Review: Timekeeper by Tara Sim

Timekeeper by Tara Sim
Narrated by Gary Furlong
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up because I thought I might be able to use it for my Popsugar reading challenge prompt for a book involving time travel.  It does not in fact involve time travel, but I enjoyed it anyway.  You could use it for the LGBT prompt, as the main character is gay and it does involve a cute male male romance.

Timekeeper is set in alternate Victorian London and follows timekeeper Danny Hart. Danny is a clock mechanic who doesn’t just fix broken clocks he can also see and fix broken threads of time. Time in this version of London is controlled by the clocks in and around London. If a clock is broken time doesn’t flow correctly, and in some cases entire towns have been frozen because the town clock has stopped.

Danny finds himself in Enfield repairing the clock when he meets his new apprentice Brandon. Brandon turns out to be Enfield’s clock spirit Colton. Colton finds Danny interesting and he continues to “injure” himself so Danny will come back and fix him. Colton is lonely and as a clock spirit doesn’t get to interact with humans or know much about them. I really enjoyed the mythology aspect of the book. You don’t see the Titans very much, and it was a nice touch to have several chapters dedicated to the actual mythology. I would have liked more on it, however there was enough to understand what was going on and how everything worked. Some of the magic you just have to accept though.

Danny, being very comfortable as a gay young man finds himself attracted to Colton, and as their friendship develops so do their feeling for each other. Their romance is sweet and cute. They can’t do much more than kiss though.

Meanwhile, the timekeepers are trying to build a new clock to unfreeze a local town where Danny’s own father is trapped, they are dealing with local bombing of several clock towers, and the local townsfolk feeling that the timekeepers have too much power. Most people respect the clocks and the work the timekeepers do, but they are often misunderstood and while they can see and repair time, some feel that they can actually control time, which isn’t really the case. Danny is desperate to help save his father, but as a victim of a recent bombing himself he is just getting back to work himself. He has a lot to deal with. Fortunately he has his best friend Cassie, his real apprentice Brandon, and Colton to help him figure things out. Danny is certain that he can figure out who is behind the bombings, but he also wants to spend time working on the Enfield clock so he can spend time with Colton. He also wants to work on the new clock that will hopefully save his father, when that job doesn’t come through he gets pretty upset. What he does find is that the person behind the bombings is the last person he would expect. Danny is pretty emotional, he makes decisions based on his feelings and doesn’t think things through many times. This often gets him in trouble, but given his situation at home and work it is understandable that he has a short fuse sometimes. He is flawed, but he always owned his actions, and we see him grow and find his inner strength to stand up to the unlikely villain and become the hero in the end.

I felt that the plot was pretty good and the characters and relationships were developed well. There was a lot going on in this book, but I never felt overwhelmed or lost. There was a bit of a resistance against the clock mechanics, a mystery, a romance, friendships, foul play, mythology, but I always knew what was going on. The world building could have been better, but considering most of the story is set in a clock or a small apartment there isn’t much world to see. I am very much looking forward to Chainbreaker the next book in the series.


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