Time to Burn

Ellery Lloyd

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ ½
Genre: Mystery Thriller

This is a time travel story that doesn’t go as planned. Tempus Tours, a huge tech company, is offering commercial time travel trips to wealthy people who want to capture important historical events. Phoebe Hunt, an award-winning filmmaker, is asked to make a documentary film about the whole thing and to witness at the same time the return of a group from their trip to the past. But things do not go as planned, and Phoebe finds herself in a challenging situation that needs her prompt action.

I found Time to Burn entertaining enough to give it 3.5 stars, although I was hoping for something stronger from its time-travel premise. I went into it thinking about some of the time-travel movies I have watched and loved, such as Predestination, Frequency, Pleasantville, The Time Traveler's Wife, and Somewhere in Time. Those stories each have their own distinct identity and, in different ways, manage to make their use of time travel feel emotionally or conceptually memorable. Time to Burn certainly kept me interested, but I never felt that same sense of discovery or lasting impact.

The biggest weakness for me was the character development. There is plenty happening to the characters, but I didn't feel that they developed enough for me to become particularly invested in them emotionally. The plot somehow became convoluted as the story progressed. There are lots of twists, timelines, revelations, and connections, and that can make it difficult to keep track of everything. I totally appreciate the ambition that the authors were going for, but I think the story might have benefited from being a little less complicated—putting more emphasis on its characters rather than continually adding another layer to the plot.

Ultimately, this was a fun and entertaining read, and that entertainment value is what carries it to 3.5 stars for me. I enjoyed the premise and wanted to see where everything would lead, even when the story became unnecessarily complicated. At the same time, I don't feel that Time to Burn has quite the identity that will make it memorable to me. I can appreciate what it was trying to do, but compared with the time-travel stories that have really stayed with me, this one feels more like an enjoyable read that I'll eventually move on from than a book I'll be thinking about long after finishing it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC of this book.

Key Themes:

• Time Travel
• Power
• Wealth
• Fate
• Preservation of the Past