Hey all, Sam here.
Okay, so welcome back to the blog. After a few very nice days weather wise, the last few have been overcast and dreary and rainy and chilly. It’s put me in a mood…which has not been helped by other news and such from around the US. Since my review of Loveless by Alice Oseman, I’ve seen a lot more content related to rights issues show up in my social media timelines, and most of what has been popping up (without me following any of these people) is hatred and vitriol.
It’s just a lot to be faced with, and it’s awful. I’m worried for my trans friends and family out there. I’m concerned for all the drag queens and theater folk who are being affected by these things. Things are getting so much worse out there and I’m sorry. My voice is just one among the masses, but I stand with you, and I’ll keep speaking out for your rights. I wish the world were more understanding and compassionate.
In other news, I’m happy to be back with another book review. So far I’m managing to make a very small dent in my review ratio on NetGalley, and I’m doing overall pretty good at keeping myself busy with reading and finishing books. Honestly I’m escaping into books a bit more right now because at least then I don’t have random ads or “we think you’d be interested” posts popping up. I only connect my NOOK to the internet to download the e-ARCs I get and then disconnect it again, and it has no social media apps on it, and of course I do still prefer reading physical books over digital ones.
All right, let’s jump into the review.
Fate brought them together. Time will tear them apart.
When a mysterious Scotsman appears out of nowhere in the middle of the road, Klara thinks the biggest problem is whether she hit him with her car. But, as impossible as it sounds, Callum has stepped out of another time, and it’s just the beginning of a deadly adventure.
Klara will soon learn that she is the last Pillar of Time—an anchor point in the timeline of the world and a hiding place for a rogue goddess’s magic. Callum is fated to protect her at all costs. A dark force is hunting for the Pillars, to claim the power of the goddess—and Klara and Callum are the only two standing in the way. Thrown together by fate, the two have to learn to trust one another and work together…but they’ll need to protect their hearts from one another if they’re going to survive.
My Thoughts
Rating: 2 stars
It took me a while to get around to this book. I was already on the fence about it because of drama involving Sasha Alsberg in the online book community in like 2019 or 2020. And having read the Androma Saga with Alsberg and Lindsay Cumings, I only felt lukewarm about the overall writing and characters and story. But, getting access to a free digital copy thanks to Inkyard Press via NetGalley, meant that I was willing to give Breaking Time a shot.
And yeah…it was okay.
The writing felt shallow and so did the characters, at least to me. The story also felt like a more fantastical version/rip-off of the Outlander series, which Alsberg is known to be obsessed with. The characters were very basic. Klara was definitely an Alsberg self-insert, and Callum was the overly-stereotypical broody male character and romantic interest.
It honestly was kind of a slog at times to get through, because it wasn’t all that interesting. Because the writing was kind of simple, I guess it did read quickly in that way. Like, it was a very juvenile writing style, and the romance was very insta-lovey.
But there was the problem of the book being set in Scotland but the mythology used in the book was a mash-up of Irish, Welsh, and Scottish tales. It was like she didn’t properly research, or if she did research then she just didn’t care because she thought it sounded good and would fit in to her story.
Okay, yes, the cover was kind of pretty and appealing. And if it weren’t for the extremely obvious ties to Outlander, the story idea might have been able to stand on its own. And I know this was supposedly a passion project for Alsberg, that she spent 6 years writing it…but perhaps she should have spent a little longer on it. It felt like it needed more edits, more smoothing out, more maturity and panache than Alsberg could give the story.
I don’t think I’ll be reading the conclusion to the duology.
Well, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
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