Timeless by Pamela Diane King Book Review (KISS #1)

Seventeen-year-old California cheerleader Jessica is beautiful, wealthy, and popular. She has everything she could ever want, except happiness. But her world changes forever when Tommy, a dark, sexy, mysterious stranger arrives at school on a motorcycle the first day of senior year. Sweeping her off her feet, she loses her heart to him. But will time tear them apart forever?

Hello my lovely readers!

To jump-start my new summer series: KISS (Kindle-Inspired Summer Series) I want to introduce you to the first Kindle YA romance novel in my reviewing series: Timeless by Pamela Diane King.

Pages: 96

Publisher: Pamela Diane King

Price: Free*

Place: Amazon, GoodReads

Timeless by King had me quite intrigued with the “back-cover” description. I’m a sucker for the “bad-boy & good-girl” romance story-lines. I was hoping to enjoy a quick little read about two opposites attracting in a high school setting with a great little suspense twist; however, as much as the story was cute and full of potential, I found it a little lacking.

What I really enjoyed was the interwoven poetry. The opening epigraph was fitting and the Shelly poem within the novel was a great pull for me. I enjoy poetry and it was nice to see it’s inclusion within the novel, especially as a way for the characters to connect.

I also found the overall idea and story line for the novel a great idea. It just need a better execution. The suspense wasn’t exciting enough for me to really leave a mark. I wanted to see it more throughout the novel as a whole and not just at the end. It wasn’t developed enough to make the revelation at the end seem a part of the novel unless you include the small prologue at the beginning.

The revelation at the end also added to the problems I had with Tommy. Tommy as a character was described as the bad-boy: motorcycle driving, leather-jacket wearing, loner-status. All these descriptions would make you think that he’d have the personality to match: distant, a little troubled, or a womanizer of some-kind whose into some “dangerous” thing  but in
the end turns out to be good deep-down. With Tommy, he was good right-away. His personality completely threw me off. He was distant and a little mysterious on the first day, but by the time the two characters meet (chapter 2 and the end of the week) he’s completely sweet and nice.

Which brings me to another issue I had with the story: Tommy and the main character Jessica fell in love instantly. There was no give-and-go like most opposite characters that eventually fall in love. It happened right away. I really enjoy YA romance novels or love stories in general for the actual story of them falling in love. This one was more of a story about surviving everyone else’s reactions to their love. They’re in a relation for most of the story and it’s about Jessica dealing with her stalker, semi-psycho ex, what her “friends” thought, and what her parents were going to do. Instead of the actual story of the two characters falling in love as I expected. 

Jessica’s character was more developed then Tommy’s and King did a relatively good job of trying to show a change in her character. Jessica started out as a popular cheerleader who followed the crowd of the populars because she was dating star-athlete Brad. But throughout the novel she begins acting on the feelings she had about not feeling satisfied in that world. Jessica begins doing the things she wanted to do and making new friends. However there were a few things about Jessica’s character that bothered me. Her character over-stated the Grease references and this turned the book a little cliche for me. After the third reference, I was like ‘Ok I got it,” but it appeared more then necessary in the novel. Her character also came off a little bit younger than 17. She seemed more like she was 15 in the novel instead of an older teenager. 

Overall, King’s novel was relatively enjoyable. I found inconsistencies and some grammatical errors throughout the novel which deterred me. However, the idea that King has in this novel is a great one. If she would rewrite the novel to include a better foreshadowing of the “twist” and to better develop Tommy and Jessica’s personalities so that they don’t come off as cliche or confusing, I believe she’d have a better novel. The twist at the end seemed like the best part and would have been a great lead-off for King’s novel if it appeared earlier in the book.

The Final Grades:

My Grade: C+
Kindle Rating: 4.2/5 stars; 876 reviews

Have you read Timeless? Let us know what you thought in the comments below! Or tweet us @PopCrunchBoom or hashtag #PCBreaders 🙂 

As always,

xo
NicoleLynn 

*price was Free as of the date of this review.