Thursday, March 21, 2013

Review: Timekeeper by Alexandra Monir

Published: January 8th, 2013 (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
Pages: 288
Rating: 3/5
When Philip Walker appears as a new student in Michele Windsor's high school class, she is floored. He is the love she thought she lost forever when they said goodbye during her time travels last century. Overjoyed that they can resume the relationship they had a lifetime ago, Michele eagerly approaches him and discovers the unthinkable: he doesn't remember her. In fact, he doesn't seem to remember anything about the Philip Walker of 1910.

Michele then finds her father's journals, which tell stories of his time-traveling past. As she digs deeper, she learns about his entanglement with a mysterious and powerful organization called the Time Society and his dealings with a vengeful Windsor ancestor. Michele soon finds herself at the center of a rift over 120 years in the making, one whose resolution will have life-or-death consequences.

Alexandra Monir's Timekeeper combines breathtaking romance with a tale of complex magic in a sequel that will have every reader believing in the transcendent power of love [Description from Goodreads]
Michele’s life couldn’t get any better, right? Wrong. When Phillip Walker, flesh and blood, struts into her classroom at school, it’s more than she can believe. It’s also more than he can believe. When she tells him that they met long ago in an age of long skirts, horses and buggies, and no internet, he only stares at her like she’s an idiot before turning on his heel and leaving girls swooning in his wake. Just when Michele thought they could be together forever, Phillip seems to have forgotten all about them. Dangerous mysteries are discovered, long-dead relatives turn up, and death threats swirl; will Michele be able to sort out her life and keep Phillip in her grasp at the same time?
I’m not going to lie. I downright wasn’t impressed with this second book. Considering I wasn’t all that fond of the first book, Timeless, I didn’t really expect to love Timekeeper. I disliked this book for most of the same reasons I disliked the last book. I absolutely couldn’t connect with Michele, and I felt her character lacked depth. She felt needy, immature, and predictable. When Phillip’s amnesia of their relationship got in the way of them being together, she’d constantly pester and stalk him, which sat on the verge of being reeeealllly creepy.
Everyone’s reaction to Rebecca’s existence and threats seemed artificial somehow. Mentioning Rebecca, she wasn’t all that terrifying as far as villains go. When the characters are majorly creeped out by the villain but you as a reader wouldn’t wet your pants if you met him/her in a dark alley, something is quite wrong. Just saying.
So, as some of you might know by now, I’m an avid Doctor Who fan. Translation: I understand the ins and outs of time travel as theorized by Steven Moffat. And I can usually wrap my head around any other time travel theories you throw my way. But the way Alexandra explains time travel in this book…*shakes head* I was lost. So, so lost. The numerous rules about deceased folk going to one time period and having to stay seven days before they’re visible but they can be killed if they’re slain in oh-so-many time periods and so on and so forth…it just got all jumbled up. If you’ve read this one and understood this concept better than I did, by all means, feel free to comment and shed some light on the issue!
So I guess you could say that Timekeeper just wasn’t my book. I didn’t expect much out of it, but I did hold onto a small shred of hope that it might impress me more than Timeless did. But no. *sad face* I can’t really say whether or not I’ll read the third and last book (granted there’ll be one) but going off of how I feel about the series right now, I’d say not. For the sake of not writing a review that’s completely negative, I will say that Timekeeper gets five shiny gold stars out of five for clean content. Some violence ensues, but I’d have no problem giving this book to a middle-grade reader. In fact, middle-grade readers might enjoy this more than mature readers (teens and adults, etc.).  But as far as my opinion goes, this one definitely didn’t make a big impression on me.
 Quick Content Review: *may contain spoilers*
Language: None (possibly only one or two words…)
Violence: Mild (a violent ending scene with the villain)
Sexual: Mild (some kissing)

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