Review + Giveaway: Return Once More

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I can’t remember the last time I read a book involving time travel, which is surprising since I love history and historical fiction. When I read Return Once More‘s synopsis, I thought this would be a good book to start my time travel reads, and it was.

Return Once More begins with our main character, Kaia, witnessing Caesar’s death. We learn that earth was evacuated years ago and that mankind now lives on new planets. Technology has been developed for time travel, and the Historians, who Kaia is being trained by, are able to go back in time to observe what led to the fall of life on earth.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the time travel aspect. Trisha Leigh did a great job of researching many different parts of history for this story. I enjoyed reading the historical scenes and liked learning more about some events and time periods. I had trouble wrapping my head around a couple parts of the time travel technology parts themselves, but that can be expected with such an idea as time traveling.

In this future, another technology that has been created is the ability to find out who your True Companion (a.k.a. soulmate/one true love) is. This was interesting since your True could be from the past, present, or future. In Kaia’s case, she learns that her True is Caesar and Cleopatra’s son, Caesarion.

Even though Kaia is only an apprentice, she finds her brother’s old cuff that will allow her to travel back in time to meet her True. She does this and she and Caesarion have an instant connection and instant love for one another. Even though they were supposed to have an instant connection, I still found it hard to believe that they could fall in love with each other so quickly.

While all of this is going on, Kaia finds out that Oz, one of her classmates, has been also going back in time unsupervised and that he has been actually changing history. Digging deeper, Kaia releases that she and Oz have stumbled upon a conspiracy that will the affect the lives of everyone around them. This mystery was my favorite part. I definitely started flipping the pages faster while I got closer to the end. And, oh man, that ending. All I can say is that I hope that the sequel comes out soon!

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Return Once More, and I look forward to reading a sequel hopefully soon.

My Rating:

4 Hearts

*This ARC was provided to me by the publisher through NetGalley and Expresso Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.*


22718738About Return Once More

Release Date: September 29th 2015
Find It: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

If you could learn the identity of your one true love—even though you will never meet— would you?

Years have passed since refugees from a ruined earth took to space, eventually settling a new system of planets. Science has not only made the leaps necessary to allow time travel, but the process engineered a strange side effect—predicting your one true love.

If you could save your one true love from an untimely death, would you be able to resist?

Sixteen-year-old Kaia Vespasian is an apprentice to the Historians—a group charged with using time travel to document the triumphs and failures of the past—and she can’t resist a peek at her long-dead soul mate in Ancient Egypt. Before she knows it, she’s broken every rule in the book, and the consequences of getting caught could destroy more than just her new romance.

Or would you have the strength to watch him die?

But when Kaia notices a fellow classmate snooping around in a time where he doesn’t belong, she suspects he has a secret of his own—and the conspiracy she uncovers could threaten the entire universe. If her experience has taught her anything, to changing history means facing the consequences. The Historians trained her to observe and record the past, but Kaia never guessed she might have to protect it—in a race across time to save her only chance at a future.

trisha leigh - theheartofabookbloggerAbout Trisha Leigh

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Trisha Leigh is a product of the Midwest, which means it’s pop, not soda, garage sales, not tag sales, and you guys as opposed to y’all. Most of the time. She’s been writing seriously for five years now, and has published 4 young adult novels and 4 new adult novels (under her pen name Lyla Payne). Her favorite things, in no particular order, include: reading, Game of Thrones, Hershey’s kisses, reading, her dogs (Yoda and Jilly), summer, movies, reading, Jude Law, coffee, and rewatching WB series from the 90’s-00’s.

Her family is made up of farmers and/or almost rock stars from Iowa, people who are numerous, loud, full of love–the kind of people that make the world a better place. Trisha tries her best to honor them, and the lessons they’ve taught, through characters and stories–made up, of course, but true enough in their way.

Trisha is the author of THE LAST YEAR series and the WHITMAN UNIVERSITY books. She’s represented by Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency. If you enjoy New Adult books or a good contemporary romance, please check out her pen name, Lyla Payne!

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  • Great review! I love time travel books but they can be tricky and often complex. It sounds like this one is well written and I like that the historical scenes seem to be realistic! The future ones sound unique, too! Glad you liked it! 🙂

  • I second the first commenter – great review. The instant love observation stood out the most to me as I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with that trope in my reading pile lately, however it sounds like this story has a legitimate and fun reason for the quick pairings. I’m actually excited to see how Trisha works her magic!

    Thanks for the honest review and hosting the giveaway.

  • Great review! I’m wary of insta-love, but the premise of the book sounds so interesting that I think I’ll have to check it out!

  • WOAAAAHHHT? (Woah + What). WHAT is this MADNESS! Why haven’t I heard of his book yet? The whole entire concept sounds amazing my goodness. I’m adding it to my goodread shelf as we speak XD. I can’t even put in words my thoughts on this other than ASFHFDSFS DGF WTHW KSD ljga and asdfght.
    Thank you for the review, this book sounds great and you convinced me to read this :). So glad that you enjoyed it and that there is another awesome sounding time travel book out there :).
    Have a great weekend and happy holidays!

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