Customer Reviews

For All Time (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had no idea Clooney was writing a fourth one! Just walking though the the book store one day and... huh..All of TIME. Anyways, assuming most of you have read the previous three or plan to....
The story is centered around Strat and Annie(thankfully!)and takes place completely in Eygpt at the pyramids. It includes a lot of eygptian history, which is cool especially if you know a lot about it. On the flip side, I missed the East coast, the ball gowns, carriages, etc.
Like the previous books, new characters enter the story and narrate their own chapters. At first, it was kind of slow and I was eager to find out how their stories would to relate to each other. If you absolutely adore Strat and Annie, it might be a bit frustrating, I admit to reading a little faster when it wasn't Strat or Annie. The two new main ones are Camilla and an Egyptian girl. Annie has her own adventure way back in time(before Strat's time)while Camilla, a poor girl given a chance to get revenge on Hiram Stratton Sr., is in 1899 with Strat. Many interesting twists in the plot.
I read this book in one day and would definately say it's better than Prisoner in Time. If one thing bothered me it was that Strat and Annie are separated too much of the time. There are some sweet moments though(Strat still has the lock of hair!)and the ending(which is kinda a "kick") left me teary eyed.
It seems like Clooney left some room for another book? It gives some closure, but not enough. Geez, she could make a whole other series out of it. okay, I won't say any more!

I thought this was a very good story. I really enjoyed the Eygptian and Camilla plots, but I don't think they should have been in the Time series. It would have made a really good seperate book. The reason I say this is because, I missed the old characters in the time series. It seemed like they were just written in there as a side note. Annie and Strat weren't together enough and I missed Devonny. Itwould have been better if it focused on them more. Also, I didn't understand the ending. Was a reincarnated Strat really supposed to take the place of the original? They weren't the same person and I thought it was disapointing that Annnie settled for this second version.

Time travel, ancient Egypt, museums, and the pyramids...these are the things that fill the pages of "For All Time." In the last book of Caroline Cooney's Time Travel Quartet, Strat is working on an archaeological dig in at the Egyptian pyramids, and Annie pleads with Time to take her there. She visits a museum exhibit dealing with ancient Egypt, sure that Time will let her be with Strat. But in the present day, she meets a boy who claims to be a great-great nephew of Strat's...and when Time finally takes her away, she finds herself in ancient Egypt, amid more danger than she thought possible...Caroline Cooney's writing is perfect for this book-brisk enough to keep the reader's interest yet include precise, effective descriptions. The story is told from the viewpoint of many different characters, making it a multi-dimensional novel. I loved reading about ancient Egypt...it made the book very exotic and Annie's reactions to a dramatically different culture were realisitic and at times, entertaining. This book will keep your attention as you "journey" through Egypt and wonder when (and if) Strat and Annie will meet, and if Annie will ever survive the danger in ancient Egypt.

I thought this book was great! In fact I love Egypt and plan to go there some day and dig for mummys. I love how Strat and Annie finally get back toghter. I thought the end was horrible. It just ended. I turned the page expecting more. The book was great, but the ending was way too heartbreaking.

I must say that the first three books I rated as five stars and I would rate them higher if I possibly could!!! I LOVED this series when I thought it was just a trilogy. Then I found the fourth book and I was literally screaming in delight and anticipation of what would happen to Annie and Strat. But, as I got towards the ending of the book I was wondering, when are they going to have real adventures TOGETHER??? I don't know what all these people are thinking when they give "For All Time" five stars. To me, nothing seemed to happen and for once in the entire series, their families don't seem to play such an important role.

I loved the idea though, don't get me wrong! I love the concept of traveling back to ancient Egypt, I love that Strat found that very important sandal (later you find out how important) and I love the aspect of the Stratton descendant in modern day. But, it is just an outline!!! There is hardly any dialogue and Annie and Strat are just together for a very tiny, short time before they're ripped apart again. I wanted to see more action, more adventures with them together. The jumping from Renifer to Strat to Annie to Camilla to Dr. Lightner to Pankh to Mr. Stratton to Lockwood to Katie and back and forth proves to break the plot up way too much. It seems that the story line focuses on the new characters' Renifer and Camille's fate more than it does on our old favorites Annie and Strat. And really, we don't even hear anything more about Devonny (except that she has a couple kids) or Tod or what is going to happen to poor Florinda, we don't even know for sure what happens to Douglass either. There are only three short chapters sort of dedicated to Annie and Strat together. I wanted them to make choices again, to travel together, to try and help their families and the ones they loved. There weren't any complications or mysteries this time involving Annie and Strat, no heartwrenching decisions or unfortunate separations. Annie doesn't even get to travel back and forth between her time and Strat's!!! Plus, Strat's and Annie's families were so important in the other books, this time it's just Strat's father. And his father just gives up so easily! He's such a pushover in this book that it's hardly worth the resolution.

The other books all revolved around the Stratton mansion, their families and there was a LOT more dialogue and complications and people with evil motives. I understand that they mansion was out of the question this time. But, in the other books I could always picture everything that Cooney described and she went into so much detail that I felt like I knew each character intimately. This time, she utterly failed to develop her plot and just gave us a brief overview with no real problems or solutions (except Annie as a sacrifice) and no real love affair or quality time of Annie and Strat together. Oh yeah, and what happened to Devonny's mother and why didn't Mr. Stratton get more thoroughly punished for locking her up? We don't find anything out about how he got out of his predicament or how Hugh-David still managed to marry Devonny.

I will say that I liked the very end once Annie gets back to her own time. I'm wondering if Lockwood is Strat reincarnated or Strat coming into the future and can't remember? I hope so! His watch was filled with sand and he had a dream about Egypt so it's possible. But, other than that, I just couldn't seem to get comfortable with all the different characters and all the different Times and I'm utterly disappointed that Annie and Strat weren't even the real focus of the book. Basically, this book had to be a lot longer than it was to get the full story that I was hoping for. Some of the characters should have been in another novel. The book is bigger than the rest but seems to contain a lot less!!! Go ahead and read it, it has enough of a plot to keep it interesting and it is part of the FANTASTIC Time Quartet that I love SO much. But, I just wish that the Strattons and Lockwoods had been more involved and that so many new people hadn't been thrown in. I'm not a fan of Cooney's horror books but I really do hope that she writes more books like this Both Sides of Time series. Anyone from age 11 to 111 would really enjoy these novels!

This book was just O.K.I was so excited to read the last book, and was very dissapointed.There was too much of camilla and renifer, and not enough of the main characters.The ending was very bad! I was sooooooo confused! Was Strat born again? Will anny forget about the old strat and take the second strat? What was the deal about the sand in the watch? How did the second strat have a dream that he was floating on the nile? My other friend couldn't figure this out either. The book would of been good if it diddn't have that ending.

i remember being devoted to Cooney's Time series some years ago, and religiously tracked down the first 3 books. A few weeks back, my friend came across the fourth book, For All Time, and i was ecstatic, for i wasn't aware of its existence. The book was fun and engaging, however, the ending was rushed and an extreme disappointment. For years i was committed to the Time series, and to see it end the way it did made me feel as though i have been wasting my time. I won't give away the ending, however, i fear that devoted Time readers will be left feeling as though not reading the series would have been more agreeable.

its a very,very good book, but of course,as always, it is always better when u read all of the series, which consists of both sides of time, prisoner of time, for all time, and out of time. all of the books are very good, and you will fall in love with annie lockwood, devonny stratton, ted lockwood, and hiram stratton jr(strat), learn to hate hiram stratton Sr, and everybody who tries to come between annie and strat, who even though they live exactly 100 years apart, seem to be a match made in heaven. i cant possible explain how much i enjoyed the books, but i can say, that it is impossible to imagine how much u just might like them yourself!!

I started this series thinking it would be something to occupy me while my life was utterly dull, but as I finished the first novel in the series, I became psycho. The story of Annie and Strat was so compelling that I dropped everything and read. I forced people to take me to buy the rest of the books and I finished the series in less than one work week. Simply divine was the story. The way Strat was so in love with her and her with him but time proving a barrier; I simply melt at the thought. 'For All Time' was my favorite of the series. I just made such a riveting conclusion that I dreamt about this book forever. The ending was questionable, if you misenterpret it, it seems completely tragic, but if you are in sightful, the ending creates tears of joy. All the obstacles that Strat and Annie have to face are so surreal that you have to read the page over again to make sure you read correctly. That is why I enjoyed the series and specifically 'For All Time'.

After a several-year wait, I found For All Time and was happy that another Time book had been written.However, the story disappointed hugely. My biggest beef with the story was Annie going back to ancient Egypt. The point? I didn't see one. And really, I didn't need another oppressed girl 'finding herself' as Renifer did. In fact, the entire Renifer story was unnecessary and frankly, a bit boring.

I truly, truly hated the end, as it went completely out of sync with Annie's character in the other three novels. She has this life-altering experience and shrugs her shoulders over it? There's no way anyone could go through what she went through and be that blase. I got the feeling Ms. Cooney painted her characters into a corner and didn't feel like fleshing out a plausible ending.