Seraphina has been alive since the 1300’s, made immortal when the boy she was beginning to love back then, Cyrus, saved her from death with a strange liquid – a method of alchemy that lets them swap bodies with any human being. But now, in modern day America, Sera has decided that she can no longer bear the weight of stealing people’s lives so she can keep living on. So she decides to run away from Cyrus and end her stolen existence once and for all. Her plan goes awry when she accidentally takes the body of a dying teenager and feels forced to take over her life. When the lines between Sera and Kailey’s identity begin to blur, Sera finds a reason to desire to live once more. But she can’t shake the guilt of having taken Kailey’s life, even if she was dying. And what if Cyrus finds her?

My reaction after the first few chapters: I’m not gonna liiiiiike this! Too vampire-like.
My reaction after finishing: Oh My! I CAN’T wait for the next book!

I loved this book! I can’t really think of anything critical to say about it at all, shocking as that is, because I only ever seem to remember the bad things about books. There were a few minor things that bugged me throughout the book, but you know what? I enjoyed The Alchemy of Forever so much that I’m going to let them slide (oooh, Slide…I should read that one next!).

So this is a super short book, I finished it in…I don’t know, four hours? Seraphina is Incarnate – her boyfriend Cyrus used his alchemy magic to keep her from dying when she was 14 in the 1300s, and now they take a new body every 10 years or so when the old one starts to die…which kills the soul that the body originally belonged to. Trouble is, Sera’s grown to hate Cyrus (who is Very Very Evil, but it never entirely explains how), and also she’s grown a conscience. So she tries to kill herself and accidentally ends up taking the body of a 16-year-old girl instead. The rest of the book is her trying to adjust to her new life.

I liked how GOOD Sera was. She felt guilty about basically accidentally killing Kailey, and she grew very attached to her new family. It’s also interesting to see Sera try to piece together who Kailey actually was and why she did some of the strange things she did…I can’t wait to read more about that in the next book.

My only real complaint about this book really doesn’t even bother me much anymore, but it’s that these people are realllllly similar to vampires, only without the blood. They call themselves a coven and search for new bodies to steal, I got a very Twilight-ish vibe in the beginning. I’m over it now.

And ohhhhhh, that ending! When’s the next book coming out???

I wonder if this will count towards the contemporary challenge? I sort of feel like even though it IS contemporary, the magic elements should exclude it. I don’t know!