Incarnation #1 The Alchemy of Forever

Alchemy is one topic which I never had really breached upon before, unless you regard Nicholas Flamel in popular culture (like Harry Potter or The Secret Life of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel), but this is the highest level of the subject I've have ever read before. So presenting my review of Incarnation #1 The Alchemy of Forever by Avery Williams.

Here is the summary of the book:

After spending six hundred years on Earth, Seraphina Ames has seen it all. Eternal life provides her with the world's riches but at a very high price: innocent lives. Centuries ago, her boyfriend, Cyrus, discovered a method of alchemy that allows them to take the bodies of other humans from jumping from one vessel to the next, ending the human's life in the process. No longer able to bear the guilt of what she's done, Sera escapes from Cyrus and vows to never kill again. Then sixteen-year old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrific car accident right in front of her, and Sera accidentally takes over her body while trying to save her. For the first time, Sera finds herself enjoying the life of the person she's inhabiting--and falling in love with the boy who lives next door. But Cyrus will stop at nothing until she's his again, and every moment she stays, she's putting herself and the people she's grown to care about in danger. Will Sera have to give up the one thing that's eluded her for centuries: true love?

What would you say when you hear the term Alchemy? Well either the factor of turning anything to pure Gold (Au) or immortality and both these things attribute to the legend of the philospher's stone but alchemy is more than just magic, its an advanced form of science and this is the alchemy which holds strong ground with Avery William's story.

Our story involved around the 1349 London where Seraphina Ames leads a peaceful life but due to situations that makes her hanging onto life, Sera is now an immortal, an incarnation along with her lover Cyrus. How does this Incarnation stuff work? Sera's soul is no longer tethered to her body anymore and all she has to do is inhibit the person, their soul is destroyed giving place to the incarnate's essence to occupy that body. It was her boyfriend Cyrus who had found this method of alchemy.

But centuries later Sera is no longer able to bear the guilt of what she had done and escapes from Cyrus trying to end the body she was in but sixteen year old Kailey Morgan gets into a horrifying car accident, Sera accidently takes over her body trying to save her. Sera in a teen body finally feels free despite her attempts to escape again and finds herself enjoying herself and falling in love with her next door neighbor but what she doesn't understand is that she may not really have won her cat and mouse chase with Cyrus yet, for the alchemist will do all he can to get Sera back.

The Alchemy of Forever is simply, a fast read and very new in the plot department which executed very nicely to shape this plot. Sera has seen it all and has it all every member of the group of incarnates but unlike others she is guilty about the part she played in the countless death of the several bodies she had inhabited. All she wants is freedom from this cursed life. She is quiet but at the same time fierce, and compliant. She clearly enjoys her new teenage life as Kailey Morgan. Cyrus on the other hand is clever, cruel and rather determined to always have his way. The cat and mouse game between is absolutely the most intriguing past of this book besides Sera's life in Kailey's body.

What I truly liked about this book was how alchemy was adapted to this story telling is a new theory of reincarnation (an idea which has long since eluded scientists all around the world) as jumping of the bodies essence/soul to a new vessel to gain a new life. Nonetheless I would have loved to more of the alchemy in here but maybe we will, since this book is the first part of the series. Would definitely like to know how Cyrus came to possess the elixir. Regardless this was an enjoyable read and Miss Williams has captured the characteristics of a person guilt-ridden and fed up with life perfectly. And that cliffhanger ending really keeps you on the edges.

"Can Sera gain the freedom and redemption that she seeks or does fate have another plan for her"

Genre :      Fiction, Romance, Paranormal


Publisher: Simon & Schuester


My Copy: Pulse It (reading circle of the publisher)


Rate:              5/5 (It was Awesome)