Audiobook Review – Just One Damned Thing After Another (The Chronicles of St. Mary’s, Book 1) by Jodi Taylor, Narrated by Zara Ramm (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Length: 9 hours and 30 minutes
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: April 1, 2014
ASIN: B00J3Z1V5Q
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Chronicles of St. Mary’s
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary’s, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don’t do ‘time-travel’ – they ‘investigate major historical events in contemporary time’. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power – especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet.
Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document – to try and find the answers to many of History’s unanswered questions…and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back – to the death. And, as they soon discover – it’s not just History they’re fighting.
Follow the catastrophe curve from 11th-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wake….”
This is the first book in the Chronicles of St. Mary’s series. I am not usually a huge fan of books involving time travel, the story just gets too convoluted. However, this was a very good book and I enjoyed it a ton. There is a lot of action and the book focuses more on history and adventure than time travel.
I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was very well done. This is a series I would definitely recommend listening to if you enjoy audiobooks.
St. Mary’s is a crazy organization aimed at sending people back in history to find out what really happened during key historic events. I enjoyed all the hilarious (and dangerous) antics of the characters. These characters are dragged through a ton of tough situations but their plucky attitude really makes the disasters seem almost jovial at times.
Despite my love of this first book I am uncertain right now if I will continue the series. Towards the end of the book a lot of strange time travel anomalies start rearing their ugly head and (as mentioned above) this is something I am not a huge fan of.
Overall this was a very entertaining read and I enjoy the concept behind it a lot. The characters are full of attitude and the adventures are engaging. I am a bit worried that this series is going to become a muddled time travel mess as it continues. However, I will probably listen to the next book and see where it goes. I would recommend to those who love quirky time travel adventures full of humor, danger, and adventure.
