Book Review and Giveaway: Stealing Time (Stealing Time, #1)by KJ Waters | Lone Star Book Blog Tours

THE STEALING TIME SERIES

Stealing Time

Shattering Time

Killing Time

by

KJ WATERS

Time Travel / Suspense / Romance / Alt History / Mystery

Publisher: Blondie Books

 

 
Scroll down for Giveaway!
 

 

Stealing Time, December 20, 2014, 319 pages

A devastating hurricane. A time travel betrayal. Will Ronnie survive the witch hunt or forever be lost in time?

Stealing Time is the first book in the “breathtakingly original” Stealing Time Series of time travel wrapped in a hurricane. If you like strong-willed modern women and gripping stories that transport you back in time, then you’ll love KJ Waters’s Books.

As Hurricane Charley churns a path of destruction towards Orlando, Florida, Ronnie Andrews scrambles to prepare for the storm and seeks shelter at her boyfriend’s weather lab. What she finds there is more terrifying than Mother Nature’s destruction.

During the peak of the hurricane, Ronnie is hurtled back in time to eighteenth-century London where she is caught in a web of superstition, deception, and lies in a life and death struggle to return to her own time. Her best friend Steph is thrust into the middle of the hurricane.

 

Shattering Time: June 27, 2017, 336 pages

A hurricane the size of Texas. Another time travel betrayal. Will Ronnie figure out how to return home or die trying?

Shattering Time is the second book in the best-selling “Breathtakingly original” time travel series that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Ronnie Andrews returns from 18th-century London shell-shocked from her first terrifying time travel encounter. Her boyfriend, Jeffrey Brennan, casts doubt on her sanity leaving Ronnie wondering if she went back in time or is having a mental breakdown. To add to the tension, Hurricane Francis, a storm the size of Texas, is barreling towards Florida and her fears of a repeat time travel experience mount. Ronnie’s best friend Steph, along with her friend Nick and Steph’s younger brother Ian, shield Ronnie from the dangers of Francis but cannot save her from traveling back in time. Unfortunately, their meddling brings Ronnie to the brink of destruction as they are caught in the throes of the hurricane’s wrath.

Once again, Ronnie is transported to dangerous places and desperate situations, while experiencing perilous cultures including one of America’s first mysteries — the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. A stunning conclusion brings Ronnie face to face with a dangerous ally who may hold the key to her past while offering salvation for her future.

 

Killing Time: August 27, 2021, 437 pages

When the Strongest Hurricane in Decades Takes Aim at Florida, Ronnie Tries to Escape its Wrath. Will she Die in the Storm or Be Lost in Time Forever?

Ronnie Andrews is lucky to be alive after a time travel glitch nearly took her life during Hurricane Frances. When Hurricane Ivan, one of the strongest storms in decades, sets its sights on Florida, Ronnie jumps at the chance to join Mike, her mysterious new boss, on a business trip to Puerto Rico.

Sparks fly, but when a newspaper article surfaces with horrific pictures of a woman who may have died at Mike’s hands, Ronnie regrets the decision. Before she can confront Mike about what she knows, Hurricane Jeanne forms off the coast, trapping them on the island. Her doctors warned that another time-travel-induced illness may kill her. Mike may be her only salvation.

The storm strikes and Ronnie time travels to Texas in 1872 where she is taken by Comanches. A rescue party saves her life led by Jesse and Frank James, hiding under assumed names.

Will Ronnie find a way to make the time-traveling episodes stop before the dangers of the past, and the damage from the journey destroy her?

 

 

I’ll be reviewing Stealing Time, book 1 in KJ Waters’ Stealing Time series. How could I not love this book? I mean, look at the synopsis! Time travel? Hurricanes? Yes, please! Ronnie Andrews has moved to Florida, and now she’s facing a major hurricane in Charley. Her friend Steph is going to stay with her, but Ronnie bails on Steph when her troll of a boyfriend, Jeffrey, asks her to come to the lab where he’s working on some weather-related experiment. He tempts her with the promise of a birthday surprise and says the lab will be much safer than her house. 

 

BAHAHAHAHAHA no. No, the lab won’t be safer. Unbeknownst to Ronnie, Jeffrey plans to use her as his human subject in a time travel experiment that needs the energy of the hurricane to power it. The special watch he gives her as her birthday gift, that he had custom made, has something to do with it, as do the drugs he slips into her birthday dinner. Ronnie starts feeling queasy, and when she heads for the bathroom, she finds her consciousness sucked from her body and transported into someone else’s body, in England, in the mid-18th century. Talk about an unpleasant birthday surprise.

So, we establish right up front that Jeffrey is a horrible person. He draws Ronnie to the lab under false pretenses, drugs her, and sends her back in time without her knowledge or consent, to an era where women were little more than property. And sending her with the watch as her only link to getting back, in a time where a device like that would be seen as some kind of sorcery?! He’s a creep and an idiot and is putting his experiment far above Ronnie’s well-being. Some boyfriend. I hope she ditches him, assuming she makes it back to her time alive.

And that’s debatable. Eighteenth-century England was not known for the rights it afforded women. Ronnie’s physical body doesn’t show up in modern clothing so as to clearly draw attention to herself, but rather she jumps into the body of one Regina Ingram, a la Quantum Leap. She’s unable to convince Regina’s brother Jack that she is his sweet, biddable teenage sister, and sure enough, she finds herself imprisoned on charges of witchcraft. A cousin, Mathias, falls for her, as she seems to do for him, and he tries to help her. I don’t think he’s who he seems, though, as his German accent is inconsistent and he falls out of 18th-century speech patterns at times. I’m curious to find out who exactly he is, because every time he tries to help Ronnie, it seems to make things worse.

There were some things about the book that stuck in my craw just a little. Early on in the book, there is one somewhat detailed sex scene between Ronnie and Jeffrey. That isn’t my jam when it comes to reading. I’m okay with the adult action being implied and taking place offscreen, as it were, but I’d rather not read a description with any significant graphic details. If that’s something that bothers you, be mindful. However, it is just the one scene, and you can skim over it without losing the thread of the story. And I realize that folks’ definition of what constitutes graphic detail will vary.

Waters writes out Mathias’ German accent. I found this distracting as I was reading, especially as it wasn’t consistent. I would rather have been told where he was from and then mentally created his accent for myself. Then there was the fact that when Ronnie goes to the lab, she leaves her cat, Fluffy, at home. We have cats, y’all. We took them with us when we evacuated ahead of Hurricane Ida last year. If you’re evacuating ahead of rough weather, never, never leave your furbabies behind. Ronnie thinks Jeffrey wouldn’t want Fluffy at the lab, so that’s why she walked away from her cat (that, and I think she was lured by him buttering her up and making her feel special for her birthday – in a hurricane). That should tell her he is not to be trusted. 

But there are plenty of things I do like! Waters does a great job with her historical setting, including some pretty stout descriptions of bloodletting, prison conditions, and hanging. The story evokes strong emotion, and I am absolutely sucked in wanting to know what happens in book two. That’s what a good story does, right? Stealing Time earns four stars for keeping me engaged, for good historical detail, and for making me care what happens to Ronnie next.

 

 
KJ Waters is the international best-selling author of Stealing Time, Shattering Time, and short story Blow. She is currently working on book four, Fracturing Time.

 

In addition to her writing, she runs KJ Waters Consultancy and is the co-host of the popular podcast Blondie and the Brit, and she provides author consulting services covering branding, social media, and publishing.

 

She has a master’s degree in business and over eighteen years of experience in the marketing field. Before quitting her job to raise a family and work on writing, she was the Director of Marketing and Communications for a national behavioral healthcare company.

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Grand Prize: $25
Amazon Card & signed copies of three novels in a swag bag

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CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE

 

FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY,
or visit the blogs directly:
 

5/31/22

Review Book 1

The Plain-Spoken Pen

5/31/22

BONUS Promo

Hall Ways Blog

6/1/22

Review Book 1

Carpe Diem Chronicles

6/1/22

BONUS Promo

LSBBT Blog

6/2/22

Excerpt Book 1

The Page Unbound

6/3/22

Review Books 2

The Book’s Delight

6/4/22

Review Book 2

Reading by Moonlight

6/5/22

Playlist

All the Ups and Downs

6/6/22

Excerpt Book 3

It’s Not All Gravy

6/7/22

Review Book 3

Chapter Break Book Blog

6/8/22

Review Book 3

Forgotten Winds

6/9/22

Sneak Peek Book 4

StoreyBook Reviews

 
 
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5 Responses to Book Review and Giveaway: Stealing Time (Stealing Time, #1)by KJ Waters | Lone Star Book Blog Tours

  1. Jan Sikes says:

    Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Book 1 of this series. I like it when reviewers point out both what does and does not work for them in a story. Congrats to KJ!! Best wishes for a fabulous tour!

    • Kj Waters says:

      Jan! Great to see you over here! Thank you for checking it out! I’m grateful for Lisa’s time and attention and great review! What a excellent start to the blog tour!

  2. Great review, and I agree with what Jan said — I like to know what works & doesn’t for a reviewer, and you acknowledge that wasn’t work for you just might be fine for others (I’m with you on the sex stuff.) Thanks for sharing your thoughts. This sounds like a great series starter.

  3. Linda Broday says:

    KJ’s whole series is just fascinating and kept me engaged. I really love the mix of historical and modern day. There is so much humor in this book and I always like that. An excellent review.

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