A Second Chance
Author: Jodi Taylor
Series: #3 in the The Chronicles of St. Mary’s series
Rating: 3.5 stars
Narrator: Zara Ramm
Run Time: 9hrs 14 min
Narration Rating: 4 stars
Description:
St Mary’s is back and nothing is going right for Max. Once again, it’s just one damned thing after another. The action jumps from an encounter with a mirror-stealing Isaac Newton to the bloody battlefield at Agincourt. Discover how a simple fact-finding assignment to witness the ancient and murderous cheese- rolling ceremony in Gloucester can result in CBC – concussion by cheese. The long awaited jump to Bronze Age Troy ends in personal catastrophe for Max and just when it seems things couldn’t get any worse – it’s back to the Cretaceous Period again to confront an old enemy who has nothing to lose. So, make the tea, grab the chocolate biscuits, settle back and discover exactly why the entire history department has painted itself blue …
Review:
Oh where to begin, of the 6 books nominated for the paranormal category for the Audies, this is the one I was probably looking forward to the most. I’m a huge fan of time travel type stories (i mean, my addiction started with Outlander like 15 years ago), so when I was reading the description I was sucked in. From the get-go, A Second Chance was a roller coaster right of history, funny and educational at the same time. I could tell that the author had a passion for it because of not only the general history that most people know about different time periods, but all the other random factoids – like Cheese Rolling (yes, you read that right, Cheese Rolling!) And better yet, Cheese Rolling STILL EXISTS! Yes, I want to try it! (5 absurd food-based sports you couldn’t even make up”).
One of the things I enjoyed the most about the book was that Max and her folks didn’t try to change history, but were rather there to just observe it. It made it more enjoyable because you knew that none of the actions of the teams from St. Mary’s were going to change how the Battle of Agincourt played out, or what Newton did…I think if I had found myself in the same situation, it would have been hard to not want to change things, especially if you knew something bad was going to happen…so the fact that the historical encounters in the book were solely fact gathering missions made it intriguing to me. I starting thinking about where would I love to visit, if I was given the opportunity to travel back in time and honestly, its still up in the air. I’m going to have to think about it and who knows, maybe when I go back and listen to the rest of the series, since I will be doing that, maybe a trip will really spark my interest.
Zara Ramm was a new to me narrator, but I can safely save (as with several other narrators nominated in the paranormal category), it won’t be my last time listening to her. In fact, I’ve already purchased the first book in this series, as well as several freebies that are available (what can I say, I only have a slight problem with freebies)…i think one of the good things about how well her narration tied into the novel was that it was told from a female POV, so having one who was well modulated and articulate (as Max was, since she is a historian and a department leader) worked well. There were times during the narration I was laughing so hard at the antics of Max and her crew (and no, not just the cheese rolling), that I thought I was going to have to pull the car over so as to avoid an accident.
If you are interested in a comedic romp through history with a well-meaning but slightly disaster bound historian, then this series may be one for you. I do recommend not drinking while listening however, as you may find that you need to purchase a new computer monitor (or similar). 3.5 stars for the book and 4 stars for the narration.
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