Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today I’m sharing my review of A Symphony of Echoes, the second book in the St Mary’s series. You can read my review of the first book, Just One Damned Thing After Another, here.
Synopsis
Wherever the historians go, chaos is sure to follow…
Dispatched to Victorian London to seek out Jack the Ripper, things go badly wrong when he finds the St Mary’s historians first. Stalked through the fog-shrouded streets of Whitechapel, Max is soon running for her life. Again.
And that’s just the start. Max finds herself in a race against time when an old enemy is intent on destroying St Mary’s. An enemy willing, if necessary, to destroy History itself.
From the Hanging Gardens of Nineveh to the murder of Thomas a Becket, via an unscheduled dodo rescue mission, join the historians of St Mary’s as they hurtle around History on more hilarious, hair-raising escapades.
Review
The absolute chaos of this book is just brilliant. I couldn’t stop snort-laughing all the way through it, as per normal, and yet it still managed to have me in tears multiple times too.
Jodi Taylor is a special kind of brilliant when it comes to these books. Max as a character is absolutely captivating, and you can’t help but love her, all her flaws included. She isn’t perfect and she makes mistakes, but she’s also damn good at what she does, and invests her whole soul into St Mary’s, just like the whole crew there do.
I listened to this as an audio book as I love the way Zara Ramm narrates, giving life to the whole cast, and capturing Max perfectly. And because I was listening to this as an audio book, all casual, totally relaxing, my eyes flew wide open when a certain line was spoken. I think my jaw dropped as well. Anyone who has read this one can probably guess what it was!
Where book one set up the sci-fi element, this really sucked us down the rabbit hole of time travel and the ability to examine time… and what happens if you do more than that. On that note, I should also add that if you asked me, I’d say I don’t read science fiction. But how can this be anything else? It’s entirely science – and history! – based, and I’m completely hooked. So if you’ve always dismissed sci-fi just like me, but love history, don’t be put off: St Mary’s is absolutely there for you.
Thanks for stopping by for this review! I’m planning on making my way through the rest of the St Mary’s series over the next year, so be sure to keep an eye out for more reviews from these disaster magnets.
And On She Reads 