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A review by emelkay24
A Twist in Time by Julie McElwain
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I liked it a lot! A better mystery than the first book.
Unfortunately McElwan still can’t write romance — I still don’t get what’s drawing Kendra to Alec other than his looks, especially now that he spends the whole book upset that Kendra won’t act like a stereotypical regency era woman — married (to him) with children, willingly steps aside to allow men to protect her, etc. And I get he’s a typical regency era man, I’m all for slow burn character growth, but why would Kendra be attracted to a man so keen to pin her to 19th century standards she will never ever adhere to? What’s more, why is he so insistent on marrying her? He’s known her for a month and he’s clearly okay with relationships outside of wedlock. Starting to ship Kendra and Sam instead, he at least respects her slightly more, but I think McElwan has a Rebecca/Sam endgame in mind. (Ooh, what about Rebecca/Kendra? Much to think about.) Anyway, even if I was on board with Kendra/Alec (and I did want to be on board, I still like both characters, even if Alec’s starting to get annoying), much of the romantic scenes are pretty trite to read. Romance just isn’t McElwan’s strongpoint.
My long rant about romance aside (it’s my favorite genre, so of course it’s the genre I’m most picky about), what I really enjoyed was mystery and the historical fiction. The fish out of water premise continues to be enjoyable to me personally, and I love the cast of side characters.
Unfortunately McElwan still can’t write romance — I still don’t get what’s drawing Kendra to Alec other than his looks, especially now that he spends the whole book upset that Kendra won’t act like a stereotypical regency era woman — married (to him) with children, willingly steps aside to allow men to protect her, etc. And I get he’s a typical regency era man, I’m all for slow burn character growth, but why would Kendra be attracted to a man so keen to pin her to 19th century standards she will never ever adhere to? What’s more, why is he so insistent on marrying her? He’s known her for a month and he’s clearly okay with relationships outside of wedlock. Starting to ship Kendra and Sam instead, he at least respects her slightly more, but I think McElwan has a Rebecca/Sam endgame in mind. (Ooh, what about Rebecca/Kendra? Much to think about.) Anyway, even if I was on board with Kendra/Alec (and I did want to be on board, I still like both characters, even if Alec’s starting to get annoying), much of the romantic scenes are pretty trite to read. Romance just isn’t McElwan’s strongpoint.
My long rant about romance aside (it’s my favorite genre, so of course it’s the genre I’m most picky about), what I really enjoyed was mystery and the historical fiction. The fish out of water premise continues to be enjoyable to me personally, and I love the cast of side characters.