For a Lifetime - (Timeless) by Gabrielle Meyer

Grace and Hope are twins who have inherited the ability to time travel between two different time periods. On their twenty-fifth birthday, they must choose one place, and stay there permanently. One life is in 1692, during the Salem witch trials. Their family is right in the middle of it, but the sisters will put their own lives in peril if they speak against it. Hope and Grace live hard lives where they must carry out the orders of their stern father. A mystery surrounds the death of their mother. Despite their restrictions, they try to uncover the truth. Their other life is in 1912, where Hope is part of the airplane interest that is sweeping the country. Hope loves to fly, and is fearless. She wants to be one of the first American women to pilot a plane. Grace has an exciting, but sometimes dangerous, job as an investigative journalist. Grace and Hope are working together to save their parents' orphanage, they are willing to take life-threatening chances to do so. The sisters have agreed that they will both pick the same time-period so they can live out their lives together. That is, until something unforeseen happens. The reader will be drawn into this exciting story, the twists and turns will cement their interest even more. This is part of a series, but each story stands on its own, and all involve time-travel, and the character's faith. Fans of history, time-travel, and amazing stories will especially like this five-star book. Thank you, Bethany House, for providing Tickmenot with a book to review. Opinions are my own.

These books always astound me! I will admit that I am a fan of time travel stories, so I was intrigued by the premise of these books right away. The protagonists always have a special “time crossing” gift: born with a special mark indicating a person as a “time crosser,” the marked person lives a double life, each in a different time period, but only until a specific birthday, on which day the character must choose only one time period to live in for the rest of their lives. See? The premise alone is fascinating and exciting. And every single book is masterfully done and woven together in such a way as to allow the characters to learn and grow, for maximum adventure and intrigue, and for the tug of each timeline to become incredibly taut. And this book followed the pattern incredibly! For a Lifetime is a little different in that there are twin girls who each bear the time crossing mark. Having twins with a deep connection really raised the stakes and the intensity on this one. There a good number of twists and turns and a couple of surprises. I thought I had figured out where things would go, but every single one of my guesses ended up being wrong. Every. Single. One. I only sort of figured out one thing. This one will kept me guessing and wondering from page one. Grace and Hope are as different as two sisters can be, but their bonds is indelible. I loved Hope’s tenacity and fire for life, and Grace’s quiet confidence and fierce loyalty. I loved their sister bond and the integral role that played in the story. I loved their relationships with their 1912 parents, and how much they valued family. Hope was a bit impetuous, and Grace a little over-cautious. But they both learned important things and became better people because of their willingness to learn from their trials. I really loved the heavier Christian themes in this one. The previous two books contained faith themes as well, but I feel like this one went a little deeper, and I loved that. I loved that both Grace and Hope had to learn to trust God in different ways, and the emphasis on God’s plan being better than our own was beautiful. But I also thought Gabrielle did a wonderful job in illustrating how sometimes God’s plan is a harder in the beginning, and that mourning the loss of our own plans is normal and okay. It’s very well done. I was completely hooked on this one from the very beginning and couldn’t put it down. The settings vary from opposite coasts of the United States to parts of Europe. The cast of secondary characters is broad, but not confusingly so. They all round out the story so well, particularly a couple of love interests whose names I will not mention. If you enjoy Christian fiction, time travel, dual timeline, or historical fiction, I’d recommend picking up these books. They just get better and better and this book is proof of that. It’s my favorite of the series by far. Give them a try! They do not disappoint. **TW/CW (contains some spoilers): This book covers the Salem witch trials, so there are some difficult subjects, including accusing others (sometimes falsely) of witchcraft and mention of hangings; death; aero plane stunts and accident; postpartum mother death; unmarried pregnancy; spouse abandonment; parental apathy and dismissal **Thanks to Bethany House and Austen Prose for the copy. All thoughts are my own.

Gabrielle Meyer definitely ups the ante with identical twin sister time-crossers who BOTH have to choose whether to stay in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts and 1912 New York City. If you’ve read the first two books, you know exactly what I’m talking about! If you haven’t, I would recommend starting with When the Day Comes. To me, this is a read-in-order series. So, watch out for SPOILERS below! Neither Grace nor Hope really want to stay in 1692 with the whole witch trial thing in full swing. Yikes! What an awful time to live through. Plus, they don’t have their mother, and their father surely isn’t worth staying for. They’ve got way more going for them in 1912 where Grace is an investigative journalist and Hope is flying planes. HOWEVER, there are many complications and even perhaps some possibilities that will make choosing a forever path more difficult than anticipated. Twists and turns, especially in the last half, kept me turning pages! The romance is interesting, and I kept wondering how all that was going to work out. I’ll keep my thoughts to myself so I don’t give anything away. Also, I think Meyer did a great job giving each twin a distinct personality! I’m probably mostly like Grace but with a dose of Hope’s fire. Even though the time travel part is obviously impossible in real life, the biblical truth of being able to trust God’s plan, path, and purpose for our lives shines through. AND NOW I’m so curious about the fourth book coming out in November! I wonder if my inkling will be correct? Such a fun and clever series. I received a complimentary paperback from the publisher. All opinions are my own.