Timebound (The Chronos Files #1) by Rysa Walker

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?

Timebound (The Chronos Files #1) by Rysa Walker
Published January 1, 2014 by Skyscrape
Format: Kindle e-book; 366 pages
Young Adult/Science Fiction/Historical Fiction
Also By This Author: Time’s Edge, Time’s Divide, The Delphi Effect
Goodreads | Amazon | Author’s Website
My Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Thoughts

You know when you buy a book because you have to have it but then for some insane reason you don’t read it right away? And then months or years later you finally pick it up and proceed to slap yourself because the book is everything you could want in a book and more?? This is basically what happened with me and Timebound.

Timebound is part 1 in The Chronos Files by Rysa Walker. It’s about Kate Pierce-Keller discovering she has the ability to time travel and the subsequent journey she takes to stop her sadistic grandfather from rewriting history and committing a mass genocide. There’s also a heart wrenching love triangle, conflicting alternate realities, the pain of your best friend never knowing she knew you, and well-researched and intriguing glimpses into the 19th and early 20th centuries.

I adore stories about time travel. There’s something captivating and heartbreaking about traveling through space and time that mesmerizes me. I remember watching The Time Machine when I was younger and being equally intrigued and devastated by the idea of being unable to return to your own time. I also have vivid memories of seeing The Time Traveler’s Wife in theaters with a bunch of my friends and then crying for at least 30 minutes afterwards because the ending was so beautifully heartbreaking.

Timebound made me feel the same curiosity and heartache that I love about time travel stories. Rysa Walker has created a wonderful world where science fiction and historical fiction blend seamlessly, and her characters deal with experiences and emotions that both young adults and older adults can relate to. I’ve already read the second book, Time’s Edge, so I can say that her writing gets even more intriguing and surprising as the story continues. I’ve been holding off on reading the final book and the related novellas just so I can get my reviews posted on the first two Chronos Files books because I really think this is a series more readers need to know about!

“Having your existence completely erased has to qualify as a life-changing event, by anyone’s definition.”

Read This Book If…

…you enjoy sci-fi, especially if it’s light on the technical jargon.
…you love suspenseful, captivating novels and don’t mind occasionally having your stomach in knots while reading a book.
…you’re a masochist like me who can’t help but pine after heartbreaking romances and relationships.
…you appreciate well-researched historical fiction novels.

Final Musings