As I have thoroughly enjoyed the first two books of Alyson Noël's Stealing Infinity series, I was eager to get started on CHASING ETERNITY. I had no idea where the story was going or how it was going to end. And when you are talking about time travel, anything is possible. 

Except, I didn't love CHASING ETERNITY. I enjoyed it immensely...right up until the end. The conclusion Ms. Noël uses is lackluster at best and frustrating at its worst. The whole thing feels as if Ms. Noël couldn't come up with a way to satisfactorily conclude her story and so chose the path of least resistance. It's disappointing. 

To make matters worse, there were several times throughout this book when I struggled to ignore the elephant in the room, so to speak. Yes, it seems weird to find certain situations ridiculous when the entire series is all about a group of teenagers who travel through time to steal priceless art and jewelry, but still. There is only so much disbelief I can suspend, and I started feeling uncomfortable around the first chapter when the main character meets a historical figure and said historical figure acts like everything is perfectly normal. When the main character learns the same magic as said historical figure but in a few hours rather than years, I was done. 

All this to say CHASING ETERNITY is a disappointment. The Stealing Infinity series to this point was so much fun, crazy but in a good way. I always got the feeling that even Ms. Noël knew how insane her story was and that knowledge made it all okay to like, as if she also embraced the madness without taking any of it too seriously. Until she decided to change that and makes CHASING ETERNITY entirely too serious without eliminating any of the madness. With an ending that feels like a copout more than a well-developed resolution, it makes me change my opinion about the entire series.