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Friday 30 October 2015

Book Review | Timebound by Rysa Walker

Thank you so much to both NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
"When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kate’s present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence.

Kate learns that the 1893 killing is part of something much more sinister, and Kate’s genetic ability to time-travel makes her the only one who can stop him. Risking everything, she travels to the Chicago World’s Fair to try to prevent the killing and the chain of events that follows.

Changing the timeline comes with a personal cost, however—if Kate succeeds, the boy she loves will have no memory of her existence. And regardless of her motives, does she have the right to manipulate the fate of the entire world?"

This book was absolutely fabulous. It really was. Not only was it written well, I was really impressed with the continuity throughout this book. A lot of the time with time travel, I find that the author struggles to keep various continuities going, whether it be with tone or methods or, in some cases, they've completely and utterly given out different chains of events happening along a singular timeline. This book did absolutely none of that. Walker held her own voice solidly throughout, and everything was so neat and tidy with both the plot and the prose that I really commend her. She also has a really unique idea and method of time travel and that's something I really enjoy seeing, even if it took me a little while to get my head around some of the concepts and explanations behind said time travel.

This is such a well written novel. There really is nothing else to say about that. It ranges from the mid to fast pace sort of writing; I found I got through it maybe in two/three days and that's without a day of reading in the middle. Scenery was described beautifully and there was attention to detail even in sensations, such as feeling hot or cold, water being chilly etc, which I really appreciated. Of course this is done in every good novel, but I've read a few books lately that seem to leave this sort of thing out completely, so I was deeply impressed to see it here. A lot of time went into the explanation of the method of time travel and it was generally written in a clear and concise way. I only really struggled once or twice. So definite props for the writing.

Characters were developed well, as were the relationships within the book. With so much of the book being taken up with the plot and the actual description of the time travel itself, it was nice to see some detail still being paid to the relationships between some of the characters, and the development within the characters themselves as the novel progresses. Kate herself grows into a much richer character, and her relationship with her grandmother was deeply touching as they grow closer together. There's the first hint at a little love triangle, too. These characters are written so well that I already have my favourite male in this little triangle. And he shall prevail, or else... It's rare that I develop such deep feelings over love triangles so quickly, so I think this is a clear indicator of characters written superbly.

The plot in this one was good. I wouldn't say it was mind blowing because for the majority of the novel they are setting up so much backstory and history and explanatory scenes regarding the actual time travel that they really didn't have time for much else. It did really well at demonstrating the past and setting up for the next two novels in the trilogy, though. So while this novel may be a little light on plot, it was still absolutely awesome to read, and what plot there was was absolutely fantastic. I couldn't put it down, honestly. I read this book in two sittings, in two exact halves actually haha. So yes. Light on plot, but what plot there was was absolutely brilliant.

Really this book is a real gem. In fact, I've already got the next two in the trilogy. And I cried when I finished it. Because I'm a big girl and cry when books end that I love, even if there are two more in the series that I actually own. Cough. So yes, a clear 5/5 stars from me. Bravo.

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