Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Just One Damned Thing After Another

I'll hand it to the book that the concept of having time-travelling historians was nice and was what initially drew me in.
Apart from I should've become suspicious when the book starts with a list of characters. Not because they're so many it's hard to keep track but everyone is so bland and flat that I have to check every now and then who the hell the main character is interacting with because everyone is so alike and irrelevant?! Also: people dying left and right and almost being raped and no one cares, bland characters still managing to act out of character, apparently 5 years have gone by during this book, main character being broken even though living at work and not having any hobbies/family/whatever.

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bethl's review against another edition

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lucyselim's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I am so confused. The premise of historians and time travel sounded right up my street, which is why I gave this a go. However, I spent the first half of the book in literal agony about how bad the writing was and that the plot was not being executed fully. Ironically, I could not keep up with the jumping of time. One moment she had been at the institute a week and the next it had been years.
One of my biggest problems was the terrible writing, but also the treatment of female characters. The main character is a classic Mary Sue who has all the men at her feet despite being average at best. She immediately clashes with the other female character who also has red hair for no real reason. One of her 'friends' leaves the institute during their training and she is really upset about it, despite having never been seen speaking to her before. In short, I was ready to give up on this book.

But sometime happened just after halfway through.

I believe it was when Leon reveals he is from the future

Suddenly the plot became interesting enough for me to want to continue. I actually even enjoyed the last 50 pages or so.

Overall, this book definitely needs some work, but having realised it is the authors first published novel, I can understand where the writing may fall down. I will be giving the next book a go, but only because my boyfriend already bought it for me. Otherwise, perhaps I would be giving this lengthy series a miss.

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