Book: The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams

 

 ★ ★ ★ ★/★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I always love books like this, compelling and quick read. I fell in love with it the moment I saw the cover. And I don't regret picking it up. :)

Cyrus and Seraphina are lovers. Or they used to be until Sera saw Cyrus change over time. They've lived for centuries together with some of their friends. They are incarnates, immortals, people who could never die unless they choose to. They can live forever but with a very high price: innocent lives. In order for them to live, they must take over the body of other humans. Cyrus made her and their other friends like that. It's alchemy.

But living for a  very long time, seeing everything this world could offer, Sera starts to question the way they live. Are their lives more important than those they kill? She starts to feel her conscience eating her up. She can't take another human life just for her to live another years. She's tired of living under Cyrus always guarding her and controlling her life. So the night she's supposed to kill another human life in order to live, she sticks to her plan: to leave, for good. She didn't tell anyone about her plan not even to her bestfriend, Charlotte.

So she runs away from her first love, her friends, her life, from Cyrus. She's determined to die but when she sees a girl, the kind of girl she would choose for her next life, she decides to do one last good will for herself. Tarryn, just like her, wants to jump off the bridge for some reason. Sera tries talking to her and finally convinces her to try to live another moment. She's relieved to have saved a life. Now she can finally jump. But then a car accident happens. Thinking Tarryn might be involved, Sera rushes to see. She doesn't see Tarryn but instead another girl almost dying. With the thought of she can save the girl too, she tries to revive her. But the pull of life inside her takes over, wanting to possess the body of the girl. She tries to resist but then something inside her tells her that she's not ready to die too. Maybe she is but there's still something inside her that wants to continue living. And that's when everything gets messed up.

Sera, or supposedly Kailey, wakes up in the hospital with a family she doesn't know. Thinking she can get out of this when they get to Kailey's home later, Sera pretends to be Kailey. But waiting turns to staying. Now she needs to decide whether to stay or go. It's not her plan but the thought of being free and away from Cyrus overwhelms her. Maybe she can pretend to be Kailey. Maybe she can stay with her family. Maybe Cyrus won't look for her anymore with the note she left him. Maybe it's a new life for her. But who knows?

The story continues with Sera starting to love the life of Kailey. Her parents, her brother, Bryan, her bestfriend, Leyla and the boy next door, Noah. Everything and everyone makes her want to stay. But there's still a problem. She must destroy the book of Cyrus she took with her when she ran away and she must find Tarryn, who she suspects took her car with her bag inside with the book that night of accident. She also worries that Tarryn saw what she did to Kailey which is a big problem. So she needs to take chances on finding Tarryn to be at peace. But when a substitute teacher for their bio class shows up one day, Sera knows to be at peace is never on her world. She knows it's Cyrus. 

“Two years away. To an Incarnate, it's nothing. But when you have people who care about you, who you're excited about, each day becomes significant.”

The book is really good and I can't wait to start with the next book.