Timebound (The Chronos Files #1) By: Rysa Walker

Plot:

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?

Review:

I almost forgot to write this review. I actually had the title of the book wrong in my mind as well. Neither of those things are glowing indorsements, but I didn’t hate the book. I didn’t even dislike it, it just wasn’t my thing.

Timebound is a YA book, I know, I know, I need to stop doing this to myself, but the plot sounded interesting and I love time travel. Except, this book only had time travel until the very end and when they talked about time travel before that it got confusing and convoluted in places.

Most of the book was teen angst and stupid hormonal teenage decisions, which is not something I enjoy reading as a thirty year old woman. Honestly, it’s not something I would have enjoyed reading as a teenager either, but I was/am weird.

There was the makings of a love triangle, which I dislike. There was a weird family dynamic, but not in a kooky sort of way, in a why can’t these people just sit down and talk to each other and clear this shit up sort of way.

The thing I liked the best in the book was the way the villain is going about trying to take over the world. The villain himself isn’t very remarkable and it isn’t clear yet if he’s the main villain or if someone is pulling his strings, but that doesn’t really matter. His chosen world domination method is intriguing and made me think and I really wished there’d been more put into it. It didn’t even come to light until about the halfway point I think.

***SPOILERS***

The villain is using time travelers to go back in time and create a religion with him at the center. He’s using the tech to make people think he’s a god so that he gains more and more power in the future he’s in. It’s super interesting and if anyone knows of another book with that I’d be interested in hearing about it.

***END OF SPOILERS***

Even though I didn’t dislike the book there are just too many negatives for me to push forward in this series.

3/5