Book Review – Timekeeper

Book: Timekeeper (Timekeeper 1) by Tara Sim
Release Date: November 8th 2016
Genre: Sci-Fi/Steampunk
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

⌘

⌘

Goodreads

⌘

Synopsis

Two o’clock was missing.

In an alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, a damaged clock can fracture time—and a destroyed one can stop it completely. It’s a truth that seventeen-year-old clock mechanic Danny Hart knows all too well; his father has been trapped in a Stopped town east of London for three years. Though Danny is a prodigy who can repair not only clockwork, but the very fabric of time, his fixation with staging a rescue is quickly becoming a concern to his superiors. And so they assign him to Enfield, a town where the tower seems to be forever plagued with problems.

Danny’s new apprentice both annoys and intrigues him, and though the boy is eager to work, he maintains a secretive distance. Danny soon discovers why: he is the tower’s clock spirit, a mythical being that oversees Enfield’s time. Though the boys are drawn together by their loneliness, Danny knows falling in love with a clock spirit is forbidden, and means risking everything he’s fought to achieve. But when a series of bombings at nearby towers threaten to Stop more cities, Danny must race to prevent Enfield from becoming the next target or he’ll not only lose his father, but the boy he loves, forever.

⌘

Review

There comes a moment when time seems to slip faster, running long then short, shadows shrinking as the sun climbs. It’s the moment, he decided, when you’re no longer a child. When the concept of time and the need for more of it come together and make you powerless.Make you yearn for the longer days, the lazy days, before you knew what time passing actually meant.

 

Oh my, if you like to read about two cute boys kissing in a clock tower this certainly is the book for you. I jest, clearly this book is about more than just kissing boys. Or this would not have received 5 stars from me.
This book is set in an alternate Victorian world where time is controlled by clock towers. Certain people within the world have abilities to feel time within the clock towers so they can repair them. I found this world quite interesting. Set in our history with steam punk elements. Of course there have been some liberties taken. There is certain technology we didn’t have and the place of women in society is also different. In the back the author explains why she choose to alter more than just the addition of the clock towers controlling time. I always appreciate that because it is nice to know what the author was thinking regarding these things. It also makes sense as in that these clock towers obviously would influence things so certain things would develop differently than they really did in the Victorian time.

So I loved that she changed the position of women somewhat. Women can also be clock tower mechanics. Homosexuality is also a topic that is open and no longer punishable by law. Our main character is openly homosexual and I like that. Very often it is hidden away with the main character. There is also PTSD that is dealt with in this book and grief. But the characters and relationships is what completely made me love this book.

Danny is precious and such a cutie. I really liked him. He’s a bit awkward and withdrawn after what has happened to him. He’s a bit of a mechanic prodigy as he is so young but I’m glad to see there were two other young prodigies as well. His relationship with his mother is very strained as they both wallowed in their own grief and didn’t turn to each other as so often happens after tragedy strikes.

But the old Leila was still somewhere in this house, held in the cracks and the foundation.

When his mother first came across the page she almost struck me as cold but as the story continued and we learned more about what had happened we could clearly see his mother was badly affected and didn’t know how to reach out to her son anymore. I loved seeing how that was shown. Cassie, Danny’s best friend and car mechanic is an epic best friend who is supportive but also has her own grief which slightly deepens her out even though she is a minor character. The same goes for Daphne, one of the other prodigies.

Last but certainly not least there is Colton, our cutest clock spirit. He is so adorable. Though he has been around for a long while he is very child like. He can’t leave the tower and watches over the town’s life. But interact with it he never has done. He hides away when the mechanics come. Until Danny. Their interaction and romance is so adorable. There is no instant love. It is something that is build. And after one kiss there certainly is no talk of being in love. Strong feelings yes. Their relationship is deepened out over time. They matched and I was rooting for them from the first page they met.

Also the romance was certainly not the main plot point of this book. While we follow Danny through his struggles of being in love with a clock spirit, what happened to his father and the traumatic incident that happened to him come back into present day.