Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this time travel adventure, and that's in spite of the high body count. Who knew that being a historian could be so hazardous? Many of the deaths are sudden and meaningless. I'm a little nervous at what that means for characters in future installments, but for now I'm happy that the ones I actually cared about made it.

The book was not without issues, but I found them easy to overlook and just went along for the ride. For example, there is a period of four years that pass at one point, and it wasn't completely clear at first that so much time had gone by since Maxwell's training. That means character and relationship development during those four years were skipped and just told about later on. I missed getting a real feel for the dynamics that developed over time. It also made it difficult to understand why some characters acted the way they did.

But, as I said, I didn't really have a problem with this while reading because I was swept along by the action. It was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to the next book with some trepidation.

Off to Be the Wizard - Scott Meyer

Off to Be the Wizard by Scott Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Off to Be the Wizard has an interesting concept that I really liked. The world is a huge computer program (no one knows it), and Martin discovers a file that controls the world that he can hack and give himself all kinds of money and powers. That was really cool.

He does start out making a fool of himself over it at first, but I liked it a lot more once Martin met a few other people and started training on how to manipulate reality properly. There are a couple of side characters that I really liked, and eventually there's a bad guy situation that needs to be sorted out, which steps the last half of the book up a bit. And I was even entertained by the humor, some of the time. So generally, I liked it. It was fun.

But a couple of books I've read lately have led me to the realization that straight humor and I don't have a very good relationship. I get tired. I get bored. I want some depth and seriousness so that the humor catches me off guard and lightens the whole mood. I prefer irony to poop falling out of the sky onto a statue (nope, no laughs from me on the toilet humor, sorry).

I've discovered that I like a side dish of humor, but get sick of it when it's a three course meal. So I wished there was something more to this, and there really wasn't. But if you enjoy this kind of comedy, you might really like it.

Review: Sojourn (Updated)

Sojourn by Jana Oliver

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Alternate Victorian historical mystery with time travel and shape shifters, and Jack the Ripper on top. This was exactly my cup of tea. It did start out feeling like a bit of a mish-mash at some points, but I ended up really enjoying it and the whole series. All of these elements came together better and better as the overall story developed, although it might not be apparent yet by the end of the first book.

In this book, there are three mysteries including the Ripper plot. The paranormal and science fiction elements add just a little more flavor to it as well. There's a tiny hint of possible romance to come, but nothing really developed. This is not a historical romance in disguise, for which I was thankful.

I enjoyed the complexity of the plot compared to many time travel novels I've read where the traveler just pops in and out of other times but the main story is in the present. This one really dwells in Victorian London with all its atmosphere and very real danger to a lone woman investigating murders on the streets of London, rousing the suspicion of the law while she's at it. Jacynda can't avoid getting embroiled in events and lives of the time. And she can't be sure if one of her new friends is the killer she's after.

I like how this doesn't avoid the question of how she inevitably changes history just by being there and interacting with people. And then there's the question of who is purposely messing with history from her own time. I also like that the future time period is not our present, but is far in our future as well. It made for two interesting settings, whenever we did see the future.

This was lots of fun - and I liked the sequels even better, as the time travel aspect gets more involved and the implications more complicated later on.



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Review: Emerald Green

Emerald Green by Kerstin Gier

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was another fast and entertaining read, but Gwen kept crying all the time, and the ending kind of fizzled out. On top of that, the romance is hard to swallow - undying love in less than a week! And the entire trilogy takes place in only two weeks. I tried to ignore these things, but they would crop up and distract me. Not bad for YA, but it definitely feels like YA.



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Review: Ruby Red

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Ruby Red is the first in a YA time travel trilogy that is really more of a contemporary paranormal set in London, and otherwise similar to other YA paranormals in tone (high school, parents/family, mean girl, quirky best friend, etc.).

It's also very short - only 200 pages - so it really just felt like a setup. I was frustrated at the end, realizing I'd just read an introduction and would have to read the next book to get anywhere with it. But I decided to continue on since this one was so short and fast to read, and it didn't drag even though not much has happened yet.

It is definitely YA-ish in tone and depth. It's not very sophisticated, and has a lot to do with mean family members and other stuck up people (ones I'm seriously hoping get what's coming to them), and Gwyneth trying to find out the truth about a world that has been hidden from her for her whole life. Now she's suddenly part of it but they are still not telling her anything.

The time travel parts are regrettably few and short, although the concept is interesting (they talk about it quite a bit, but don't actually do it much). I hope there will be more time spent in other time periods in the next book.

There's a bit of romance, too, but it came out of nowhere, so I wasn't that convinced. I think it probably should have waited until later in the series but they had to make something happen in the first book. Oh well. At least it was a fast read, and kept me somewhat entertained for an evening. My hopes are all on book two for some real development in all areas.



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Review: The Key

The Key by Marianne Curley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was an entertaining end to the trilogy. The two POVs offered in this book are Matt and Rochelle. They aren't my favorite narrators out of the lot. I kind of missed the characters from the two previous books, but I can see why the focus shifted to these two.

There's not a lot of time travel since the conflict comes to a head in the present. I didn't really miss it that much, though, since this series has never really spent much time on the actual time travel.

I tried not to get hung up on a couple of things - insta-love abounds in this one even more than the second book, and the big question of who the traitor is gets out of hand. I felt like the various suspicions, while creating suspense and drama, were also unrealistic and caused a lot of unnecessary grief. All they would have had to do was remember the actual prophecy to help them narrow the field... just saying. But I suppose you have to have a story, right? And it did keep me guessing.

Just a quick heads-up for those of you who think you're on a lighthearted adventure where all ends well. This ended up being more tragic than I expected - not everyone survives. But I was ok with the ending for the most part, probably because the POV shift made me not care so much. There was plenty of suspense and danger throughout, and it was a lot of fun to read.



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Review: The Dark

The Dark by Marianne Curley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I liked this one so much better than the first. It continues on a year after the events of the last book, but gets right into the action. It really never stops. I'm glad I continued with the series.

This entire series has a huge case of insta-love, though. Everyone seems to have a soul mate, and the way they discover their soul mate is by being unable to look away from each others' eyes when they first meet. When I read the first book, I thought it was going to avoid this kind of thing - but it turns out the two who would have fallen in love otherwise weren't soul mates, so they didn't.

This series was a lot of fun, just not without its flaws. And at least it gets away from high school and teenage drama after the first book.



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Review: The Named

The Named by Marianne Curley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars




The first half of this book was just like all the other YA paranormals that I’ve grown so tired of - teenagers in class, passing notes, grumpy teachers, girl & boy working together, one with a crush on the other. Depressing home lives, parent and sibling issues, blah blah. Not a lot actually happens at first, but I could see where it was going and was quickly falling into eye-rolling mode, fighting boredom and frustration. How many times have I seen these clichés play out by now?

When I picked this up, I really thought it would be more about time travel adventures. Although the Named are guardians of the timeline, this story is more about the guardians in the present than what they do when they travel to the past. The teenagers are in training (very vaguely described aside from repeated mention of parent and sibling problems caused by the two spending time together), and the focus is not enough on their lives as guardians, at least at first. Irritated at being sucked into another one of these sorts of books, I forced myself onward, prepared to skim if necessary to finish this thing.

Then something changed. I’m not sure exactly when I stopped having to force myself to read. Probably about the time high school dropped out of it and we actually got past the training and into the missions (yes, this does happen!). Then there were a couple small events that challenged my sense of knowing exactly where it was going, and then stuff started happening and I got interested and then - then the end. Just as it started to get up to speed, it ended, and now I’m going to have to read the next one. I sincerely hope I don’t have to wait through another half book of the daily lives of teenagers before things get interesting again. Please no more high school. If we can stick to the business of the Named, I’ll be happy.



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Review: Hollow World

Hollow World by Michael J. Sullivan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



If you're a fan of Michael Sullivan's, you've probably heard by now that Hollow World is completely different from his Riyria Revelations series. It has a different tone, setting, and themes. There's a more modern feel with cultural references and modern language tossed about. But the sense of humor is still there, as well as the seemingly simple twists that somehow end up meaning more than I expected.

It starts out in the present-day with a man who has nothing to live for (and is dying anyway) and so decides to try out his time machine. The future that Ellis experiences is really strange, but also cool. There's a sense of wonder at Hollow World - it's not a Dystopia, which I appreciated. But the world is not without its problems, and Ellis finds himself right in the middle of them. Along the way, he discovers what living really is and what he really cares about (too late?).

I liked it. My main complaint is that I'd like to read more. I feel like I just got to know these people and had a small taste of their world, and I want to spend more time there. I hope there will be sequels.

**Received free arc for review



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Review: Madman's Dance (Time Rovers, #3)

Madman's Dance by Jana Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I read the first book of the Time Rovers Trilogy, I thought it was going to be a typical historical romance with a mystery and a time travel twist, but still largely a Victorian era romance. I was pleased when it turned out to be stronger on the mystery than the romance, and then a bit mystified when the romance wasn't furthered much in the second book - but happy that there was much more to the story than that. Now in this third book, it totally takes off in a direction I didn't anticipate. At first I wasn't sure if I liked it, but it grew on me and I feel much more satisfied having finished the story the way it is than if it had conformed to the formula that I expected.

The part I didn't really like is Jacynda's state of mind for the first couple hundred pages. She is basically out of the game and I was impatient for her to get back to her usual, feisty self - and back to 1888. Her time healing in 2057 does serve a purpose, though, and brings that time period much more into play. Even though I definitely preferred the Victorian storyline, it helps with that huge tangled cross-time mystery that built up in the second book.

So back in 1888, the timeline is completely falling apart, and with Jacynda gone it falls to Alistair to try to prove Keats' innocence and get to the bottom of the various intrigues. The trial scenes are totally gripping, and the ongoing mystery kept me involved for 450 pages.

Unfortunately, it means that there are now two distinct storylines, and if you were looking forward to the trio being closer again you're likely to be disappointed. But in case you're wondering, romance does finally come into it in this book, just not in the way I expected. I love it when authors defy my expectations.

This is definitely the conclusion to the current mystery, but I don't feel like it's the end of Jacynda's story. I really hope there will be more of her adventures in time someday.

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Review: Virtual Evil (Time Rovers, #2)

Virtual Evil by Jana Oliver

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



In Virtual Evil, the story picks up a few weeks after the end of the first book. Jack the Ripper is still at large, but has stopped killing for now. The anarchists' plot was interrupted, but their threat is more real than ever, and not as simple as it seems. John Keats is badly injured and now an anarchist target. Alastair is grumpy, over-protective and having career troubles, and Cynda is still at the heart of dangerous events, unable to return to her time before the mess of 1888 is fixed. In this state of affairs, it takes a while for the new plot to get moving, but once it does it's hard to stop reading.

The mess in 1888 only gets worse. Cynda thinks she has solved part of the mystery surrounding another Rover's death, but now the mystery only gets deeper and deeper, and those who have helped her find themselves in serious trouble. Everything that happens adds to the chaos, and the question hovers over it all - why is this time period being tampered with and by whom?

This is quite a long novel with lots of new questions and new dangers, but very few answers. It's almost boring at first, but all the questions just keep building until you realize there's no way that you're going to get answers at the end of the book and it's hard to hold them all in your head.

This time by the end, Cynda's blind bumbling around turns to disaster since she simply doesn't have the pieces necessary to make headway against enemy unknown, and we are left with cliffhangers - plural. There are no resolutions, no discoveries that solve this cross-time puzzle. The tension that builds in the last 100 pages or so begs for relief that can only be found in the third book that it was all leading up to. This is more than just someone being left hanging in a bad situation that you have to read on to see what happens. This is a huge, unresolved tangle that will take another 450 pages to solve. I have to say I'm eager to discover what comes of it all and I can't seem to stop trying to sort it out in my head.



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Review: Out of Time: A Time Travel Mystery

Out of Time: A Time Travel Mystery by Monique Martin

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Based on the description, I expected to find Out of Time a combination of time travel and historical mystery with a bit of romance. It is true that these elements are present, but really what I found myself reading was a fairly generic romance that could have taken place anywhere, anytime, with some time travel and mystery thrown in, but not sufficiently developed.

The story starts out in the present, with a professor of the occult and his assistant finding themselves unexpectedly launched back to the 1920s. They have to figure out how to survive in the past, but once they do, the story completely stalls as the focus shifts almost completely to the romance. Not much else happens until close to the end, when the conflict finally escalates just in time to bring about a cool time-travel twist to the ending - the sort of thing I'd been waiting for all along, and the reason why I gave this 3 stars instead of 2. If only there had been more of that throughout, I would have been happier.



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Review: The Never War

The Never War by D.J. MacHale

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



MacHale has set himself an enormous task with this series, having to build a new world in each book. Unfortunately, up to this point the journal format has fallen short. It simply doesn't allow the kind of depth necessary and overlays everything with a distinct teenager's voice, creating distance between the reader and the action. I personally find his voice irritating on top of it all.

But finally, with this book we have an improvement! I believe this one works better because the setting is Earth. It's Earth in the past, which adds a fun twist (especially because I love historical fiction), but also adds a whole lot of depth. No world-building is necessary here. Finally, we're not reading the story entirely through Bobby's juvenile descriptions because we have our own framework for the world he's in! The story itself has a chance under these conditions, and I was able to overlook the method of delivery for once (although it did grate still from time to time).

I'm glad I persevered to this point, but have decided to stop while I'm ahead. I don't want to return to the boredom of Bobby's journals on the next world, although there's part of me that hopes his juvenile voice will mature and make it easier to swallow. It's hard for me to stop without knowing the rest of the story, but the small glimpse we are given of the next world reminded me not to get too excited here.



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Review: Always a Witch

Always a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I thought the first book ok, but wasn't too fond of the insta-love situation. Since I got the second book from NetGalley, I pressed on without much enthusiasm, but this book actually made the first worthwhile. The romance is still unexplained, but it's not the whole story. What makes it more interesting is the time travel. The consequences of time travel and magic on the future finally grabbed my attention.

I still think that this was a little too Young-Adult-ish for me. Some YA books work better for me as an adult than others, but usually some depth or complexity beyond teenage love and angst is a requirement. Thankfully, this had more to offer than high school drama, with an old magical family's future at stake, and the danger of being a modern teenaged witch sent back to 19th Century New York to deal with an old and evil enemy.

**Received free arc for review.

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