A Gift of Time by Sarah Wynde Book Review

Title: A Gift of Time
Author: Sarah Wynde
Series: Tassamara #3
Publishing Date: December 14, 2013
Publisher: Rozelle Press
Language: English
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal
ISBN13: 9781494492809
Edition: eBook

She thought she could see everything. Time is proving her wrong.

Ten years ago, Natalya’s ability to remember the future cost her the life she wanted when her vision of her fiancé’s death tore them apart. Ever since, she's considered her precognition more of a curse than a gift. How can she live in the present when the future looms so large?

But when the night she's long dreaded finally arrives, Natalya's vision and reality diverge. She and her ex, Colin, are drawn into a web of the unexplained, led by a mysterious little girl. Who is Kenzi? And where did she come from? The little girl might be the reason Fate has spared Colin’s life, but could she also bring Natalya and Colin together again?

With Colin, Kenzi, her family, the townspeople of Tassamara, and a set of circumstances that nobody could foresee, Natalya must solve the puzzle of a lifetime. Her discovery that her gift is not the only one at work will change the lives of everyone around her as time becomes precious in a most unexpected way… and the clock is ticking.

Review

The introduction was really compelling. It's emotionally gripping when the protagonist, Natalya, has to face what she's been dreading for the past decade: the death of her love. As a clairvoyant, she sees probable misfortune that will come to her and her loved ones. Tassamara has always been a special place. Many of its residents are gifted with psychic abilities. If not Tassamara's natives are born with special abilities, foreign psychics are drawn to it.

Because having special gifts is nothing new in Tassamara, when Natalya shared what she saw of Collin's impending demise, it was an accepted fact to all as Natalya's vision has never once failed until ten years later when the awaited incident finally occurred.

I really enjoyed this book. It made me learn a lot of things especially about the works in adoption and search and rescue in Florida. What I like most about this book is that there's a lot of details. I'm not from the USA so I don't have any idea what goes on in the procedures for finding a missing person. For this book, it's a case of a found child, a seven-year old girl. There's a lot of work involved, with different departments and agencies working together with all of their exhaustive works. I love to say A Gift of Time is an intelligent book because I learned a lot. The author did her research well. Sarah Wynde even did well with the business aspect of handling a medical facility and how to manage some high-end technology which are fictional but convincing nonetheless.

Even if she hadn’t hurt the children herself, foster parents were mandatory reporters: her silence was a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

The author even talked about Schrödinger's cat and his wave function. Akira, the protagonist for A Gift of Ghosts, has a PhD in Physics and she has a relevant role in Natalya's story. Sarah Wynde clearly understands what Akira is talking about. She has a good background in the sciences. I've read Akira's story ages ago and I've forgotten the details but I know Zane could match up with Akira in terms of biology. It's because of that book that I was plunged to read A Gift of Time.

A Gift of Time is a mature book not because of explicit scenes (you'll find none) but because the characters involved are on their thirties. Everything here has a mature tone to it. In fact, there wasn't much of a love story here. It's clear that Collin (a sheriff) and Natalya (a doctor) are going to wind up together not because this book belongs to a HEA series but because the narration itself entails it.

The emphasis on the story is not about how Collin and Natalya would end up together but rather about how hand-in-hand they would, together, help save some kids from misfortune. We won't feel some tension between the two since what we're really concerned about is whether they'll make it in saving kids without either getting hurt in the process.

Sarah Wynde's characters feel like real people. They have gifts but they're not off-putting. Most of all, the central characters have good senses and that's what makes them likeable. There's not a single time that you'd be angry with any of of the characters no matter what decision they make for every unlikely circumstance they're in. They all make the right call and they have the power to do so and the author made it in a way that the characters' abilities aren't overpowering.

A thing that's adorable in this book is how the author was still able to put humor in unlikely places:

Natalya was definitely under duress. She’d have to be at gunpoint to eat at McDonald’s.

Natalya seems to be a strict vegetarian and that quote above is very funny. Seriously, there's no time for your to be choosy when you're held at gunpoint.

Even by reading only two books in the Tassamara series, I could say that the series is good. The characters are easy to love and the plot delivers. There's foreshadowing near the beginning that you'll think the details in the dialogue regarding Collin's recent police operation is nothing but a way of putting, "This is for real. We're doing police work". As it turned out, it's relevant to the story and all those thrown-in details here and there will eventually click in place together to build upon the climax. Sarah Wynde is a smashing storyteller.