Attempted Series Read 2024/25 So After another month where (almost) all I did was re-reads as my oomph is still not back, I’ve just noticed I didn’t even write a review for this. Gosh, really slacking.Ok, so yes this was fun again, and I’m constantly surprised by the adult content. Not that I have any problem with it, I just sort come across it (to use an old pun) and think , oh yes, these aren’t for kids are they despite how easy they are to read.So I agree with myself below, And I can say tha...

"A Symphony of Echoes" is the sequel to "Just One Damned Thing After Another", the second book starring Madeleine Maxwell, aka Max. I liked the first book a lot (if you want, you can see my review) and so I wanted to read this second book as well. They are books that I would define as History-Fiction, rather than Science-Fiction, since the historians of St. Mary's have found a way to travel in time, to witness historical facts firsthand, as they really happened. These historians, all very eclect...

Ms. Taylor, I’d like to buy you a pint.And please keep writing these stories and I’ll keep reading them.The publisher uses the term “madcap” to describe these and I’ve never liked the term, seems akin to “zany” and whimsical and absurd and – just no.Fast paced – yes.Well written by a witty and engaging, talented writer – yes.Featuring well researched and fun snippets of historical anecdotes and scenes – yes.Madcap? Eh.Following up on the heels of her 2013 debut to the series, Taylor describes th...

History is A Symphony of Echoes. Every little action has huge consequences. This series is a little bit on the sporadic side. I’m quite a linear thinker and so jumping about in time can be a little discombobulating at times. To jump around from London in the days of Jack the Ripper to sometime in the future and then back to hang out with Mary Queen of Scots, well it seems so patched together sometimes.I very much enjoy the time jumps and seeing different time periods and how much tro...

*** 4.25 ***Second read and I actually enjoyed it even better!!! The Dodos still win the day though 😊😊😊*** 3.75 ***A buddy read with the MacHalo Freaks! Let's go back in History!!! "...“In this century, as in any other, men wore the comfortable, practical stuff, and the women wandered round expiring underneath over-decorated tea-cosies and with inadequate footwear.”..." I enjoyed the book. Mostly, I love the quirky humor and wacky time jumps. I enjoy the writing style, but there is somethin...

So after a good night's sleep and a big hot mug of tea (yeah, I prefer mugs to St. Mary's typical nice and flowery china), I have now sorted my thoughts. This second volume was very interesting and fast-paced again, the characters amicable as ever and the events laced with wonderful historical tidbits. However, it did not get me to care as much as the first.The first volume was a rollercoaster that jerked me this way and that way and left me completely breathless. This second one? Not so much.Th...

This second book still reads like an amazingly light-voiced opera of death, time-mystery, and casual sex... in other words, a great time-travel SF. :)Seriously though, her treatment of cars makes me wonder if they'll wind up going the way of the Dodos. Minus the Cucumber Sandwiches. :) I preferred this one a lot over the first book for once reason: It stayed in known-history for the majority of the book rather than with the dinos. I'm a sucker for historical mysteries and I'm even more of a suck...

Also fun for most of the proceedings. I liked the back 40% or so the best. It's sort of clear that partly the issue Taylor's plotting is kind of just happening as the story happens and things occur to her. Which makes everything feel fairly gloriously spontaneous, but also means she doesn't consider things until she does because she's distracted by some other shiny thing she's interested in at the moment and we've all already thought of the thing because we're not quite as distracted with her ob...

I didn't like this one half as much as the one before. It was just so disjointed and ... meh. It actually left me not really wanting to read book three.The issues here are mostly the plot and all the filler stuff that happens for no reason. And there are some underlying world building problems.It starts out good but after that, it really, really slows down. That first part seemed to mainly be one example of a later "problem" but it really didn't make sense. I actually forgot about that, which sh...

Rating: 4* of fiveThe Publisher Says: Book Two in the madcap time-travel series based at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research that seems to be everyone's cup of tea. In the second book in the Chronicles of St Mary's series, Max and the team visit Victorian London in search of Jack the Ripper, withess the murder of Archbishop Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, and discover that dodos make a grockling noise when eating cucumber sandwiches. But they must also confront an enemy inten...