The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams

The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams
Incarnation #1
Release Date: April 26, 2012
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Source: For Review
Rating: Enjoyable

After spending six hundred years on Earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world's riches but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to take the bodies of other humans from jumping from one vessel to the next, ending the human's life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she's done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again.

Then sixteen-year old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body while trying to save her. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she's inhabiting--and falling in love with the boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she's his again, and every moment she stays, she's putting herself and the people she's grown to care about in danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that's eluded her for centuries: true love?- Goodreads

The Alchemy of Forever is a very short book at just over 250 pages. At first I was wary, because I often find that authors don't flesh out the characters or the plot in shorter novels and they're trying to keep it compact, and then I end up disliking the book. This wasn't exactly the case with The Alchemy of Forever though. I did enjoy it, just not as much as I was hoping to.

Seraphina is the main protagonist and she is over 600 years old. Over these 600 years, she has been stuck with the same guy - Cyrus - who made her what she is. Sera is a really nice protagonist, who feels it is now her time to die. Instead, she is transferred into the body of a dying girl and she ends up living with this girl's family and friends, living her life.

I have to admit, we don't know much about Seraphina. Does she have any hobbies or interests? The lack of hobbies may be explained by her backstory, as she grew up in the 1400's and her main interest was finding a husband, and then her life revolved around Cyrus after that. I don't know, though, I just thought we'd learn more about her than we did.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed reading about Sera and how selfless she could be. She really did want to just leave this world instead of killing people so she could take over their bodies. I loved reading about her as she settled into her new life, however brief that may have been. I have to say, though, that for a 600 year old she really did make some stupid decisions. She claims that she knew Cyrus as well as he knew her and yet... Well, that would be a spoiler. Let's just say she doesn't know him as well as she thought, or she is just ridiculously naive.

Cyrus is one scary guy! He was probably my favourite part of the novel. He's an excellent antagonist and whenever he was on the page I was holding my breath, waiting for him to make his move.

Noah is the love interest, but he didn't really do much. I liked him well enough, but he wasn't the most interesting character. At all. He seemed really sensitive and plain, and that's just not my thing.

The Alchemy of Forever is very gripping and fast paced. I read it in just five hours, before I went to bed, and I am so glad I stayed awake to finish it! Avery Williams has a fabulous writing style which makes what could have been an average book ten times better!