Timeless
Author: Alexandra Monir
Pages: 304
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: January 11, 2011
Source: La Femme Readers, ARC

via Goodreads:

When tragedy strikes Michele Windsor’s world, she is forced to uproot her life and move across the country to New York City, to live with the wealthy, aristocratic grandparents she’s never met. In their old Fifth Avenue mansion filled with a century’s worth of family secrets, Michele discovers a diary that hurtles her back in time to the year 1910. There, in the midst of the glamorous Gilded Age, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life – a man she always wished was real, but never imagined could actually exist. And she finds herself falling for him, into an otherworldly, time-crossed romance. Michele is soon leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves – a quest that will determine the fate of both of their lives...

Review: Michele is living a regular teenage life despite the secret that her mother is an heiress to NYC billions. Though her family ancestry is the talk of her history class, only her two closest friends know that she's from that Windsor line. All is going great in Michele's life. Then her mother dies. And her stodgy grandparents that she's never met are named her legal guardians.

Uprooting her entire life, Michele moves across the country and into her hallway of rooms at the Windsor Mansion. But there's something missing. Her grandparents are as distant as before, her new classmates couldn't care less about Michele, and everywhere she goes, she sees something that reminds her of her mother. Then Michele finds her ancestor's diary.

At first, Michele has no idea that the diary is more than it appears. When she is whisked back in time to meet her great-relatives, belief in the impossible starts to set in. Then she meets Philip Walker, the son of the Windsor's greatest rivals, the Walkers. In this time period though, Philip is engaged to one of the Windsor daughters.. and completely miserable with his life.

In her multiple trips back and forth in time, Michele comes to trust the daughter of her grandparent's secretary, who covers for her every mysterious vanish with no problems. (If I was her, I'd be begging to tag along with, and or demand some kind of retribution for having to cover for your disappearing self at all hours of the night.)

When Michele and Philip fall in love, they set out to change the history of their families. Their love spans decades, but once they have each other, will they be able to let go?

I loved this book... it was an adorable read that I felt compelled to finish as soon as I started reading.

Wins:

• Adorable story line
• Great main character characterization
• Accurate and interesting portrayal of different time periods

Let Downs:

• Cliffhanger ending that left me wanting more
• Secondary characters were lacking in believability
• I seriously questioned the plausibility of the ending