To stop her sadistic grandfather, Saul, and his band of time travelers from rewriting history, Kate must race to retrieve the CHRONOS keys before they fall into the Cyrists’ hands. If she jumps back in time and pulls the wrong key–one that might tip off the Cyrists to her strategy–her whole plan could come crashing down, jeopardizing the future of millions of innocent people. Kate’s only ally is Kiernan, who also carries the time-traveling gene. But their growing bond threatens everything Kate is trying to rebuild with Trey, her boyfriend who can’t remember the relationship she can’t forget.

As evidence of Saul’s twisted mind builds, Kate’s missions become more complex, blurring the line between good and evil. Which of the people Saul plans to sacrifice in the past can she and Kiernan save without risking their ultimate goal–or their own lives?

Time’s Edge (The Chronos Files #2) by Rysa Walker
Published October 21, 2014 by Skyscape
Format: Kindle e-book; 452 pages
Young Adult/Science Fiction/Historical Fiction
Also By This Author: Timebound, Time’s Divide, The Delphi Effect
Goodreads | Amazon | Author’s Website
My Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

Thoughts:

Last month I posted my review for Timebound, a book I had bought a couple of years ago and for some stupid reason hesitated in actually reading. I devoured the sequel, Time’s Edge, right away but I’ve been holding off on reviewing it and continuing on to the third and final book because I wanted the story to actually sink in.

But I’m here now to tell you that I enjoyed Time’s Edge even more than Timebound. It’s very rare that that happens (I can only think of a couple other examples: Catching Fire over The Hunger Games and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows over the first six HP novels), but the reason is usually due to some heavier stakes for the main characters. In Catching Fire Katniss is trying to save the lives of her friend Peeta and their Capitol-despising allies, as well as protecting her family back in District 12. In Deathly Hallows…well, I don’t want to spoil it for those who haven’t read the entire series yet, but I can say Harry faces some much darker choices and many people die fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters. I’m not saying that these sequels are better than the original novels, but I did enjoy reading them more.

In Timebound, Kate learns about her time traveling abilities and is almost immediately thrown into an alternate universe where she was never born. Her grandmother, a time traveling historian from the late 2200s, was killed by Kate’s grandfather, Saul, who is trying to rewrite history. Kate, along with the help of her new boyfriend, Trent, and her grandmother, Katherine, tries to put her universe back in order by traveling to the past and thwarting Saul’s murder plot against Katherine.

Time’s Edge goes a little deeper. Kate, trying to reconcile three different realities, has to travel to Georgia in the 1930s (with her alternate reality boyfriend Kiernan) to rescue an unsuspecting group of her grandmother’s former coworkers (also time traveling historians). The get swept up in trying to stop a lynching, which is absolutely terrifying. Much darker than the serial killer chase in Timebound.

Time’s Edge ends on a big cliffhanger, and I had to exercise every bit of my self-control in order to hold off on reading the final book. There are two novellas that take place before Time’s Divide, and I’d like to read them first. But I’m still hesitating on reading the last book because I really don’t want the series to be over! I’ve fallen in love with the characters and the accurate historical depictions. At least I have Timeless to look forward to (confession: I sometimes imagine Kate and Kiernan popping into episodes of Timeless). But now I need to hurry up and start reading Time’s Divide because I got my husband hooked on the series and he just started the last book today!

Read This Book If:

…you’re a history buff.
…you get easily swept away in time travel stories.
…you enjoy love triangles or tragic romances/unrequited love stories.
…you’re intrigued by alternate realities or seeing characters reconciling different timelines.

“It’s a hard lesson in life, but you have to accept that some things are out of your hands. Otherwise, you’ll never know a single minute of peace. You mend what you can, and you let the rest go. You just let it go.”

Final Musings

Here’s a trailer for the pilot of NBC’s Timeless: