Reviews

Madeline “Max” Maxwell has been hired to become a part of the St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research and she couldn’t be more delighted. Finally, she could put her newly-minted doctorate to good use. What she didn’t expect was the real mission of St. Mary’s: going back in time to perform the actual historical research in person.

I’ve read quite a few novels involving time travel and have concluded it is impossible to explain away the numerous paradoxes involved. Here, the author, Jodi Taylor, offers a time travel story in the only way that I think works: she doesn’t even try to explain it. We readers understand that it simply works and don’t need to know how. In addition, she is careful to not make the story be about time travel itself but rather she uses it to build the plot, settings, and characters that result from it. Having said that, she does offer a new twist involving time travel that I haven't encountered before and it bodes well for the rest of the series.

This book has just about everything in it: history, comedy, romance, snarky dialog, extreme danger, and adventure galore. Part of the time while I was reading, I was thinking that maybe too much was thrown in there because at times, some of the plot flew by so fast it seemed like I was skimming even though I read every word. In particular, the main antagonist was not fleshed out at all nor their motivations. But I suppose that will happen more and more in subsequent books. Truth be told, based on the title alone, I was expecting a lighter read. I was not expecting the high body count or the traumatic results, both physical and emotional. The main character, Max, really gets put through the ringer. But she also grows substantially as a character which makes this a solid read.

A good read overall but I’m not sure I am ready to jump immediately into the following books in the series.