Hello, everyone! I have a rare Sunday review today. This was meant to be Friday’s post, but I didn’t get around to it because I took a bit of a spill. I was walking along the sidewalk and ended up faceplanting because of an uneven patch of concrete. My knees and knuckles got pretty banged up, and I pulled some muscles in my back. So, I wasn’t really feeling much like writing a review. lol. Anyway… Here’s my review of All We Have Is Time by Amy Tordoff, which is available now wherever you pick up your books.

In this fresh and entrancing debut novel that is perfect for fans of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and The Ministry of Time, a jaded immortal woman and a time traveler fall in love across the centuries, learning what it means to really live and love before their time together runs out.

1605, London. Beatrix lives a solitary life in the shadows, wandering the city streets looking for ways to forget. Forget that everyone she has ever loved has been dead for nearly a century. Forget that, for her, love can only ever mean loss. Because Beatrix has a secret: a lifetime ago her deathbed wish was granted, making her immortal.

Until one day, while picking pockets amid the raucous crowds of Shakespeare’s Globe, she meets Oliver. They spend a single, perfect day together before he tells her that he has to leave. She’s not surprised; eternity is a lonely place.

When Beatrix and Oliver meet again by chance a century later, recognition hits her like a bolt of lightning. It’s impossible. He’s impossible. Just like her. A chance for Beatrix to truly live – and love – again sparks into existence.

Woven between the biggest events in history and the quiet moments lost to it, from London in 1605 to Woodstock in 1969 and beyond, All We Have Is Time is an unforgettable love story for anyone who believes love can rewrite the rules of time.

***Thank you to Atria Books for providing an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience.***

I picked up All We Have Is Time because of the comparisons to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. This book definitely had Addie vibes, as well as quite a few plot similarities, and it had me super emotional and shedding some tears by the end. Although, there were some distinct differences with the inclusion of the time travel element and the more pronounced focus on loss and grief in addition to the isolation of immortality. Was it as good as Addie LaRue? No, not really, but I did enjoy my time with it.

I’ll be honest. Beatrix as the central character in All We Have Is Time was a bit of downer. She had a pretty awful childhood and then loses everyone she loves because of her newfound immortality. To avoid the pain of further loss and grief, she chooses a path of loneliness and does everything she can to get by without getting close to anyone. It was a hard and long life, and reading from her POV was more than a little miserable in the beginning of the story. Then Oliver entered the picture.

Where Beatrix was just trying to survive day by day without feeling overwhelmed by what she’d lost, Oliver was determined to live every moment to its fullest and experience everything he could fit into the time he had available to him. He was a breath of fresh air and just the catalyst Beatrix needed to learn how to truly live life again. The story of their relationship was a bumpy one with lots of longing, plenty of seemingly endless waits, and Beatrix constantly getting in her own way because of her fear of being hurt by loss again. It was a truly epic love story, though, that spanned centuries for one of them and a matter of months for the other.

While I loved hopping through time with these characters in All We Have Is Time, the pacing kept each era from feeling as fleshed out as it could have been. The chapters jumped back and forth throughout time, and it was quite jarring, especially in the beginning. The sheer scope of the centuries covered also meant that each time period didn’t get much page time, especially with Oliver only being able to spend 12 hours at a time in the past. So, some of the historical aspects just didn’t have quite the impact that I wanted. There also wasn’t much explanation provided for the time travel or fantasy aspects of the story. It wasn’t necessarily needed for the story being told, but I’d never say no to more detail. lol.

All in all, if you’re looking for a compelling love story told across time, All We Have Is Time is probably a good option to pick up. It weaved a beautiful and emotional tale about what it means to live life to the fullest and illustrated that the connections we make along the way are what give life purpose and meaning, even if we end up losing them. All things considered, I rate the book 3.5 out of 5 stars.

There you have it! My thoughts on All We Have Is Time by Amy Tordoff. Does this sound like a story you’d enjoy? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!