Echo by
Lorena Glass
Echo by
Lorena Glass is an epic love story spanning centuries and places,
detailing the eternal connection of two souls bound by love, and suffering, and
destined to be joined and separated over and over again. Themes of
relationships, love, duty and honor are woven together using threads of time
travel and drama to create a powerful story that speaks to a part in all of us,
however small, that delights in true connections between people that can
transcend our understanding of what love is.
Now initially I was skeptical about this book, as I am with
all romance books or stories with strong themes of love, but the other aspects
of this book, time travel, experiencing different cultures from different time
periods, made me intrigued, and I do try and push outside of my comfort zone. I
took a chance on this book and as not disappointed. We first meet Karissa, a
girl who time travels to find her lost love, and the depths of her devotion to
him, to what they had, is so poignant in the book, so beautifully articulated
that even the most cynical can emphasis with her. As the story develops, the
characters are well flushed out and so relatable I felt my heart break along
with theirs, and swell when their love was at its height.
The first iteration of this relationship was magical, it was
so well thought through and enough time and care was given to grow their
intimacy naturally, however as these two souls continue to travel through time
to find each other again the following relationships are given less and less
time to season organically, instead I felt as if they were rushed quicker and
quicker as the narrative went on. This was really my only criticism, and its
because the first relationship was so well developed I wanted to know and
understand each subsequent one in the same way, but their stories felt rushed.
Of course there was purpose in this, Glass has set this up as a trilogy and
obviously a certain amount of progress had to be made before the book could
end, however I wish I could have gotten to know the other characters as well as
I knew the first two.
Saying so, though, does mean that Glass has achieved what
all authors crave; for their readers to connect with and become invested in the
characters they create. The story is simple, but compelling, rich in the breath
of human emotions, and their capacity to love, and this is coming from someone
who is contemptuous of the genre. This book is highly worth the investment, and
I look forward to the rest of the trilogy.
To buy the book through Amazon.ca click here.