Second Chance: The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book Three | 
pickThis was very good, as always. Right now all the timelines with Max and Leon are confusing me... Very interesting parts of history were covered - her ability to imagine these is amazing.
Jodi Taylor wins for a third month for April with the tagged book, but Symphony of Echoes I think is the better of the two and the best of all three Jodi Taylor books in this bracket. #readingbracket2023
Daughter & I went to our art museum where there‘s a special exhibit of art from Rome and Pompeii. There were a couple of pieces of art about Troy including this one of Paris on Mount Ida. Timely, since I just read about the Trojan War in the tagged book, and of course, our upcoming trip to Rome. #serieslove2023 @TheSpineView @Andrew65
pickRunning to escape the Greeks in the Battle for Troy and the French peasants in Agincourt, this third book in the time-traveling series is as full of adventures and rollicking laughs as ever. And an extraordinary poignant scene caps it off in the Cretaceous. But I agree with another reviewer here on litsy that the deux ex machina at the end left me liking this book much less than the other two. It seems the author was writing a trilogy and then ⬇️
In book 2, at St Mary‘s off-site or day-out, where time travel can take you anywhere, it was the great dodo chase. This time, book 3, it‘s 19th century Gloucestershire cheese-rolling—which I googled—it‘s a real thing. St Mary‘s fielded some men who are described quite nicely for the event, as undaunted. Indeed. “We‘re St Mary‘s. We don‘t daunt.” What a great theme for just about anything! 😂
#serieslove2023 @TheSpineView @Andrew65
#wondrouswednesday Thanks @TheSpineView for the tag!
1) Ted Lasso, Mandalorian, Last Kingdom, & Shadow & Bone
2) definitely the tagged series, The Chronicles of St Mary‘s!
Want to play @GingerAntics @julesG @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @dabbe ?
You are a time traveler and a historian with an assignment to witness and document parts of the Trojan War. This chapter is awesome, in which the main character Max assigns tasks to the team to prepare for the trip for the next 9 months—language learning, map drawing, studying social and economic structures, learning the entire royal family (apparently in Troy it is huge)… What fun! #serieslove2023 @TheSpineView @Andrew65
I love this advice! “When making a difficult decision, look at the situation in reverse.” I‘ve really got to remember that.
#serieslove2023
I started this one last night. I‘m looking forward to continuing with #serieslove2023
@TheSpineView @Andrew65
#wondrouswednesday Thanks @Eggs for the tag!
1) I keep learning so much now that I read a lot of non-fiction thanks to the #readingthecontinents challenges
2) tagged, if I can fit it in
3) I‘m going to go with a new fave genre, travel books, and those I‘ve enjoyed most recently are by Levison Wood (walking everywhere), Bernard Ollivier (walking the Silk Road), and Stephen O‘Shea (his hilarious jaunt through The Alps)
Tagging all Littens!
pickI love this series, anything history related always holds my interests.
In the 3rd book in the series, the team travels to Troy to see the Trojan horse, they get in all sorts of trouble and find different ways to cause chaos.
The world building is awesome, the character development is exceptional. Looking forward to the next book!
pickI am just breezing through these St. Mary's books. I just love the characters and the world so much. This one has a bit of a cliffy at the end and went in different directions than I expected which was interesting.
pickThis third book in the Chronicles of St. Mary‘s was just as witty, charming and jammed full of history as the others. The characters are just so delightful. In this one, I loved everything although I must admit that I didn‘t buy one storyline as realistic to a specific character. That said, it definitely advanced the story and had a great payout. Each book is literally like a season as so many stories happen. Highly recommend this series!!
pickEnjoyed until I got to the ending! 😱😱😱 Very unsure how I feel about this now; will have to see how the next book goes....
2-17-20: My 12th finished book of 2020! #asecondchance #joditaylor Book 3 in the series. 🌟🌟🌟🌟👍🏼📖#️⃣1️⃣2️⃣
pickBloody Hell!
This installment took me to some very unexpected & very emotional places. Sometimes, the stories can feel a bit long, since so much happens (& they cover such vast swaths of time!) but by the last hour, I didn‘t ever want it to end. I‘m sure I‘ll be kicking myself in the teeth when the series is done & I‘ve got no more left to read. I can hear me chastising me now: “How could you have ever implied that we should be given less?!” 😆
#24in48 Check-in
2:45 reading time
41 minutes of audio
107 pages
Currently Reading: Nefertiti and A Second Chance (audiobook)
#24in48readathon #audiobook #joditaylor #chroniclesofstmarys
Audiobook stitching. Relaxing after a busy shift at work.
pickA fast-paced installment of a seriously fun series. I must admit, I don‘t really like the protagonist. I think if I knew her in real life, she‘d drive me nuts. But the series is a lot of fun. Never a dull moment. And being a time-travel based series, those not-dull moments can happen any time from the Cretaceous period on into the murky future.
pickThis was an emotional roller coaster with a gripping fall of Troy which I had to put down at times to reduce the tension, the hilarious cheese rolling contest, and the exciting battle of Agincourt. The ending prophesied by Cassandra came true in a very unexpected way but despite the cliffhanger I think it's a good place to break.
pickThird in Taylor's humorous time-travel series. This one has trips to Isaac Newton's Cambridge, Troy, the Cretaceous, and the Battle of Agincourt, all with the sort of mayhem that makes "Historian" the most perilous job on the planet. I'm not sure how I feel about the final twist, which feels a bit dishonest. But this one ends with a cliffhanger, so I guess I'll just have to accept it and see where she goes with it.
pickI stayed up way to late last night finishing this, but I love this series. The time traveling historians visit Troy during the Trojan War and have a couple of other adventures. Her plots are plausible and leave you wondering what really happened in history.
so-soI didn‘t bail, and it wasn‘t quite a pan. The historical action is great, and I laughed out loud a lot. But in addition to the Max/Leon drama llama, this book got timey wimey in a bad circular way. St. Mary‘s becomes both cause and effect in way to many historical and personal events. My pet theory of why Max and Leon are so important to St. Mary‘s is destroyed. And in the end the author pulls a humongous deus ex machina.
I was really enjoying this series. The characters are endearingly quirky and devastatingly prone to dying, the historical parts are well done and edge-of-your-seat, the banter and mishaps laugh out loud funny. But at 52% in book 3 I have lost all will to read on. I‘ve realised there‘s a pattern of gobsmackingly ridiculous relationship drama between the same two characters in EVERY book, and it has gotten really old. 🤯😒
Taking a few minutes to read before catching the train home. This is the tree in Chicago Union Station.
pickSo. Good. I felt like the second book in the series was a bit all over the place, but this one felt much more coherent (in the midst of its madcap escapades through time!). It was both hilarious and heartbreaking... and I thought I wasn‘t going to forgive Taylor for a certain plot twist, but then... well, let‘s just say everyone got a second chance by the end of the book. 😏
Making July reading plans!
📚Ask the Passengers and Better Than Fiction for book clubs
📚Parable of the Talents for #Earthseedbuddyread
📚A Second Chance because my hold came in on Libby
📚El Deafo and Pocket Full of Rye because I didn‘t want to waste my June Hoopla checkouts
📚Sing, Unburied, Sing because I was going to read it last month
📚The Penderwicks because summer. And because TBR.
No doubt more will get added for #24in48 July 21-22!
pickThis is the 3rd book in the Chronicles of St. Mary‘s, a series about a group of historians who “investigate major historical events in contemporary time” (aka time travel.) This book hints at the base timeline being in the near future though in a time travel book everything is suspect!
Fast & fun reads w/adventure, romance and melodrama, this installment in particular was a tear jerker with Leon making a choice that has far reaching consequences.
"We‘re St Mary‘s. We run on tea."
Serious weed pulling has been happening this week. I park GC1(Garden Club 1) next to whatever spot I'm working on and fire up audiobook. #chronicalsofstmarys #seriesbinge #listenwhileyouwork ?
GRRM has nothing on Jodi Taylor when it comes to killing off characters 😭
pickWhile I don't think this was the strongest in the series, I still enjoyed it very much. Each book has always been filled with multiple adventures throughout time which is part of their appeal but it was kind of fun to spend more time in one locale, Troy. Definitely some twists I didn't expect and I agree with other readers that on the relationship front there was more drama than needs be but I don't think it detracted overall. On to the next!
Now how could you not love a series where you get a paragraph like this on page two?
so-soI like Max and I like British humor, so I enjoyed the prose. What I didn't like was a sort of meaningless and death and rebirth that kind of devalues the characters. If characters are easily killed and brought back to life, why do I care if they're in peril? So I'm not sure I'll read the next one.
WHAT. Book, you are not allowed to end on a cliffhanger like that when I am ALL OUT of audible credits and the library doesn't have any of the books in its system. 😩😭😢
I'm unstoppable!! Well, except that I won't get any more Audible credits for another 3.5 weeks. 😜 #bookwormproblems
pickI have absolutely loved The Chronicles of St. Mary's series since I discovered it late last year. It's witty, quirky and portrays historical events wrapped up as fiction...need I say more?? This one is my second fave! 😄
pickI have just been tearing through these and forgetting to take pictures or enter them in. I think I need a twelve step program 😯 She kind of wrote herself into a corner here. What happens next??? (don't tell me)
pickMax and crew (time traveling historians!) go to observe Troy. Many if Max' hypotheses make sense. This is really fun series with a kick ass, no apologies heroine.
pickDelightful as usual! This is the third book in the series, and it ends on the biggest cliffhanger so far. The fourth installment is already in my Audible library, and I'm going to start it immediately! (I swear I've been reading other things, but these keep demanding my attention! 😄)
pickWow... What a head spinning adventure was that? This series is just so fast, so packed with action and snarky dialogue that it's almost hard to keep up with everything.
Oh and with that ending, I have to read the next one... Of course!
I really do like Zara Ramm as narrator in the audio book version. She does a phenomenal job!
Doing budgets at work, which means solitary Excel hell for hours at a time... Which also means, I listen to a lot of audio books right now... At least something!! 🔊🔊🔊
pickThe best one yet! This was a lot more emotional than the others. Two books finished during #24in48
Finally starting #24in48 readathon! Listening to this fun romp with history while I get ready for a day of reading.
