Review + Giveaway || Return Once More by Trisha Leigh

Synopsis:
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.

★★★★☆

Like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more. ― Sun Tzu

I'm torn with giving this book three stars or four. I love, love, love this book but there were few bleak and dull scenes.

Anyhoo, in this first book from the Historians series, we follow a sixteen year old Kaia. She's an apprentice to the Historians —a group charged with using time travel to document the triumphs and failures of the past. In a world where time travel is possible, people from this book can also predict their one true love when they turn seventeen. Of course, Kaia took the chance to find her one true love, the thing is, her soul mate was long dead from Ancient Egypt. Being the curious and independent thinker that she is, she can't resist a peek at her one true love. The Historians trained her to only observe and record the past so that they won't change the present. But with her classmate snooping around in the places he shouldn't be and her blossoming romance, she ask herself, is there way to return once more without the threat of changing the entire history?

It's been so long since a book excited me this much. It was such a stunning, stunning book and it really rendered me speechless. Until now, I haven't found the right word to describe this piece of magnificence. Anyway, fangirling aside, I absolutely love the idea of this book. I mean, I totally dig the idea where the apprentice goes back into time and record the small details of the important events in history without being seen. Since this book was set in the (faraway) future, there were definitely some great inventions and I love how the author wittingly introduce them to her readers.

The main character, Kaia, was so funny (for me anyway). She's also independent and kickass. I love her clever personality. Also, her soul mate, Caesarion was also a character that's very easy to like; plus, he's an old soul. I love Oz, even when he's being mysterious. I like the development of the characters and the supporting characters did their part well.

Overall, I absolutely love this book. I am really glad I read this one. I'm so excited for the next book.

Did I like the ending? Holy shit, yes! I already knew that that would happen but that was the most pleasant thing I've read in the book.

Is it a page turner? Yes.

Would I re-read it again? Again and again.

A man stepped forward, draped in the same off-white, purple-striped toga as the rest of the room. A senator of Rome, a nobleman. My brainstem tat spit out the answer into my mind before the question fully formed—Tillius Cimber.

My heart climbed into my throat, lungs struggling with oxygen. It was happening.

“You were going to consider my petition to return my brother from exile,” he said, too loudly. The words vibrated on the taught strands of anxiety in the air, bounding off the stone walls and crashing into my ears, easily translated by my tattoo.

It was hard not to wince, but that would shake my face. I’d been distracted enough today, wandering into the portico, and my tendency to be sidetracked did not endear me to the overseers or our Elders. My family had endured enough disgrace in the past few years without my adding to it by being a space cadet. I was two Level-1 sanctions away from the Elders notifying my parents. After what happened with my brother, they might die from shame.

“I’m still considering it,” Caesar replied, his tone dismissive.

My lungs ached with unspent air. They struggled to call out, to warn him.

Policy forbade any interaction, of course, and the brainstem tat did more than provide me with handy dandy information—it insisted I follow contemporary custom. It saved me a ton of studying but the downside meant occasionally losing control of my own limbs. It had forced me into an absurd curtsey on more than one occasion, once nearly toppling my giant wig right onto Marie Antoinette’s feet at a ball.

There was no way to change the scene that began to unfold in front of us, anyway. No way to nudge it a different direction without setting off unknown effects that might reach all the way to Genesis in 2560. I squeezed Analeigh’s hand tighter as Caesar shook off Cimber.

He barely took a step before another senator, Casca, stabbed him square in the neck, the blade sinking all the way to the hilt.

The almost comical surprise on his face slid quickly toward resignation as Brutus attacked him next, his blade strong and true as it sunk into his old friend’s heart. The betrayal in Caesar’s eyes sent a sizzling chill down my spine but no words passed his lips. He did not single Brutus out as more important than the others, despite the infamous line in Shakespeare’s version of these tragic events.

In fact, though he struggled and fought, Gaius Julius Caesar spoke not one more word as nearly sixty grown men surrounded him with daggers, each intent on taking their part of the blame—or the credit—by plunging their own weapon into flesh.

Sarah’s face turned pale, chalky, as the scene descended into a melee. Men stabbed each other instead of their target. Their leather shoes slipped in crimson puddles dotting the floor, more than one of them slipped, and Caesear disappeared inside a crowd of thrusting blades. The coppery, slick odor of spilled blood clogged the air, coated my tongue. I swallowed, and it stuck to my throat.

It seemed like it went on forever, but in reality, he bled out in mere minutes. Just a man, after all. Not a god.