...Set in the same world as Harkness’ previous novels, Time’s Convert is not simply a continuation of The Book of Life...it is Matthew’s son, Marcus, and his fiancée, Phoebe, who take center stage. With this couple, Harkness is allowed to do what she does best, weaving a rich and mesmerizing love story that jumps between past, present and future, as she delves into Marcus’ origin story and juxtaposes it with Phoebe’s own struggles as a fledgling vampire. Harkness’ depictions of Revolution-era America and France are vivid and detailed, while her examination of the various ways one can form a family and all its inherent complications are thoughtful and moving ... For those who have already read Harkness’ previous books, Time’s Convert is a welcome reunion with old friends.
...Harkness brings her keen historian’s eye to the American and French revolutions, drawing parallels between the two periods through not only the vampire witnesses to history but the appearances of historical figures ... But without the quest to find Ashmole 782 that drove the first three books, Time’s Convert feels aimless and is susceptible to Harkness’ tendencies to cram her novels full of interesting details of questionable value to the plot and myriad characters who are name-checked but never appear in the flesh. The result is a novel that feels bloated instead of buoyant as it carries a new generation of de Clermont offspring on their own adventures.
...This time around, she focuses on a previously introduced minor character who demonstrates that it’s not always easy to make the leap from humanhood to vampiredom. When young surgeon Marcus MacNeill, nearing certain death, meets Matthew de Clermont during the American Revolution, he jumps at the chance at immortality proffered by Matthew. However, the transition proves to be more difficult than expected, as his background and his innate sense of self continually vie with new expectations and challenges. Effortlessly sweeping across time and continents, Harkness replaces the captivating Matthew and Diana dynamic with a passionate new love story when Marcus meets Phoebe Taylor in contemporary London.
Time's Convert is a well-written story with characters you cannot help but care about. I am sure this will not be the last time we see these individuals as Harkness has created a nice fictional universe in which to lose yourself.
[Time's Convert is] a cross between a supernatural romance, a domestic slice-of-life-with-magic, and an historical picaresque: a long, roomy, eclectic novel set on being almost all things to almost all readers ... As a romance novel, the book is unusual in that the emotional aspects of the romance have been completely settled before the book ever begins ... This is a book about slow healing and slow growth, and its epic length and sprawling world are necessary to give the characters enough space for that healing and growth to proceed in a realistic way. That said, things do occasionally become too convoluted ... Also, though there are many wonderful female characters with agency, personality, and interesting backstories, the males who get the most focus tend to be, for various reasons, compelled to behave in very standard romance-novel ways... This means that the men don’t feel as three-dimensional as the women, more wish-fulfillment than accurate portrait.
Ritual and necessity demand that these two lovers remain apart for three months as Phoebe learns to control her new aptitudes and hungers. The separation inspires Marcus to recall his coming-of-age during the Revolutionary War, his troubled relationship with his abusive birth father, and the vampiric rebirth that links him to a new and powerful family ... The book rambles from storyline to storyline at a leisurely pace until coming to a fairly abrupt halt with some rapid epiphanies that don’t feel entirely supported by what came before. Initially, it is strongly suggested that the book’s pivot will involve Marcus' confessing a shocking secret, but it’s actually revealed fairly early on, and another potentially climactic event, the massacre of Marcus’ vampire children in New Orleans, is almost perfunctory ... A moderately involving gift for fans, offering Harkness’ usual loving attention both to historical detail and romantic/familial angst, but perhaps the author will apply her talents to fresh fictional territory in the future.
...The first in a new series set in the world of her , vampire Marcus Whitmore, son of Matthew de Clermont, is set to marry 23-year-old human Phoebe Taylor, who will be made a vampire herself. Marcus’s required 90-day separation from Phoebe during the process inspires him to seek comfort at the home that his father shares with his wife, the witch Diana Bishop. Diana, through her magic, senses that Marcus hasn’t come to terms with his past as a field doctor during the Revolutionary War and the events leading up to his rebirth as a vampire in 1781, and attempts to draw him out. Meanwhile, Diana and Matthew’s delightful brightborn (half-vampire, half-witch) twins Philip and Becca are already manifesting an alarming aptitude for magic. Harkness’s busy, meticulously researched narrative moves back and forth between present-day Paris and the days of the Revolutionary War, and her easy familiarity with her fully realized characters will make readers feel at home.
