Time's Edge by Rysa WalkerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Get ready to re-think time travel as we know it. The adventure continues with a few new characters and a few bits of history that make it interesting.
Kate is back again, having gotten much more comfortable with her time traveling ability. She's managed at this point to return to something akin to her own timeline - which is somewhat unfortunate since her boyfriend is from the one she left. Her grandmother Kathryn has her running all over the world (and history) to obtain the keys which enable travelers to jump from time to time. Kiernan is prominent in the story and all the characters we loved are back.
The character development in this book is substantial. Kate easily jumps with her Chronos key now and it's not just her who's familiar with the way her ability works. It seemed complicated in the first book, and it should have because Kate was new to the whole thing. Now as she understands the way she can travel, so can we. Jumping from timeline to timeline is far easier to understand. This being the case, Kate comes across as a much more grounded person and less the wide-eyed innocent who has no idea why people are out to get her. She's impulsive but in a way that's appropriate for her age. This quality really made her a lot more believable when coupled with how smart she is. She has no tolerance for racism, the demeaning of women or generally being treated without respect. On the other hand, this is normal behavior for a person her age in the world today who has no experience with these things other than in books. She's also conflicted in terms of the love triangle, but not in an annoying way. Love triangles are seldom done well, but this one succeeds. Kate really is pretty committed to one guy but is honest enough to admit that she has feelings for the other - and this hints at perfect relationship versus soulmate. It's tough to choose when you really like both guys.
Kate also has a good sense of humor, especially with Kiernan. We see a lot more of Kiernan in this book and while he is entirely likable, he's also not entirely trustworthy. This was a nice balance for him; Walker could have written him as a swoon-worthy love interest pining for the Kate he knew. Instead, this guy is self-assurred and essentially working undercover as a spy. His loyalties are constantly in question; is he lying to protect Kate and others? Or is he working for the Cyrists? Or is he in it completely for himself? It's never clear, making him completely charming and slightly dangerous at the same time.
The romance with Trey progressed slightly too fast for my taste. This is a guy with no idea who Kate is - she's just some girl who shows up with a video for him and kisses him and then takes off. The important person in the romance of course is Kate, but Trey seemed to fall for her pretty quickly and that smacked of instalove. The balance here is that this romance happened in the first book and that Trey isn't really a major character in this particular part of the story. In fact, Walker really plays on this idea of a past relationship in a different timeline; because both were genuine we have a Kate who is justifiably conflicted. It just works.
The other secondary characters were just deep enough. Connor continues to provide the comic relief, Pru gets more and more crazy, Simon is just as devious as before but we begin to understand why and Saul continues to be the mysterious figurehead. Kathryn shows her true colors. Kate's dad Harry is as wonderful as ever and her friend Charlaine makes an appearance. Eve also returns as a villain, but it's more of a cameo. Oddly this works because she's in cahoots with the bad guys and we don't need her to further define them.
The thing I love most about this series is that it is entirely believable. Rysa Walker set her time travel rules and stuck to them. This means we have characters from the 24th century acting the way they were described: committed to the rules and expecting protocol to be followed. They're good actors who are well-prepared and yet when faced with the reality of history, they have a bit of trouble adapting. They're not supposed to live there, they're just supposed to observe as historians. So when they freak out having to cope with real people from an historical time, it's believable, even entertaining.
The book ends on somewhat of a cliffhanger, just enough to leave us wanting the next book. This story could resolve in so many ways that it's entertaining just to imagine them. This of course means that everyone will have a different view of what should happen in the end and that could leave some readers unhappy. But it's a risk worth taking in this case. It's possible that every imaginable thing could happen. Walker hasn't taken the easy, predictable plot line up to this point, so it's probably safe to say that the ending will be spectacular.
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