Stealing Time

About the Stealing Time series

Stealing Time
Shattering Time
Killing Time

Genre: Time Travel / Suspense / Romance / Alt History / Mystery
Publisher: Blondie Books
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Stealing Time, December 20, 2014, 319 pages

A devastating hurricane. A time travel betrayal. Will Ronnie survive the witch hunt or forever be lost in time?

Stealing Time is the first book in the “breathtakingly original” Stealing Time Series of time travel wrapped in a hurricane. If you like strong-willed modern women and gripping stories that transport you back in time, then you’ll love KJ Water’s Books.

As Hurricane Charley churns a path of destruction towards Orlando, Florida, Ronnie Andrews scrambles to prepare for the storm and seeks shelter at her boyfriend’s weather lab. What she finds there is more terrifying than Mother Nature’s destruction.

During the peak of the hurricane, Ronnie is hurtled back in time to eighteenth-century London where she is caught in a web of superstition, deception, and lies in a life and death struggle to return to her own time.

Her best friend Steph is thrust into the middle of the hurricane, where it quickly turns into a living nightmare as she is faced with losing everything.

Buy, read, and discuss this book: Amazon | Goodreads

Shattering Time: June 27, 2017, 336 pages

A hurricane the size of Texas. Another time travel betrayal. Will Ronnie figure out how to return home or die trying?

Shattering Time is the second book in the best-selling “Breathtakingly original” time travel series that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Ronnie Andrews returns from 18th-century London shell-shocked from her first terrifying time travel encounter. Her boyfriend, Jeffrey Brennan, casts doubt on her sanity leaving Ronnie wondering if she went back in time or is having a mental breakdown. To add to the tension, Hurricane Francis, a storm the size of Texas, is barreling towards Florida and her fears of a repeat time travel experience mount. Ronnie’s best friend Steph, along with her friend Nick and Steph’s younger brother Ian, shield Ronnie from the dangers of Francis but cannot save her from traveling back in time. Unfortunately, their meddling brings Ronnie to the brink of destruction as they are caught in the throes of the hurricane’s wrath.

Once again, Ronnie is transported to dangerous places and desperate situations, while experiencing perilous cultures including one of America’s first mysteries — the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island. A stunning conclusion brings Ronnie face to face with a dangerous ally who may hold the key to her past while offering salvation for her future.

Buy, read, and discuss this book: Amazon | Goodreads

Killing Time: August 27, 2021, 437 pages

When the Strongest Hurricane in Decades Takes Aim at Florida, Ronnie Tries to Escape its Wrath. Will she Die in the Storm or Be Lost in Time Forever?

Ronnie Andrews is lucky to be alive after a time travel glitch nearly took her life during Hurricane Frances. When Hurricane Ivan, one of the strongest storms in decades, sets its sights on Florida, Ronnie jumps at the chance to join Mike, her mysterious new boss, on a business trip to Puerto Rico.

Sparks fly, but when a newspaper article surfaces with horrific pictures of a woman who may have died at Mike’s hands, Ronnie regrets the decision. Before she can confront Mike about what she knows, Hurricane Jeanne forms off the coast, trapping them on the island. Her doctors warned that another time-travel-induced illness may kill her. Mike may be her only salvation.

The storm strikes and Ronnie time travels to Texas in 1872 where she is taken by Comanches. A rescue party saves her life led by Jesse and Frank James, hiding under assumed names.

Will Ronnie find a way to make the time-traveling episodes stop before the dangers of the past, and the damage from the journey destroy her?

Buy, read, and discuss this book: Amazon | Goodreads

About the author, KJ Waters

KJ Waters is the international best-selling author of Stealing Time, Shattering Time, and short story Blow. She is currently working on book four, Fracturing Time.

In addition to her writing, she runs KJ Waters Consultancy and is the co-host of the popular podcast Blondie and the Brit, and she provides author consulting services covering branding, social media, and publishing.

She has a master’s degree in business and over eighteen years of experience in the marketing field. Before quitting her job to raise a family and work on writing, she was the Director of Marketing and Communications for a national behavioral healthcare company.

Connect with KJ:

WEBSITE ◆ FACEBOOK ◆ TWITTER ◆ TWITTER (Blondie&theBrit) ◆ AMAZON ◆ GOODREADS ◆ BOOKBUB ◆ INSTAGRAM ◆ BLOG ◆ PINTEREST ◆ KJW CONSULTING ◆ LINKEDIN◆ YOUTUBE ◆ TIKTOK

My Thoughts

This review spans all three books in the Stealing Time series.

There are some series where you can pick up any volume and the overall story will make sense. KJ Waters’ Stealing Time series is not one of them. Written for an audience clearly accustomed to binge-watching, this trilogy (so far) is a gripping story where each sequel expands the universe, adding characters and details.

Time travel, in general, is not a new concept in fiction, and these novels seem to be descendants of both Quantum Leap and Somewhere in Time, although in this case, there is no specific villain being tracked through history, but rather, the main character’s sense of self and self-worth. What is unique is the mechanism behind the time travel: the use of storms – specifically hurricanes – to generate power.

That main character is Veronica “Ronnie” Andrews, recently relocated to central Florida, partly to take a new job, but also to be near her fiancé, the brilliant but conniving Jeffrey, and her best friend Steph. All seems to be progressing in a typical love-story direction, when a hurricane hits the Orlando area on Ronnie’s birthday, and Jeffrey whisks her off to his weather lab, wines and dines her, and presents her with a gift, a replica (he claims) of a rose-gold watch Ronnie admired on a trip to London with Steph.

And then Ronnie travels to London, in 1752, just in time for the great time-shift which has nothing to do with moving through centuries, and everything to do with England finally joining the rest of the western world in using the Gregorian calendar (and subsequently eliminating eleven days of September from existence).

To be honest, there’s not that much time travel for a series centered upon the concept. In Stealing Time, it’s 1752 London, in Shattering Time, it’s the lost Roanoke colony, and in Killing Time, it’s the Old West, though in each of these trips, Ronnie is not quite in the place we know, but rather a similar parallel universe (the multi-verse theory is mentioned in the novels). In each time, Ronnie encounters people who help her, and people who wish her harm, and in each she must take drastic measures to return home.

Author KJ Waters has created, in this series, a group of compelling, if not always likeable, characters. Ronnie, at the heart, is a mixture of intelligence, intellectual curiosity, and low self-esteem. At times, I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. Jeffrey is a manipulator and a gaslighter, and it’s a credit to the author’s writing skills that my dislike of him is so visceral that I wanted to commit violence to his person.

Steph and her eventual partner Nick are good support characters, with development that grows throughout the series, but while they are integral to the main story, providing Ronnie with a support system, the subplot following their romance felt weak to me, and took time away from the main story. When Steph’s raunchy brother Ian joins the action in the latter two books and the b-team turns more toward detective work with smatterings of romance, the entire series becomes both more interesting and more cohesive.

Also important to the story, in books two and three (especially three) is Ronnie’s boss Mike, and the nearly instant connection they seem to have. Mike comes off a stock hero at first, but as his story unwinds, he becomes dimensional and interesting, and I’d happily read a novel focused entirely on him.

Overall, KJ Waters does three things very well in this series:

Pacing, which more than makes up for the few minor plot- and character inconsistencies (spellings of names, and chronology errors) – each book feels both complete and one act in a greater whole, and that balance is tricky to navigate.
Attention to Detail, including little details of historical accuracy like how people cleaned themselves after using the toilet, or what sorts of oral hygiene were practiced, as well as her obvious research into quantum physics and weather systems.
Description: I felt and heard every moment of each storm, saw each flash of lightning, experienced the confusion of stumbling around in the damp, dark after a power outage. Similarly, the depictions of each time period Ronnie visited were cinematic in the way they were described on the page.

There is one thing, though, that should be addressed. I am not a prudish reader. I like a well-written sex scene as much as anyone. Much of the sex in these novels, however, while depicted with a good sense of space and how anatomy fits into it, is not healthy or loving, but used to manipulate and abuse, and, in some cases, assault. It’s not gratuitous, as it shows who certain characters really are, and how they perceive the world, but sensitive readers should be warned. I found some of the scenes distasteful, but I also understood that they were meant to be.

The Stealing Time trilogy is a refreshing take on time travel and a compelling blend of science, fantasy, mystery, romance, and intrigue. The author has said that book four is due next year, and I cannot wait to see how this story continues.

Goes well with cold beer and a sandwich de mezcla (a Puerto Rican sandwich made with a spam/cheese dip spread and roasted red peppers).

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FOUR WINNERS!

Grand Prize: $25 Amazon Card & signed copies of three novels in a swag bag

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