Book: Every Last Kiss by Courtney Cole

Published by Lakehouse Press

Purchased for my Nook (244 pages)

Genre: YA: Historical Fiction/Fantasy

Find out more: Goodreads~Barnes And Noble~Amazon~Courtney Cole

Goodreads Summary: 17-year old Macy Lockhart has the weight of the world on her shoulders. 

For thousands of years, she has been a Keeper in the ancient organization, the Order of the Moirae. She literally holds fate in her hands. 

But this is something that she forgets, because her memories are wiped clean when she is reborn each time, until it is time for her cycle to begin again in her seventeenth year in each life. 

And for the last two thousand years, this has never been a problem. Until now. But now, fate is being challenged and to fix it, she is forced to return to a previous life, one where she was Cleopatra’s handmaiden, Charmian. 

Cue up the second problem: Unless she interferes with the fabric of time, the very thing she has returned to repair, then her soul mate, Hasani, will die leading Marc Antony’s armies against Rome. Can she really stand aside and allow the love of her life to die all over again?

There is something very beautiful about Every Last Kiss.  I love the setting and how everything is described.  I mean, how often do you see ancient Egypt as a setting, and Cleopatra as a character?  It’s nice to see a novel where the character doesn’t travel back to medieval Europe, or history that isn’t European.  I so want to go back to ancient Egypt after reading this book.  Some of the details are great, and they really made the novel interesting.

The premise is interesting- she holds fate in her hands, and every 17 years, she starts over, with her memories wiped clean.  The reincarnation aspect isn’t that unusual, and is even the teensiest bit cliche now.  Her going back 2000 years, and then foward 2000 years…it didn’t work for me.  It starts and ends in a completely predictable way.  There are some random time shifts, which were a little distracting.  I feel like there’s this really big picture, and that going back in time are really important, but we don’t really know what’s going on.  It just felt convoluted.

I didn’t get the romance- it’s clear there is one, but it didn’t work because we don’t see enough of it.  It’s really hard to see and understand why they’re so in love.  Then again, romance isn’t the main focus of the novel…but it’s likely to take center stage in the remaining books.

Things moved along, but I just couldn’t connect with the characters, especially Macy.  I didn’t feel like there was enough conflict- she had to choose between not changing destiny because of the potential consequences and saving the guy she loves.  It was hard to see why she’d want to save Hasani, but I will admit that the idea of changing destiny and history was intriguing.  It’s a shame it wasn’t really explored and that she ended up accepting that she couldn’t change things.

I didn’t mind modern language, because she did go back in time, and that’s to be expected.

It gets a 2 out of 5.  It was okay, and I don’t think I’m interested enough to keep reading.