Review: Infinite Devotion, by L.E. Waters

Author: L.E. Waters

Title: Infinite Devotion

Series: Infinite Series #2

ISBN: 9780983911128

Publisher: Rock Castle Publishing (February 14^th 2012)

Disclaimer: Copy received for review

Buy your copy: Kindle | Paperback

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“Maya continues to delve into her past lives after death, and strives to complete the tentative journey required to reunite with her loved ones in heaven.

She must relive and explore her former incarnations as the scandalous and misunderstood Lucrezia Borgia in Renaissance Italy; a young stowaway on the doomed Spanish Armada fleet; and the rebellious Irish Robin Hood, Count Redmond O’Hanlon.

Her companions prove truer while her enemies grow stronger as her bygone adventures spin forth. This time she must experience the trials of loyalty and endure the hardships that only supreme devotion brings.” GoodReads’ blurb

I reviewed the firstbook in this series a while back and all of the good things I said back then still apply to this second installment: the accuracy and detail, the independent stories that still connect together through their characters...

There was the same storytelling quality, and I think this time around I’ve managed to pinpoint why I felt it: each story arc spans very nearly the whole life of the main character, and while obviously we don’t go day by day and only the important events are portrayed, it’s true that the “compression” of events doesn’t allow us to connect with the immediacy of the dangers the characters are facing. Perhaps focusing on one event from each life would make it swifter and more urgent... but we'd miss on the historical exploration. I guess it's a matter of finding a balance there.

There was another small problem that I didn’t foresee when I read book one. You know, the book has this charts after each story where you can see a correlation of who’s who, along with a small distinctive trait to serve in keeping everyone straight in their corresponding reincarnation. At first, I thought “why would I want this chart? I’m reading the book and to see everything summed up like this makes it even more confusing!” But then I let a few months go by before picking up book two... And I realized that I was pretty much lost without the tables. There’s a big cast, and each time around you’ll meet them not just under different faces, but in different times, countries, sometimes even genders. Once you get the hang of it, it’s really easy to keep them sorted out and I truly enjoyed playing this game where I tried to figure out who was who as they made their appearance, but I warn you that you might want to check out the charts at the end of book one before starting with book two.

That said, let’s move on to another topic: we’re not exactly rushing towards modernism here, but we’re drawing closer and closer to our time and place and I loved to visit the time period covered in Infinite Devotion. Just as it happened before, in Infinite Sacrifice, you’ll notice that each character is perfectly compliant with their background and history, and that was really refreshing in a moment in time when everyone seems bent on rewriting the freedom and value of women, on idealizing gallant soldiers and knights, on writing people from back then as if they lived today. I think this is an aspect I can safely trust L.E. Waters with.

All in all, if you like historical, you really should check out this series. I’m curious to know what will be next!