Time for Eternity by Susan Squires

Frankie Suchet is a vampire with a tremendous chip on her shoulder. Back when she was turned into a vampire during the Reign of Terror in Paria, it was by a nobleman named Henri Foucault. But soon after turning her, he left her, and never came back. She can only assume that it was because despite her love for and attraction to him, he didn't really care about her.

In the modern day, she works at the Oxygen Bar, but when a female vampire comes in late one night, Frankie can't help but notice that she deeply loves the man who turned her. Feeling angry and strangely jealous, she responds when the woman strikes up a conversation with her, and discovers that Henri, whom she always meant to track down and confront one day, is already dead. Feeling nothing but sorrow, she asks when he died, and finds out that he died during the reign of terror- probably shortly after he made her.

This does nothing to ease her resentment, nor her wish that she had never been infected with the Companion, a virus that changes humans into vampires. So when the woman, Donna Poliziano, tells her that she knows where a time machine constructed by Leonardo DaVinci, is hidden, she decides to use it and go back in time and change her fate.

When she arrives in Paris in the 1780's, she lands near to where she first actually met Henri, but meeting the eyes of her human self, Francoise Suchet, she disappears and is drawn into her younger self's consciousness.

Francoise has long been in love with the haughty Duc, but she never thought she would meet him- until the day the elderly employer she has been companion to is confronted by the mob and her home set afire. The mob drags the woman to the Bastille, and it is only Henri who saves Francoise from the same fate. Instead, he takes her into his home, claiming her as his ward.

Henri doesn't need this complication in his life. He's busy smuggling aristocrats and other unfortunates away from the mob and off to England to save their lives, while pretending to be a smuggler and pleasure-seeker as a cover. But when he looks into Francoise's eyes and sees the mixture of innocence and knowledge in them, he cannot stop himself from attempting to save her.

As for Francoise, she is in love with him, but she believes that he wants to debauch her- that's why he has taken her into his home. Part of her- a very large part, doesn't trust him, believing the public face he presents to everyone is who he truly is. But as she attempts to save herself from him, and save her elderly employer, she slowly comes to realize that he is much, much more than the public face he presents to the world- and that regardless of his services to the new rulers of France, those in power, especially Madame Croute, the lover of Robespierre, who wants to have the trappings and position of the nobility, despite never having been born to them.

But Francoise is troubled by urges deep inside her telling her to hate Henri, and to kill him by cutting off his head. Why would part of her want to do such a thing? Is she going mad? But all her glimpses of Henri's noble side only make her fall more deeply in love with him, and when he saves her former employer from dying in the Bastille, she is lost. Only to find that Frankie still lives inside her, and shares her feelings for Henri.

She knows that Henri is supposed to die. But can Frankie and Francoise work together to save the man they love, or is Henri's fate fixed in stone? And does Henri love Francoise as much as she loves him? And even if she does manage to save him, what will happen to her self as Frankie? Will she obliterate herself by trying to change history?

Wow. This was a pretty amazing novel. Going from Frankie, who hated Henri so much to Francoise, who still loved him, was interesting. Only here, we get to see Henri's side of the story- the one that even Frankie/Francoise never knew- how and why he is attracted to her, and the sadness he feels about himself and his fate. He attempted to marry once, but the girl killed herself rather than be tied to a monster like him. Now he feels that no innocent would ever be able to love him. So like Frankie, he carries his own share of scars.

But once they are back together, she still finds herself attracted to him. Because Frankie is just vague impulses in Francoise's mind, she probes to find out more about him, as she never did the first time she knew him, and discovers things that slowly change her mind- and Frankie's about the kind of man Henri is, and whether or not she could love him.

Reading this is like a chance to rediscover a love you never knew you had- and remember good times you never knew you lost. I found it inspiring and uplifting to read, and very enjoyable as well. Recommended.