Timebomb by Scott K. Andrews: Review

Title: Timebomb (Timebomb Trilogy #1)
Author: Scott K. Andrews
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Buy This Book: Amazon / Book Depository

New York City, 2141: Yojana Patel throws herself off a skyscraper, but never hits the ground.Cornwall, 1640: gentle young Dora Predennick, newly come to Sweetclover Hall to work, discovers a badly-burnt woman at the bottom of a flight of stairs. When she reaches out to comfort the dying woman, she's knocked unconscious, only to wake, centuries later, in empty laboratory room.On a rainy night in present-day Cornwall, seventeen-year-old Kaz Cecka sneaks into the long-abandoned Sweetclover Hall, determined to secure a dry place to sleep. Instead he finds a frightened housemaid who believes Charles I is king and an angry girl who claims to come from the future.Thrust into the centre of an adventure that spans millennia, Dora, Kaz and Jana must learn to harness powers they barely understand to escape not only villainous Lord Sweetclover but the forces of a fanatical army... all the while staying one step ahead of a mysterious woman known only as Quil. (Goodreads summary.)

I requested this because of the cover.

I must admit that the main reason I ended up requesting Timebomb was the cover. I couldn't help myself, despite my issues with it, I really like the cover. With the skyscraper skyline at the top and the country village at the bottom, I could tell a lot about the book by just looking at the cover. I'd never heard of the author before and I hadn't heard anything about the book, but I was excited nonetheless to receive my copy and read it.

Time travel books can be hit and miss because it's so hard to get them right. You have the problem of paradoxes and parts of the story not adding up or making sense. It can jump back and forth so much that you start to be confused about where and when you are. I quite enjoyed Timebomb but I felt the time travel aspect did cause a lot of those issues.

The story jumps straight into the action, we immediately find ourselves on a rooftop with Jana as she flings herself from the building. She's been chased by a group of men who are set on killing her and she has no idea why. Jana has died before and it wasn't so bad, she knows that even when she dies here her mother will find a way to bring her back. But Jana never hits the floor, instead she finds herself thrown back in time from 2141 to 2014. There she's joined by Kaz, a boy from 2014 and Dora, a scullery maid who found herself transported forward in time from 1640.


That all happens very quickly, within the first few pages and the action never lets up after that. We learn very early on that a woman named Quil is after them, determined to stop them now to prevent an event from happening in the future. The pace really never slows down, it feels like a lot to take in because you never get a minute to think over everything. I struggled with that aspect of it, too much happens too quickly and I was left feeling quite confused. It got hard to keep up with what the characters had actually done and in what time frame. I lost track of who'd travelled where and what each character remembered about everything. I was lost.

This is definitely more of a plot driven book than a character driven one. I never felt like I got to know Kaz, Jana or Dora and I really struggled to connect to them. I have a feeling Jana has the potential to become a character that I would really love in the next book. She did show at times that she has a great sense of humour, something I would have liked to see more of. Kaz was okay but had the habit of making really stupid decisions, like smashing up their only weapon when they could really use it. Dora was hard for me to get used to, she's from 1640 and spends most of the book just questioning everything around her. It's necessary because she jumps to 2014 and has no idea about anything she encounters. It's realistic but it gets a little old.

Quil is certifiably insane and I LOVE IT!

My favourite character turned out to be Quil, who's absolutely mental. She's mentally unstable and requires a large amount of help, but I came to love her. She was the most interesting character and the insane things she did actually made me laugh. They were totally sadistic but she just did not see it and I loved that. Sometimes it's quite refreshing to feel myself rooting for the bad guy at times. I don't want to win but I don't want them to destroy her because I want more of her character.

I did enjoy this book overall but I had my issues with it. It was hard for me to get lost in the story, the pace was very fast and it was all action. Sometimes all action is a good thing. here it felt like a bit too much and I ended up lost. If I am completely honest, half the time I didn't have a clue what was going on. Characters went back and forth in time so much that I started to lose track of what had happened and when.

3/5 Butterflies

Time travel books are so hard to get right and, although I had some issues with it, I think Scott K. Andrews did a good job with Timebomb. There is quite a lot going on in this book but you can tell that there is so much more to come. Trips to the future and interractions with the people they meet there and in the past hint at big events that are still to come. We still have no idea what event has made Quil so determined to track the three of them down in their respective presents and kill them. I have to admit that my fascination with the character of Quil, and the fact I see Jana becoming a character I really love in the next book, makes me want to continue this series and see where it goes. If you're a fan of action-packed books where the action never stops then this is the book for you.

*I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review and received no monetary compensation for this review.