This book was…sorta strange. It wasn’t at all what I expected, but that’s fair since I thought it was going to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling based on the little image of title and cover. It actually centers on a really interesting idea that people are born with a gene to time travel and that at age 16 they start spontaneously time traveling.
So from the start I was pretty well hooked in by the story (even though the audio quality in the audio book is awful). Gwyneth is a great main character, a very realistic portrayal of a teenage girl in her situation. At first she’s a little jealous that her cousin will be a time traveler, and then suitably astounded when she finds out it’s her instead. Gideon, another time traveler, is a perfect balance of cocky obnoxious teenage boy and brave hero.
So the characters are pretty good, how about the story? Also pretty good. This is the first in a trilogy so a lot of what it hints at never gets fully explained, but it lays out a lot of plot. There is another group of time travelers who are bad, but maybe they aren’t, both groups are trying to complete a sort of prophesy first, or at least that’s what the good guys think. My main complaint with the story was that there was so much set up that when the book ended it felt like there was no closure. I guess I’ve become used to books that at least give the illusion that they could be a stand alone novel. This one leaves you hanging smack dab in the middle when it’s done.
Overall worth a read, the descriptions of both current and past London are fun to read and the story is very interesting. Just be sure to get the other books if you don’t want to end up blinking in surprise like me when the book ends on you.