Reviews with content warning for Violence - Timekeeper

this is a really solid book and a great start to a series :o i thought the mechanics of the clocktower and how it translated to colton was quite cool and original. i really enjoyed watching danny grow and open up to colton, and i thought all the relationships between characters were realistic and quite sweet, even if his mother was a bit hard to deal with sometimes. i also love that the fairytales danny told colton about in the beginning had running themes through the story and that fate had Such a big role in it overall. i do think the ending was a bit fantastical with his father coming back after the town was no longer Stopped (i would think the people there would be a bit more confused, though i do understand the book wanting to end kind of like a fairytale) but it wasnt enough to take anything away from the story as a whole.

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hue's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

The writing was clumsy and awkward, and often times overwritten. The romance was heavier than I had excepted and so the first half or so of the book didn't seem to go anywhere. It wasn't bad, just not great either. Not sure what the rest of the series will bring to the table. I don't think I'll be finding out either, unless I find myself fairly bored.

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mallorypen's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

The concept for this story was so wonderfully unique! The idea of time being controlled by clock towers, who in turn manifest as clock spirits, who can be fallible and jealous and fall in love … just fantastic.

The love story between Colton and Danny was sweet, and I adore that Colton seemed to intuit how to keep Danny’s mind off of his fears during that first clock repair. My heart broke for them both: Colton’s loneliness, Danny’s sadness and guilt, and how they were faced with the decision between “doing the right thing” and caring for each other.

The mystery of the bombs, and Danny’s PTSD, kept me intrigued. I didn’t guess it was

Matthias until we met Eveline, and though I guessed early on he was keeping her in his house I didn’t realize the extent of his treachery.

The reader of this audiobook wasn’t my favorite, but once he got into the meat of the story I was more absorbed in the book than worried about his rather flat reading of the narration. His character voices were vastly superior, and overall this was a wonderful read.

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he_who_kins_minyard's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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zoeelora's review against another edition

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mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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jenarae's review

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emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous

Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

The back cover I read put much more emphasis on the steampunk/fantasy elements and the mystery of who’s setting the bombs and played it like the romance was going to be a side thing. If this is the back cover I’d read, this book wouldn’t have ended up on my To Read list, because even though I’ve discovered some romances are fine, it’s usually not what I gravitate towards. So I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t, because this was a perfectly enjoyable book.

Our protagonist is Danny, the youngest clock mechanic to pass the mechanic test. He loves his job repairing and maintaining the clocks that keep time running smoothly, and secretly hoping he can find a way to save his dad, who was a mechanic when something went wrong and the clock broke, trapping him in an area where time completely stopped. He also has lingering trauma from a bomb that tried to destroy another tower while he was working, and conflict with his mother who partially blames him for his father going to the clock tower that broke and trapped him. He wasn’t an incredibly compelling character, but he was likeable enough.

His love interest and the romance between the two was probably my favorite part of the story. Danny meets Colton in the clock tower in the town of Enfield, where he first mistakes him for the apprentice helping him for the day and only later discovers the truth: Colton is a clock spirit, the personification of the clock tower and the force that keeps time running. Colton doesn’t know much about love or the world outside of Enfield, but it was delightful watching his and Danny’s relationship grow.

The romance is not the main plot, though. There’s also Danny trying to rescue his father, protests and counter-protests about a new clock tower being built, a series of bombs targeting clock towers, and internal politics and rivalries in the clock mechanic’s union. None of these were particularly uninteresting, but I definitely cared about the romance the most.

This book does have some problems, mainly in the secondary character department. The reveal of the unexpected antagonist was supposed to feel like a big betrayal, but Danny’s relationship with that character was never built in the book – I was just told that he and this character were close instead of actually seeing it. The reveal that this character was behind so many bad things was definitely surprising, but lacked the emotional impact it wanted to have.

I’m also going to criticize the worldbuilding, but as someone who has read a fair bit of steampunk-type books. I found it limited and lackluster, a basic 1800s London with cars and clock towers that control time slapped on top. It didn’t detract from the story, but knowing what great steampunk/alternate history worldbuilding looks like, I found it uninspired. If those aren’t genres you typically read you probably won’t have an issue with it.

There was only one moment (that could have been cut without problem) that set a hook for book two. Without that one moment, this would have been a perfectly self-contained story with a satisfying ending. It very much felt like a case of “my agent sold this as a trilogy” than the story actually needing to continue. Personally I think there’s enough to explore in this world that a second book could be reasonably interesting, but I was also happy with the ending and I didn’t love this book enough to want to read the rest of the series. It is a perfectly enjoyable book – I just have no desire for more of it.

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wirt's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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