Time's Convert

Time's Convert by Deborah Harkness, 436 pages

While everyone makes adjustments when approaching marriage, art historian Phoebe Taylor has decided to make the ultimate change and become a vampire so she can marry/mate Marcus de Clermont, the 160-year-old vampire with whom she has fallen in love. And in Harkness's world, becoming a vampire is no easy thing — rather, it is difficult and time-consuming, and requires Phoebe and Marcus to spend more than three months apart. As Phoebe struggles through her transition, Marcus reflects on his own rebirth during the American Revolution, and the many misadventures that followed before he settled into his current life.

Like the All Souls Trilogy that precedes this book, Time's Convert is filled with rich historical details and brushes with famous people and events (notably, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine). But given that so much of this is told in flashback, it lacks the driving tension and dangerous edges that appeared in the Trilogy. Also, it's worth noting that although this tells the story of Phoebe and Marcus rather than the Trilogy's protagonists, Diana and Marcus, this is by no means a standalone novel; you have to read the Trilogy before you pick up this one, otherwise you'll be lost in all of the confusing vampire and witch references and familial relationships. As a sequel, it was OK, though it really just made me want to reread the Trilogy.