Timebound

Timebound is the type of book I’ve been searching out for years on bookstore shelves and not finding. It’s a time travel adventure that’s more than just a there and back trip. It’s time travel as an ongoing adventure for its characters, and that’s what has always excited and inspired me the most in the genre. Walker’s world of time travel is a universe of changeable timelines, where your memories or even your existence may be in danger at any moment from the reckless tampering of other travelers. As if these hazards weren’t enough, the protagonist gets thrown into a time already fraught with hazards like 19th century serial killers. The heroine of the story, Kate, is likeable and engaging. That characteristic of the story alone, made Timebound rise right to the top of my “to-read” list. Not all YA heroines are equal. Some can be hard to relate to, others are just pain annoying. Walker manages to make Kate a believable teenager without overdoing the angst or the girlish sighing that frequently comes from the other contenders in the genre. That probably did the most to keep me engaged once I had been hooked by the premise. The teen love interests in the story were unique enough from each other to keep the reader (and Kate) guessing as to how things would turn out, and were likeable enough characters in their own right. The alterations to the timelines do get a bit confusing at times, and there are sections of explanatory dialogue that get a bit lengthy. Time travel as a plot device always involves a fair amount of potential paradoxes and Walker does a good job of addressing the theoretical problems at moments when they are likely to arise in the reader’s mind. The trade off to this is explanations of why those possibilities did not occur. There are times when the character’s choices seem less logical, and more just as a means to advance the plot, but the pacing of the story and the addition of different (or differently aged) characters helps to keep the reader engaged and curious. There is a saying some of the mechanics in my aviation maintenance shop would employ when asked to explain a particularly complex system. They’d say it ran on FM. (Short for f*ing magic.) Walker’s time travel devices could also fall under the FM category. We get a sense of the future technology involved on a user level but not much functional understanding of the principles or limitations behind it. The in-story parameters we learn sometimes seem to fluctuate as needed for the plot, but if you let yourself get caught up in the story and just enjoy the ride, the irreverence for these rules shouldn’t slow you down too much. If you think about it too hard, I imagine you might get a bit of a brain cramp much like the characters in the book when caught in a time shift without their CHRONOS key. Overall I had a great time with this read. It was exciting, adventurous time travel with good characters, and while the plot and resolution get a little convoluted and need some unraveling at the end to make sense, I recommend you just dial your “suspension of disbelief meter” up another notch and enjoy the fun.

Summary: Prudence Katherine Pierce-Keller (she likes to be called Kate) is a relatable 16 year old girl dealing with her parent's divorce and what has been wrongly diagnosed as panic attacks, living a fairly normal life until her grandmother drops into the scene from out of nowhere with what seems to be a magical amulet and a crazy story that both raise more questions in Kate's mind than answers. As the book progresses, all of those questions lead to more questions but along the way she learns about her grandother's mysterious past, and a threat to her own existance is posed-- which Kate herself must thwart with her natural talent, quick intellect, and martial arts skills (She has a brown belt in Karate. In the timeline that she actually exists in, anyways). During her adventure she makes the acquiantance of two young gentleman-- one from our present day and one from the past. The potential for romance is there for both of these guys-- basically they Can Get It. Their relationships with Kate unfold very differently. However, both have a pretty significant impact on the story and get their action moments with her. READER, IF YOU DO NOT LIKE LOVE TRIANGLES, PLEASE STILL GIVE THIS BOOK A CHANCE. I don't even like love triangles (I am very exhausted of the whole trend and ready for something else as a main emotional plot) and I kind of like this one. If you want to know why, keep on reading. TLDR Summary: In this YA novel about a teenage girl from a time-traveling family, a relatable, funny, and deep main character is tasked with going back in time to save her grandmother so she and her mother can actually exist and there are also two really cute guys and a crazy cult and the threat of an apocalypse and..... wow there is no way to TLDR this. Just read the book okay. Review: I literally just finished reading this book a couple of minutes ago and I immediately jumped on Amazon to post a review. I'm still processing how I feel about this book so if it seems a little haphazardly put together I apologize. First of all, let's talk about Kate. I really, really love Kate, for mainly one reason-- she's very relatable. A lot of times the line between a relatable main character and one that you kind of just slide yourself into can be blurred (example: Bella Swan. I used to be like YEAH BELLA SWAN SHE IS AWESOME because I guess I inserted myself into her place. This is not what I'm talking about when I say relatable.) She's relatable because she has normal problems. Her parents are divorced (it seems to be kind of recent? I don't remember the details exactly) and she is shuttled back and forth between them. I know from experience that having that kind of uprooted sense of home is not fun. She has a history of what was diagnosed as panic attacks-- even though we find out something special about those, and they are not actually panic attacks-- and I think it's really really cool to see a main character with a problem like that instead of just the "I don't fit in but I'm perfect" kind of thing. Another thing I love about this book is the world building. Yes, Kate is a normal girl living in our time, but the future that is described in this book is really really awesome. I don't want to give too much away but the world building is spot on! Now, let's get down to business and talk about this love triangle. Dude, I really hate love triangles. I initially was going to say something along the lines of "this is my only real criticism of this novel" but then I thought about it more and... this love triangle is just DIFFERENT than all of the other YA love triangles you see floating around. It's because two seperate Kates from two seperate timelines have been in love two seperate times. But, our Kate is the one that has to deal with this fall-out. The more I think about it, the more it seems like this is the only kind of love triangle that really makes sense. Other YA love triangles are like this: Dude likes girl and girl likes dude back, but there is another dude that likes the girl too and she could totally see herself with him and one of them is a more healthy choice but the other one is soooooo passionate oOoOoOoOo~~ DUMB. This love triangle is way less dumb and, for once, actually justifiable by the story instead of just there to add unnecessary drama. I was about to explain it in detail, but I think you should find out for yourself how it's different and kind of awesome (: You know what? Don't even think about it like a love triangle. It's a love river that diverges into two different love streams and they are both awesome and fun to kayak in. Or something. Bottom Line: Well thought out characters, relationships, and universe make this page-turner of a YA time-travel novel enjoyable and satisfying on all levels. Recommended for people that like YA adventure, time-travel tropes, and everything else that is good and right in the world!

This book does time travel as it should be done. That does mean that it gets confusing and complicated at times. History is altered, timelines are reset, people can disappear and appear and a grandma can be born after her grandchild. It's not easy to constantly keep up, but it's worth it to just let things happen, to just accept that things work a certain way. Because the story is really exciting and how the time traveling is used is so well done. The romance also got very very complicated and yet I was really invested. I can't wait to dive into the next two books!

This is a time travel novel. While I couldn't get my head around some of the rules and probabilities that did not detract from this incredible story at all. Waiting for another book to follow this.

This was a great read. The plot was interesting and held your attention to the last page. I love any story featuring time travel and this didn't disappoint.

I thought this was a terrific book and I can't wait to read the next one. The premise was great fun. The characters are all fully developed (even some of the secondary characters.) I cared about them all quite quickly. And the plot is wonderfully complicated (as time travel inevitably is) and moves right along. One reviewer said that he/she didn't like that the main character made a lot of bad decisions. Hey, she's 16 years old! Decision-making is not the strong suit of the breed. (Remember?) I actually thought some of her rashness was part of her charm. I should also say that this is classed as 'young adult' fiction and it's been a very long time since I was one of those, but I still enjoyed it tremendously.

Wie schon die anderen Rezensenten schreiben ist dieser Roman hervorragend recherchiert und die Orte werden bildlich beschrieben. Das Thema Zeitreise mit all seinen Komplikationen ist auch sehr schön umgesetzt und plausibel. Ab etwa der Hälfte konnte ich den Kindle auch nicht mehr aus der Hand legen. Für 1€ kann man hier absolut nichts falsch machen. Kaufen und Lesen!