A Second Chance (The Chronicles of St Mary’s #3)

I was extremely dissapointed with this book. It started off as a page turner like the previous ones. By the end, the book convinced me to drop the series for good.

(SPOILERS)
There are two main reasons. First, the more objective reason: The whole “parallel timelines/second chance” plot twist was just a mess. I can’t suspend disbelief for it, and I honestly don’t think those two people can continue a relationship… From a certain point of view, they are in love with people that no longer exists.

The second reason is more visceral (and subjective). The author managed to turn Max into a coward bitch. After all Max has been through in the previous books, I can’t believe she would be so set in leaving a small boy to be raped and killed.
#1 She knows the Chief’s heart after loosing all of his children, and his desperate need to save this one.
#2 She’s lost a child of her own, and mourned it.
#3 All of St. Mary already knows there are situations where you can save something (scrolls) or someone (dodos) doomed in it’s original timeline. She can’t take the chance for the Chief’s heart and her own soul?

I was heart broken for the story….

I just finished it and I’m… Stunned… This series is really good but this one knocked it, and me, out of the park. I was laughing so hard one minute (ok maybe for 15 minutes) then I was in tears and then I’m sitting on the edge of the couch holding my breath and then laughing so hard tears are streaming down my face again and my poor husband thought I was losing my mind. This was just in the 30 minutes I sat reading in the same room with him. He got up and went to the other room so he could read in peace. We always read together so that’s never happened before…lol!
“I couldn’t put it down” is a stupid cliche that I’ve seen written so many times before and after reading said book, had no trouble “putting it down”. I have never put it in a review before but guess what…I couldn’t put it down. After thousands of books in many genres, that’s a first for me. The history that goes into Jodi’s books is incredible and the way she incorporates it into her stories over and over will keep you interested and turning, the page even if you have never had any interest in history. I promise you will laugh so hard at the antics, the stories and the wit of Max. There are a few sad times and then there are many that will keep you on edge and…. You won’t be able to put it down.

“A Second Chance (The Chronicles of St. Marys Book 3)” by Jodi Taylor continues the story of our intrepid time-traveling historians, and the story just keeps getting better and better. This is the third book describing the universe of St. Marys, so weve learned the rules of time travel and the dangers of messing up the timeline, but Jodi Taylor makes the situations our crew finds themselves in to be fresh and exciting.

For some reason I cant quite articulate, we seem to be more intimately in Maxs head this time. Max is getting older, she estimates shes actually three years older than her chronological age due to time spent in the past. Shes also assuming more responsibility at St. Marys, becoming a permanent fixture of the management structure. All the while she keeps promising herself that the next jump into the past is her last jump. You cant quite believe it, of course. There are lots of reasons why. The Second Chance of the title takes on multiple meanings for Max and Leon, both professional and personal.

So where are we off to? A comically bizarre encounter with Sir Isaac Newton, an almost fatal trip to a 19th-century version of the cheese rolling ceremony in Gloucester, and witnessing the first successful migration of humans out of Africa tens of thousands of years ago.

But the most memorable trip of the book is to witness the fall of Troy at the hands of the Greeks in the Bronze Age. Jodi Taylor does a masterful job making the whole event come alive, and like Max, we realize that were not reading dusty pages in a book, but experiencing real people trying to survive the horrors of war. The words on the page seem real.

The story finishes up with two incredible surprises. Max ends up in the Cretaceous Period on an unscheduled trip with dramatic consequences and Max and Tim Peterson visit the battle of Agincourt for a historic survey that ends up being anything but. Second chances to act differently or pursue relationships differently are the ongoing theme of this book. You will want to grab the next book in this series as soon as you can.

Even though this is entitled ‘Second Chance’ it is the 3rd book in the St Mary’s series, which is the least confusing thing about it. Max is back for another instalment, along with her madcap colleagues and various historical figures including a rather rude Isaac Newton and Helen of Troy.

The story is wonderful. The characters are brilliant. Jodi Taylor retelling of historical events is both funny and poignant. But the ending seemed to stretch the realm of possibility, even for a time travel book. It presses the ‘reset’ button on the whole series and guarantees that whilst everything stays the same, nothing stays the same. Sorry to be so cryptic, but this is one you have to read to get your head around.

Troy Fell. I have read this book about 4 Times now. So much happens that its difficult to grasp the whole plot. Brilliant Jodi Taylor closes a circle. Just how did Leon seem to already know how important Max is to him? Well, thats solved. Phew! Its been troubling me since I read The First Damn Thing Novella. The Great Troy study is an unforgettable read. The narrative moves so well that the reader is there, On the beach with the women of Troy. I read these books and cant stop. Im lost in the world that Jodi Taylor has created. The final chapter is a shock( of course).
It is followed with A Trail Through Time – immediately. Run, Max and Leon, Run!

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