Lydia Bentley has been forced into a position she never thought she'd be in: a recruit of the Montauk Project. The Project is holding her grandfather hostage and trading his continued existence for Lydia's cooperation. Now Lydia has been trained for time traveling and all the danger that may put her in. At the beginning of her first mission, however, she finds that one of the other participants is Wes - the boy who said he loved her but ultimately betrayed her to the Project. Lydia doesn't know how she'll be able to work with Wes, whom she still has feelings for, despite her fury. It's pushed aside, though, when the mission veers off-course and the team of recruits is forced to run from the authorities in a future world none of them truly know. Lydia knows that the only way she and the rest of the world will ever really be safe from the Project's meddling is in a world where the Montauk Project doesn't exist. But with no resources and the recruits already turning against each other, Lydia has to focus on just surviving before she can make the world a better place.
Ho. Ly. Sh**. I thought the first two books were good, but this one blows the others out of the water. The intensity was ramped up to seventy-nine on a scale of one to ten. Right from the start, I was immersed. Usually, even in a series where I've read the previous books, it still takes me a while to get back into the rhythm of the author's writing. This book started intense and just kept ramping it up. I couldn't stop reading. I literally stayed up past four a.m. to finish it. It wasn't just the situations that made the plot so good, but also the relationships. I mentioned in my review of the previous novel in this series that the seriousness of the relationships were amped up; they were increased even more in this book. Betrayals had to be sorted out, damaging pasts were taken out on other characters, and loyalties had to be decided. My heart has beating so hard and fast I honestly had to take breathing breaks. I loved this story.
I also loved how everything from the previous two novels finally ended up connecting. Time travel can be difficult to write about, because it's so what-if, and because of all of the scenarios that have to be considered. Rachel Carter did a phenomenal job of taking clues from every timeline Lydia ever ventured to, and combining them in a way that made sense in relation to who was in which timeline when. I love when I have to actually consider how something occurred in a novel, because it shows just how much effort the author put into creating an intelligent, cohesive plot.
I also very much appreciated the ending of this book, which was also the ending of the trilogy. I've read many books where the ending was either overly-ideal, or incredibly frustrating due to problems left hanging or the main character ending up miserable. This ending was the best it could be, really, given the circumstances. Obviously not everything was perfect, but if it had been, it wouldn't have been realistic, and I love realism in stories. But Lydia ended up happy, which is really all you can want for the main character, especially when you've become as invested as I am. And the ending made me cry, both sad and happy tears. Some readers may not like crying over books, but for me, it just really shows me how much I enjoyed the book.
This series has definitely been added to my list of favourite books. I will definitely read it again in the future. This series is one of the ones that I recommend to everyone, no matter your favourite genre. Before I read the first book, I didn't think I'd enjoy it because Lydia travelled to the past, and I don't necessarily like time travel or books based in the past. I was proven so wrong. This book deserves a strong rating of five stars. I recommend it for everybody, but especially readers who look for time travel, complicated relationships, and tense situations.
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