Stealing Infinity war mein erstes Buch der Autorin und ich habe mich riesig darauf gefreut. Nicht nur, weil das Buch ein echter Hingucker ist, sondern auch, weil ich den Klappentext und die ganze Thematik rund um das Thema Zeit und Zeitreisen super spannend und interessant finde. Der Schreibstil hat mir sehr gut gefallen, er war fesselnd und alles war sehr bildhaft geschrieben. Ein weiterer Pluspunkt waren die kurzen Kapitel. Dadurch wurde das Buch zu einem richtigen Pageturner und wenn ich das Buch nicht im Buddyread gelesen hätte, hätte ich es wahrscheinlich in einem Rutsch durchgelesen. Die Geschichte handelt von Natascha. In der Schule ist sie eher eine Außenseiterin und hat nicht viele Freunde. Mit Ausnahme von Elodie, die sie eines Tages überredet, die Schule zu schwänzen, um mit ihr in einem ominösen Club zu feiern. Von diesem Moment an ändert sich Nataschas ganzes Leben, denn sie wird auf die Gray Wolf Academy gebracht, wo Zeitreisen auf dem Stundenplan stehen. Natascha war mir von Anfang an sympathisch, auch wenn ich sie im Laufe der Geschichte ein paar Mal als ziemlich nervig empfunden habe, so mochte ich sie dann doch ganz gerne. Ich fand die Geschichte gerade am Anfang unheimlich spannend. Man hat tausend Fragen im Kopf und es gibt immer wieder neue Geheimnisse, Theorien und unerwartete Wendungen. Leider war ich zum Ende hin ziemlich enttäuscht, da alles irgendwie offen bleibt und nur noch mehr ungeklärte Fragen hinzukommen. Auch die Lovestory konnte mich leider nicht richtig abholen. Trotzdem bin ich super gespannt auf Band 2 und hoffe, dass er alle meine Fragen beantworten kann.

Zeitreise mit Kunstgeschichte. Eine Zeitreisegeschichte der Besonderenart. Das etwas düstere Academy Setting ist genial und die Umsetzung der Idee noch besser. Habe ohne Probleme ins Buch gefunden und haufenweise ausdrucksstark Charaktere getroffen. Die Charakterentwicklung von Natasha hat mir sehr gefallen, auch wie sie auf all die Veränderungen und Ereignissereagiert hat. Es war super spannend und unterhaltsam. Konnte das Buch kaum aus der Hand legen, denn für jede Antwort auf eine offene Frag kamen ein oder zwei neue Fragen dazu. Es war ein munteres Raten nach Beweggründe und wem man trauen kann und wem besser nicht. Das Buch endet zwar unspektakulär was die Handlung der Charaktere angeht aber mit so vielen offenen tollen und spannenden Fragen das es sich für mich sehr nach Cliffhanger anfühlt. Kann Band zwei kaum erwarten. Ein absolut gelungenes Buch das ich nur empfehlen kann.

Any German woman who was a teen in the late 2000s to early 2010s will have been reminded of rubinrot while reading this. To preface this: I'm not accusing the author of plagiarism, she's not German and it's very unlikely she's ever even heard of the books. But as someone who has and who reads those books as a guilty pleasure I have to point out the similarities. 1. It's about time travel 2. There's a cartoonishl evil female antagonist (elodie/charlotte) 3. There's a mysteriously apparently nice yet evil puppetmaster (arthur/saint de germain) 4. The love interest is a broody boy who's slightly older (braxton/gideon) 5. It's a whirlwind romance that happens over a very short span of time 6. The FL has very special powers And imo rubinrot did a lot of it better in a much more enjoyable way. But now to the book itself: I read it mainly bc it was on my physical tbr and I think I only bought it because I wanted to try dark academia. It was very easy to read, I read it in three sittings and 400 pages on one single day. In that way it was captivating enough. I cannot say I find the setting or characters or plot or anything else particularly intriguing. The best thing about this book really is its readability. Credit where credit is due: Mlm and wlw side characters. <spoiler> There's not a lot to say about the plot, not a lot happens. That's fine. I have not read much dark academia so I'm not 100 % sure if this really is one but I found the setting to absolutely boring and to be honest I never could properly grasp what gray wolf academy was supposed to look and feel like. Everything I saw was the rooms and corridor and the dinner room. The tech thing def was boring the shit out of me. Not a lot happened while so much happened. The book compressed all events into very few days and stretched them over multiple hundreds of pages. We skipped over pretty much all of Natasha's time at gray wolf, hence the lack of feeling for it. We have not seen her go to a single lesson. The biggest downside of the book is definitely its characters. Natasha was quite irritating. She has no common sense whatsoever and she's so stupid i cannot suspend my disbelief, yet the story tries to sell her as being smart. In the beginning I was really struggling with her choices. She signs a document WITHOUT READING IT even though some shady boy gives it to her and she has every reason to be careful. No. She just signs her life away. And it's not like the guy has even told her much about the school or what she can expect. WHICH SHE COULD HAVE FOUND OUT IN THE DOCUMENT. Ugh. 2. Generally the fact that she chooses to go with him with so little resistance. She almost immediately agrees "because her life is already over" like girl you are so pathetic, just talk to your mom and get your ass up and study, your life is not over. I know this is a point of suspension of disbelief since we have to get to the mysterious boarding school somehow but man, please make it plausible why she makes that choice. 3. Then she doesn't go talk with her mom for one last time. I wanted to throw the book against the wall. And she keeps on doing and thinking these incomprehensible things. Whenever she has her numerology moments I was rolling my eyes bc her smartness was just wild guesses that were in no way logical. She would make conclusions that made no sense but ofc they were correct. Then she has moments like LEANING HER KNIFE OUT IN THE OPEN so everyone can see what shes up to. And after she's finally free she still runs around with nice and the stolen ball in her hands like girl why are you surprised you're being apprehended? Generally both of her time jumps were so incredibly frustrating because she did everything wrong. Incapable. Then there's braxton. Wanted to strangle him multiple times. Firstly he has a horrible name. Secondly he has no personality except being broody and edgy and perfect. Thirdly he is a rude as piss baby. The disrespect when he keeps on calling natasha natasha instead on nat, how she asks him to. And then even going twice over her head and giving her a completely new nickname. Bro who even are you. And then he calls hd darling all of the time as if they didn't know each other for just two days. The reveal that he liked her from the beginning doesn't make it better. No explanation why he likes her. And in the chapter from his pov he already calls her Tasha like bro pls drop dead i hate you. ( I am exaggerating) Tbh the best thing about the book is their relationship. Not like it's in any way understandable why they like each other but it's the most interesting part of the book and their romantic scenes are written quite well. Anyway they almost fuck on the third day they know each other. I don't like that kind of instalovey whirlwind romance but imo? If you do that at least commit to it. Don't push in a lackluster month timeskip that has no effect 1. You don't feel the timeskip because it's literally just been five pages for the reader since the last kiss 2. They don't talk for the month meaning the characters haven't gotten to know each other either. Rendering the timeskip virtually pointless. Then there's elodie. All I have to say about her is that she and natasha belong together and if they don't kiss I will be mad. The other characters don't matter. The writing is fine. Nothing special but easy to read. However some of Natasha's idiocy can be attributed to it... like the weird conclusions she makes. At one point she think that Arthur is not like the other rich businessmen. Like.... which? Do you know any other billionaires? Or when she thinks it's weird that some guy says he's been working there "for about seven years " and she thinks it's weird how he says "about" and that he doesn't know how long he's been working there. Like ummm there's nothing weird about that? Personally I don't have it pinned down how many days exactly i have been going to uni. This is obv supposed to be "foreshadowing" to the timetravel thing but oh my God it makes no sense. The dialogues also can be weird sometimes, they are so scripted and it makes no sense how they progress. Also have to complain about historical inaccuracy. I was going to look past the slight corset slandering but when the garden boy dragged an apparent noble lady through the entirety of versailles and NOBODY lifted a finger it was over for me. As if. No way. Also I've never seen a book with shorter chapters than this one. 131 chapters on 556 pages (of content). The chapters are 4,2 pages long on average. And the chapters are absolutely unnecessary and placed deliberately at random points. Lastly the academy is a waste of resources and inadequately prepares the jumpers. Natasha is not told vital information (as she notices herself) and is not prepared for possible dangers. Horrible. Then they send her back with the mission to return a handkerchief that VANISHES. And they didn't know that???? My own theories: WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS I highly suspect braxton killed her father. I suspected Arthur more in the beginning but around halfway through i was certain it was braxton 1. He has a half finished tattoo, like one of the kidnappers (we don't know if it was the killer or the other one) 2. The killer has a blue eyes 3. The killer was about 14 years old which matches with Natasha's age on when her father disappeared. 4. The boy had boots on and braxton also has boots that don't fit him anymore (-> him being younger when he used them) and he doesn't want to think/talk about them (-> guilt bc of the murder) </spoiler> Not sure if I will continue.

Das hat mich sehr an Robinrot erinnert mit dem Zeitreisen und allem aber ich liebe die Filme einfach. Das Buch hat sich wie eine Einführung in etwas sehr großes angefühlt und bin sehr gespannt wie die Geschichte weiter geht und was noch alles für dunkle Geheimnis an licht kommen. Den Schreibstil fande ich sehr flüssig und ich bin gut in das buch reingekommen. Ich hätte mir am Ende zwar einen besseren Cliffhanger gewünscht aber das ist immer Ansichtssache.

Das hat mich sehr an Robinrot erinnert mit dem Zeitreisen und allem aber ich liebe die Filme einfach. Das Buch hat sich wie eine Einführung in etwas sehr großes angefühlt und bin sehr gespannt wie die Geschichte weiter geht und was noch alles für dunkle Geheimnis an licht kommen. Den Schreibstil fande ich sehr flüssig und ich bin gut in das buch reingekommen. Ich hätte mir am Ende zwar einen besseren Cliffhanger gewünscht aber das ist immer Ansichtssache.