Mini Review – Hope for the Best

From Goodreads:

The tenth book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary’s series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History. If you love Jasper Fforde or Ben Aaronovitch, you won’t be able to resist Jodi Taylor.

You can’t change History. History doesn’t like it. There are always consequences.

Max is no stranger to taking matters into her own hands. Especially when she’s had A Brilliant Idea. Yes, it will mean breaking a few rules, but – as Max always says – they’re not her rules.

Seconded to the Time Police to join in the hunt for the renegade Clive Ronan, Max is a long way from St Mary’s. But life in the future does have its plus points – although not for long.

A problem with the Time Map reveals chaos in the 16th century and the wrong Tudor queen on the throne. History has gone rogue, there’s a St Mary’s team right in the firing line and Max must step up.

You know what they say. Hope for the best. But plan for the worst

I am only going to write a mini review as this is book 10 in an epic series that I adore and I don’t want to give any spoilers for those that have not started this series – you really should its epic – or have not caught up yet.

This instalment was a little bit different than the past few books, and it was refreshing after the state poor Max and the rest of the St Mary’s gang were left in after their previous (mis)adventure. We get a lot more solo Max away from her usual band of cronies and spend some quality time with her as she quests to finally bring down Clive Ronan. She takes the most shocking step of all and joins the Time Police!

I loved this direction as it was so much fun to get that glimpse into the future and get more of an inside scope into the Time Police (I have yet to read the TP spin off series). Of course there is still plenty of time travelling for example, to Kush in 700BC, an alternative 16th century England and a jaunt back to the crustaceous all of which were historically interesting, fun and exciting and go relatively smoothly for St Mary’s . Old Friends make a brief reappearance and it has an ending that ended me. The 2nd to last chapter is so emotionally charged and devastating that I challenge anyone not to shed a tear.

This book is just as fast paced, action packed, chocked full of history, exciting twists and turns as the rest of the series. Overall I think Max sums it up best herself