Book Rating: ★★★✰✰ (3 / 5 stars)
The Chrono Unit exists to keep time travelers in check. Yet, one of their star officers, Monday Moody, is a traveler herself. While keeping her abilities a secret, Monday plans to climb the corporate ladder and make changes…or so she hopes. With a homicidal traveller, Blayze Caden, on the loose, she is roped into a team to hunt him down. Yet this mission might be harder than she imagined, and it may in fact risk her life.
The idea of time travelers, a government organization, and a determined young woman really did appeal to me. I love a good sci-fi adventure, and that’s exactly what this book provided: a fun, entertaining adventure with time travelling, vampires, and more! Morgan W. Silver has created a world that has something for everyone in it, and in this fast-paced afternoon read, you’ll have a fun time!
Yet, despite how much fun I had reading this book, I had a few personal hang ups with it. The most prominent one, and the reason why I ultimately rated this book 3 instead of 3.5 or 4 stars, was how the book seemed to fit the “Smurfette” trope. The Smurfette Trope is basically when there is one female character who all the male characters are infatuated with. In Monday’s team, while searching for Blayze, it felt like every man had either 1) dated Monday or 2) wanted Monday. While this trope might not bother everyone, it is one of my least favorite tropes, and often causes me to knock a story down by half a star.
The story itself is quite fast paced, as I mentioned above. While a lot of people will like that, I wish I got a chance to learn a bit more about the world and the Chrono Unit, before diving into the chaotic life of Monday Moody. This is a personal choice though. Other people might like to jump head first into this action.
While this story didn’t check off all the boxes for me, it is still a fun sci-fi adventure with a range of characters, an entertaining protagonist, and a bit of mystery. If you enjoy fast-paced, action packed stories…then this might just be for you!
What’s it about?
Working for the Chrono Unit isn’t all bad. Despite the terrible coffee, the possibility of death, or the boring paperwork, there is the satisfaction of knowing that dangerous time travellers are kept in check. Except that CU officer Monday Moody is secretly a Traveller herself. In a world where time travel is either forbidden or exploited, Monday has plans to climb the corporate ladder and make changes. That is, if she lives long enough to reach those goals.
When the homicidal Traveller Blayze Caden, who also happens to be her childhood friend, is after her life, she forms an unlikely team to hunt him down. She also has to juggle the fact that a deaf girl, who is also a Traveller, shows up on her doorstep for help. Monday now has two secrets to keep. Hiding the truth gets harder as she’s getting close to the mayor of Sheffield, an influential vampire who has ties to the UA and is at war with rebel Travellers, as well as when Blayze decides to try and out her in between murder attempts. Not only does she have to decide which secrets are worth fighting for, but also whose side she is on.
E.S. Barrison 