Mini review – Plan for the worst

From Goodreads: I would have trusted this man with my life. Until a couple of days ago, anyway.

You know what they say – hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Max is quite accustomed to everything going wrong. She’s St Mary’s, after all. Disaster is her default state. But with her family reunited and a jump to Bronze Age Crete in the works, life is getting back to normal. Well, normal for St Mary’s.

And then, following one fateful night at the Tower of London, everything Max thought she knew comes crashing down around her.

Too late for plans. The worst has happened. And who can Max trust now?

Another book from Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St Mary’s that puts you through the emotional wringer. I didn’t think it was possible for me to get more emotionally invested in this series and then Taylor throws some emotional curveballs that have me gasping out loud, shocked to my core and rooting for Max at every possible turn.

I felt this book was back to more of the mini episodic adventures that is more common of the series as opposed to the more singular story line of Book 10 – Hope for the Best. We get lots of mini jumps in this one, some very out of place Vikings, the Princes in the tower of London, Bull leaping and volcanic eruptions in Crete, murder mystery solving in futuristic pandemic ridden Paris. There is moments of shocking betrayal, felt in my very soul, moments when I wanted to jump into the book and hold poor Max, others that were so comforting and warm or outright hilarious. The roller-coaster of emotions went to new heights in this one.

We also get to learn so much about Markham! I love Markham as the cheeky sidekick character but it was amazing to get to learn more about him. To peel back the layers of mystery and get to find out elements of his personality as well as some shocking and surprising elements about his past. It really also builds his connection and friendship with Max so much and I loved every second of that element of the plot.

The big reveal about Markham as well as other plotlines of the book gave a real sense of closure to a lot of open ended through lines. It as really awesome to see them build to a satisfying end. But this book also set up some new ones giving us insight into the current time and its politics which is really interesting.

With book 12 and 13 I am eager to learn more and to be just as emotionally devastated.