Tempting Fate by April White

Title: Tempting Fate
Author: April White
Series: The Immortal Descendants #2
Published by: Indie
Release Date: June 28, 2014
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 401
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary Fantasy, Time Travel
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 1
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:

Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Clocker, Saira Elian is back on the run and being hunted by Mongers. The Descendants of War are amassing power in the 21st century, bent on controlling all the Immortal Descendants. Their attempt to kidnap Saira, a rare Descendant of Time and Nature, reveals just how brazen they’ve become. Archer, the vampire who has loved Saira for over a century, is willing to risk everything to protect her.

When a horrific vision reveals Ringo, thief and loyal companion from 1888, being tortured at the hands of the bloodthirsty Bishop Wilder in a Renaissance prison, Saira and Archer realize there has been a ripple in the river of Time, and they must travel to 1554 to find its source and save their friend. Their rescue mission lures them to the Tower of London, site of the most notorious executions in history, where they encounter the mysterious Lady Elizabeth who is confronting a terrible fate of her own.

The time-traveler, the vampire, and the thief will need all of their skills and ingenuity as they race against time to steal a document that could change the course of history and put the Immortal Descendants at the mercy of the Mongers. Can they stop a madman bent on collecting the blood of history’s most powerful Seer before the executioner’s axe falls?

My Review:

3.5 stars — I will admit that I stayed up pretty late into the night finishing this one, because I just really wanted to know what was going to happen.  I think if I was a history buff, I would enjoy these books even more.  As it is, I really haven’t retained much about British history, and so occasionally I felt a bit lost…like the knowledge wasn’t necessary for the book, but I bet it would make the book even more enjoyable.

Saira continues to frustrate.  I like her more than in book 1, but she is still incredibly immature in so many ways.  She’s had to grow up relying on her own independence, and as a result she holds people at arms length.  She kind of holds the reader at arms length too IMO.  I just have a hard time connecting with her and her decisions.  She does get called on some of it by a few people in this book, but I don’t know if I really believed in her growth afterwards…but maybe it was more believable in that she didn’t change right away but still stumbled around a bit.  I don’t know…for me she’s just hard to love and understand.

I still don’t quite get the level of intense connection between her and Archer either.  Like, it feels a bit more told than shown.  He’s super intense in his feelings for her, and I don’t know that I saw enough to make that make sense.  Especially because it sometimes feels like she just goes along with it rather than actually feels the same back for him.  I just want more.

On the other hand, Ringo remains an absolute standout for me.  He is SOOOOO easy to love, I admire him, I want to cuddle him, just…everything.  He’s smart, savvy, compassionate, sassy, just everything I want Saira to be.

We meet a lot of different characters in this one, and the pace is still pretty breakneck.  I’m enjoying the mystery of what Wilder is doing, and how all these little pieces come into play.  I definitely want to see how it plays out in the next book and beyond.

COYER Community: I buddy read this book with Berls and Linda, and I kind of raced ahead of them both.  Whoops.  We’re all definitely enjoying the story, and Saira more as time goes on.  Linda also rated it 3.5 rounded up (her review), and Berls rated it 4 stars (her review coming soon).