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The Immortal Bind

Harding Traci

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Jan 05, 2017 Tien rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, australian-author, paranormal

I have been following Traci Harding for nigh on 20 years; I can’t believe it! I still felt like I’ve only just read her first book, The Ancient Future just the other week. I have always felt drawn to her books because the inner-romantic me loved that idea of love across time; of soulmates finding each other again and again over their karmic cycles. 20 years on, I’m still enamoured by this idea and still loved the stories weaved around this theme by Traci Harding.

Unlike her previous works, this b I have been following Traci Harding for nigh on 20 years; I can’t believe it! I still felt like I’ve only just read her first book, The Ancient Future just the other week. I have always felt drawn to her books because the inner-romantic me loved that idea of love across time; of soulmates finding each other again and again over their karmic cycles. 20 years on, I’m still enamoured by this idea and still loved the stories weaved around this theme by Traci Harding.

Unlike her previous works, this book is stand-alone and was apparently a revised work of her earlier movie transcript. Her usual theme of karma and love across times, however, did not change. In The Immortal Bind, Sara and Jon currently living on opposite sides of the world from each other, found themselves enchanted by a pair of antique bejewelled chairs. Through these mediums, they relived their past lives and the curse that followed them through time. To break the curse and be free to be with each other this lifetime, amends must be made.

As Jon & Sara relive their past lives; for the readers, it’s like reading tragic love stories over and over again. On the one hand, it’s lovely to read of young love a number of times but on the other hand, a little frustrating. However, as their lives crossed many times periods in a variety of settings, The Immortal Bind definitely kept the readers interested as we come across different cultures. The only downside is that we do not really get in-depth pictures of each culture/time setting.

This book actually reminds me a little of Barbara Erskine’s epic books. I mean that literally her books are twice the size of The Immortal Bind. If this is your first read of Traci Harding’s, aside from her other books, I’d also recommend Erskine’s. If you are a fan of Barbara Erskine, please do give Harding a chance! The Immortal Bind is a story of love reaching across time but more than that, it is a story of self and lesson in selflessness… for how can you love when you are selfish?

Thank you Harper Collins Publishers Australia for providing paperback copy in exchange of honest review
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Feb 03, 2017 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, australian, hist-contemp-blend, aww2017

They say you should never judge a book by its cover. But I think most, if not all readers are guilty of it in some way. I know I certainly am and I as soon as I pulled this book out of the packaging, I wanted to read it. Before I’d even glanced at the blurb. The colours are ‘my thing’ – those beautiful greens and blues. It looked mysterious.

In the present day, clothing designer Sara and artist Jon are both gifted antique chairs by the people closest to them. Sara lives in Australia, Jon in Engla They say you should never judge a book by its cover. But I think most, if not all readers are guilty of it in some way. I know I certainly am and I as soon as I pulled this book out of the packaging, I wanted to read it. Before I’d even glanced at the blurb. The colours are ‘my thing’ – those beautiful greens and blues. It looked mysterious.

In the present day, clothing designer Sara and artist Jon are both gifted antique chairs by the people closest to them. Sara lives in Australia, Jon in England. Both love their new gifts….but are stunned to see that the chairs appear to possess magical powers, causing each to sleep and dream vividly when both are sitting in them. The dreams take place in very different time periods and places but the general story is always the same – star crossed lovers kept apart by an evil character who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. In each dream, Sara and Jon play the roles of the young lovers and they are surprised to recognise people they know playing various bit parts.

Both Sara and Jon soon realise that these are no dreams…..and that they are the current manifestations of an ancient curse. The only way to escape the vicious cycle that repeats every few hundred years is to end the curse. First they will have to discover how to do that…..when they haven’t even met in this life and are separated by thousands of kilometers and pursued by a creature who is determined to finally possess what has eluded him for over thousands of years.

This book definitely lived up to my expectations from its pretty cover! I was hooked from the first page and I found every single part of the story so well constructed and they were all expertly woven together. I know very little about a lot of the background of some of the timeframes but it really didn’t matter. I found that each time Jon and Sara experienced another “dream” I kind of cared little about where and when it was taking place and more about the people within it. Each one is really heartbreaking and frustrating as well. After the first one or two you know that any more ‘dreams’ they experience can really only end one way and that unless they figure out the messages in the dreams and discover a way to break an ancient curse, then their current incarnation will end the same way as all of the previous ones.

There’s something so incredibly romantic about the idea of having a soul mate that you are destined to come across in reincarnation. I am not sure if it doesn’t happen in every lifetime or if there is a gap between everything aligning for the recincarnations…..there are remarks made that there’s a wait of another couple hundred years before it will happen again and in the current life, Jon and Sara couldn’t be more far apart. They aren’t in a relationship, they haven’t even crossed paths. Everything seems stacked against them in this time period, even more so than in all the rest. Of course less romantic is the part of the story that sees someone who will stop at nothing in order to prevent you from being with your soul mate but that adds the suspense element.

With each story showcasing a previous life, I found that I became more and more invested in Jon and Sara finally getting to live a life together, even though these two people hadn’t actually met yet! Both of them had already suffered so much in other lives and when they dream about them whilst sleeping in the chairs, they experience it as if living it all over again. I also really enjoyed the role that their best friends played – both in this life and in the previous manifestations. In each, the role was a little different and it seemed to grow and evolve as well. I appreciated the trust and belief that the friends had in Jon and Sara too, some without even seeing proof of the “weirdness” of the chairs!

This is the first book by Traci Harding that I’ve read and I loved it! It has such atmosphere and so many elements….romance, history, mystery, fantasy, friendship, a bit of suspense. I’m definitely going to have to look for more of her books – she has quite an extensive backlist, some 20 or so books! It’s always good to find an author that you’ve enjoyed and discover that they have so many more books! There are a few series’ too and I love a series so I’m pretty excited. As a reader it’s good to step out of your comfort zone every now and then, try things that you might not normally gravitate towards. ...more

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Jan 26, 2017 Rachel (The Rest Is Still Unwritten) marked it as to-read

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