Offer this imaginative, passionate tale to romance buffs who need convincing that a fantasy can be a great love story, too. In prehistory, May finds a green stone she believes is a blessing from the Great Mother; Kye, a warrior from a rival tribe, disputes her claim. During the resulting struggle, they fall to their deaths, but their fixation on each other and on the green stone leads them to be reincarnated together across time periods and cultures. In each life, they connect powerfully only to fail at love, until they grow and learn enough to be true soul mates. The green stone, in different forms (peridot earrings, an emerald cat collar), figures prominently in each of the linked vignettes. Distinctive physical and personality traits also recur, so each soul is recognizable despite differences in race, gender, and age. The historical elements are more decorative than substantive, but as each episode expands upon alluring ideas about predestined love, most teens will be so engrossed that they won't much mind.

Readers with a romantic bent will be drawn to this story, which pushes the notion of eternal love to its limits: two spirits find each other again and again, at different moments in history. The cycle begins at the brink of civilization as a man and a woman from different clans scuffle over the possession of a valuable green stone. Their battle ends as their intertwined bodies tumble over a cliff toward death, whereupon the female character briefly describes the path her soul takes: “That part of me that is me at its center gives way. I am scattered, dispersed among the stars.” Each subsequent episode recounts a similar pattern, with a green stone and a tragedy preventing the union of the couple. Weyn (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Bar Code Tattoo) keeps things interesting with bits of history about ancient Egypt, colonial America and 1937 Paris. However, the suspense diminishes as the outcome of each chapter becomes increasingly predictable. Readers (along with the ethereal hero and heroine) will breathe relief when the spirits find peace as a pair of contemporary high school students who meet in New York City's American Museum of Natural History—where they can tour the gem collections and get another perspective on mysterious green jewels. While this love ballad plays on a little too long, the inventive ending redeems it. Ages 12-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Jan.)

The concept of this book is enticing: Two souls, linked forever in love, move from body to body from the beginning of time to the present day. The souls carry some similar physical traits from body to body, but what ultimately links them are green gemstones, including emeralds and peridots. Throughout history, similar themes occur in the lives of those bodies inhabited by the souls. An early human woman resists the choice of marriage others have made for her, a quality that surfaces again in generations of independent women. Regardless of time or place, the two souls always meet and make a connection, even if they are unable to fully realize their love. The execution of this book does not live up to its premise. Although the reader can pick up subtle clues during the first half of the book that the stories and characters are entwined, it is not until the last third or so that he can see that the souls carry past human hosts' memories from body to body. Until this point, the book reads like a series of disjointed stories and letters. Because of the vignette style of storytelling, readers see little character development, but what is present is enough to show how the souls are destined to meet at points throughout history. Hopeless romantics and patient history buffs may enjoy this one.-Carlisle K. Webber.