement to me as such. And the second thing that sold me this was this pharaph "The first rule is that you don't fall in love, ' he said... 'There are other rules too, but that is the main one. No falling in love. No staying in love. No daydreaming of love. If you stick to this you will just about be okay." And I was ready to get my heart ripped out of my chest - expecting to cry my eyes out but no tears were shed.
The narrative at first was great as it is told in the present time and the past time which is relative to the topic of the chapter rather than an actual timeline narration. However, It feels like a really bad flow of narration. The idea was great but the execution was missed. Not to mention the time jumps in the middle of scenes made it very difficult to settle into the emotions and atmosphere of any time period, thus it feels pointless.
The characters did have somewhat character development towards the end (I think..?), although not major enough to fall in love with them and relate to one. There is nothing more I can say or add to this point.
Also, The name-dropping of historical persons made it like "cause I saw them in their prime and the struggle to said prime, thus, I knew better.", like i get it, the dude lived through ages and for a long time but even that was not interesting enough for me to invent feelings. Maybe it did not impress me enough to pour emotions? idk.
The expected plot twist did not engage me to invent more emotions into the book but just wanted to finish it and I was happy and relieved.. - and the ending was also expected, it was not unique, and there is no magic because many books and stories have similar and expected endings but the way they were told was different.
Lastly, the cover is the main reason I kept reading the book. And 1/4 through the book, I just skimmed through to move on - it got boring real quick.
Therefore; 1/5 for the story plus 1/5 for the concept idea that kept reminding me of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
⭐️⭐️/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
