Grasping at Eternity

Grasping at Eternity

by Karen Amanda Hooper

Maryah Woodsen is a fairly typical teen.  She's got parents who often say the wrong thing and a twin brother who tries to keep the peace, but teases his sister relentlessly.

Her life is pretty good.

Until the screaming starts.

After weeks recovering in the hospital, Maryah is moved across the country to her godmother's home.

There, she meets a family who take her in immediately and seem to love her with almost no hesitation.  The only person who seems to actively avoid her is Nathan, her godmother's son.

But Nathan is avoiding her for a reason.

It turns out that the entire family are kindrily, a kind of family that reincarnates and finds each other over and over again.  The only condition to them being together is that they keep their memories from one life to the next and never "erase" between lives.

And Maryah did just that.  She erased after her last life and no one understands why, least of all her soulmate for the last five centuries, Nathan.

Now Maryah and her new family have to find a way to work together because something is coming, and it's possible that Maryah's the key to it all.

Final thoughts: This is a nice, new, original story that I really liked.  The whole idea of the reincarnation of soulmates and keeping or erasing memories is fascinating.  My only real issue was with Hooper trying to explain the Elements and how those Elements gave supernatural powers to each of the members of the kindrily.  It felt a little forced.  However, that doesn't stop the coolness factor of the story itself.  I'm looking forward to the second book.

Rating: 4/5