Jennifer Macaire

In the 3370s, the political map of the world, in particular North America, has changed a great deal. Robin Johnson, a biologist, and researcher for the Center for Environmental Biology and Ecosystem Studies at the Tempus University time travel lab, lives in the country, not the state, of California. A new strain of typhus, Typhus-77, is threatening the world, devastating large mammals and starting to attack humans. There's currently no cure. It's believed to be a version of a typhus strain that wiped out saber-toothed tigers in Paleolithic North America, and this leads to the idea that antibodies from saber-toothed tigers might be used as the basis for an effective treatment.

Which is how Robin gets recruited for a time travel mission to collect samples from the big cats and possibly other animals, as well.

They--Robin and Donnell Urbano, the more experienced time travel scientist she'll be traveling with--will only be there a week. He'll take videos; she'll take samples. The beam that sends them back will pick them up in the same spot. They'll be well equipped with all they need for survival, and if anything gets left behind--including the body of an accidentally killed scientist--implanted capsules will split and cause them to completely dissolve, so that nothing can be found to affect history. What could go wrong?

Yeah, we all know the answer to that--or part of the answer.

Robin's partner, who is the one with all the survival experience, dies within an hour of their arrival in the Paleolithic when his capsule activates. Panicked by the idea that the capsules are defective, Robin quickly and ruthlessly digs hers out of her skin--and discovers that it has her Donnell's name on it, not hers. She, not he, was supposed to die on arrival in the past.

She sets off her rescue beacon, but when the rescue party arrives, three of the four are people are Donnell's partners from previous expeditions, some of them for-profit missions, and at least one with dubious connections. Robin is not at all sure she can trust them.

The fourth member of the team is Jake Powell, son of her boss at the Center, and someone she regards as a friend. Or so she has thought till now. Given his company, can she really be sure?

In her efforts to survive, she accidentally does what was absolutely forbidden--meets a man of this time and, despite the difficulties in communication between two people with no particular skill for languages, manage basic communication and cooperation.

What follows is a terrifying effort to both get the samples she needs, and survive to get back to her own time--with or without Jake, depending.

The most terrifying part is the discovery of the real origins of the Typhus-77 virus, and why Robin was supposed to die.

It's an intriguing mystery, a fascinating look at Paleolithic North America, an exciting survival story.

And the characters are excellent, complex and believable.

Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via Netgalley, and am reviewing it voluntarily.… (meer)

First published at Booking in Heels.

So Isobel accidentally hits a child with her car and is sentenced to life in prison (which seems bizarre to me, but hey ho), unless she agrees to head back to 1270 and correct the course of time, led astray by a careless modern journalist. Excellent. I am completely on board with this plot. 100% up my street. A Crown in Time has my complete attention.

85478The time travel aspects are actually pretty great. Isobel has to figure out in what time she has landed and where, and how to complete her mission (by forcing the ancestor of the Bourbon monarchy to abandon following the Eighth Crusade) without derailing time more than it already is. I love it. She’s lost and confused, exactly as somebody almost two thousand years out of their time should be. She struggles with her companions’ body odour and lack of soap, and has to find ingenious ways to brush her teeth. All the detail I adore in these things.

A Crown in Time provides the perfect amount of detail about the Eighth Crusade; a topic which I knew literally nothing about. I love history, but my education was almost solely around British history (with a quick dip into the French Revolution). The book gives enough detail to follow the plot and learn a little something, but without getting bogged down in political detail which would have slowed down the story. It’s a great balance.

What isn’t a great balance is the shift between the over-arching story, i.e. fixing the timeline, and then the end game. The first two thirds of the book or so are great. But then A Crown in Time settles down into sort a historical fiction-romance – only more of the latter than the former. It was still fine, but what made it interesting was the historical aspects and that just sort of went. There was a definite focus on the romance. It reminded me of the later Outlander books, but without the detail.

It’s not that I disliked the latter part of the book – it’s just that historical romance wasn’t why I’d picked it up. It wouldn’t be so bad, but the romance is just… odd. Every aspect of romance in this book is odd – I can’t say much without spoilers, but trust me when I say it’s all a bit squicky and comes from nowhere. And there’s a lot of sex. It’s not graphic at all, but it’s also not necessary. Isobel has sex with three people consensually, is raped once, groped twice and references a previous historical rape. I know that such things definitely happened in the time period, but three unnecessary consensual partners in a 350 page book is a bit much.

In short, A Crown in Time exceeded my expectations and I loved the detail involved in Isobel’s journey back through time. I do think the second half lost its way somewhat – it was still enjoyable, just slightly jarring. I’d recommend this book to everyone who loves time travel, historical romance or the very specific combination of factors that I do. I’ll definitely be reading the next book in the series, as well as starting Jennifer Macaire’s next series, The Road to Alexander.… (meer)