All Our Yesterdays: China

This installment of Astrid's reincarnation saga sweeps the reader back to China, a long, long time ago. Astrid continues to fill in for her father at the store and tries to resist the growing attraction between herself and Duncan.While putting away the latest acquisitions she picks up a jade necklace and relives yet another incarnation. She is Xing-Xing, sole daughter of a wealthy Chinese merchant, who is desperately in love with the tutor sent to instruct her brothers. Wu Ping has nothing to offer but his love and Xing-Xing's father sees her as a valuable commodity to be bartered off in marriage.

I adore this series, and find myself barely hanging on each month until I manage to get my greedy hands on the next installment. The glimpses into the past lives, mistakes and missed chances of Astrid's previous incarnations are so well done you quickly become embroiled in the tale and the time period. So much so that the return to Astrid's present day always gives the feeling of having awakened from an extremely vivid and realistic dream, identical to what Astrid herself seems to experience. To me, that in itself is the sign of a great story; anytime the people and places become real and you escape to another time and place for a while, the author has done their job and done it well.

Reviewed by: Johnna