Time's Convert is the first spin-off series within the All Souls universe written by Deborah Harkness, with the story this time around revolving around Marcus and Phoebe's relationship a year after the events of the Book of Life. Phoebe prepares to transition into a vampire and she and Marcus must wait until 90 days after her transformation to reunite and get married. While this is happening in the present day, we also get to glimpse into flashbacks of Marcus' human life during the revolutionary war and his first century as a vampire under his father Matthew's wing.
I was really excited to see how all of my beloved All Souls characters were doing after the end of the trilogy, and it was great to continue having Diana's narrative in the story, even if it was a side narrative while Marcus and Phoebe's were at the forefront. It was difficult for me to want to be interested in Phoebe's vampire transition at first but I grew to love her character and her relationship with Marcus. Marcus' flashback narrative was also hard to get into just because I could not understand its relevance to the present day plot other then just giving us more information about Marcus' character as a whole, but I loved to learn more about his story all the same.
My only complaint about this spin off is that there was no real conflict going on in the present day plot, other then Phoebe needing to be a stable vampire by the 90 day mark so she would be allowed back with Marcus and the real world. I guess I was hoping we would see more of the ripple effects of Diana's role on the Congregation and the slow but steady "coming out" of creatures to the human world, but for this spin off book we were just left with the smaller problems. I hope that Harkness considers coming out with another spin off tale that goes over these potential new story lines, or flash forwards to Diana and Matthew's children all grown up and them dealing with new conflicts.
Overall, a great spin off and hope the TV show incorporates this into their series as well! ~ Reviewed by Kirstin Swartz
