The Chronicles of St. Mary's Book Five - No Time Like the Past

This book (gosh...is it the last one??) lives up to St. Mary's reputation. A fun rollicking ride throughout history, great characters that you learn to love (and some of them despise) and you become invested in how things will turn out. I will say that the words run together was distracting at times, but I am NOT giving this book anything less than 5 stars. I believe in giving feedback about the story, the characters and the writer - knowing full well that editing can be fixed and I am sure this will be too. Ms. Taylor hit this one out of the park - I laughed about as hard as I did with the first one. Which means it was like reading the series for the first time - lots of fun.

I do hope this is not the end of the series, but I will say that if it is - Jodi honored the characters well and left us wanting more but also knowing that things can continue for our characters on their own.

Jodi Taylor's stories are laugh-out-loud comical. She knows how to turn a funny phrase even when the circumstances are most dire. When I read, "After all, what can possibly go wrong?", I know I'm in for a wild ride. I love the premise of this series, time travelling historians who go back to the most significant points in history to check the accuracy of the historic record, but in their attempt to keep away from the proceedings, they always somehow find themselves in the moment and the fun begins. There are some sad scenes, but overall, Jodi Tayler's stories delight me.

"And the world went white."

I am enjoying this entire series. I love it when learning is fun. Jodi Taylor is not just making history fun, but teaching readers how to be critical thinkers. I never imagined being on the ground with the Spartans, what the mess would be like, or the horror of hand to hand combat. Several times during this read, I was tensed up, almost as if I was in a movie theater watching an intense drama. I appreciate how human the characters are, and appreciate their humor. I am so excited to know I have 2 more adventures to read, and that Taylor is in the midst of writing the 8th book. I have bought the entire series for my Kindle. Why borrow adventures when you can buy them, slip into a reading pod anytime and observe the St Mary's crew observing and documenting history.

I love the characters, love the voice of the main character, I love the author's imagination, style and humor, I don't care at all about the inconsistencies, it is such a fun trip. Taylor's writing about certain historic events is evocative and involving.

Jodi Taylor is such a fine author of the absurd she makes me laugh out loud often and chortle with glee equally frequently. I would read many more of her books if she would write them!! Funny, amusing, hilarious. She does it all with typical Briitish understated wit, charm and elan.

I started reading The Chronicles of St. Mary's two months ago, and am currently reading book 6. Each book is such an addictively interesting and fun read - when I finish one book, I can't wait to start the next.

I'm addicted to this series!It's funny I enjoy the characters. The History is always interesting, I wish they would've taught history like this in school. The mistakes get a little repetitive .I would recommend this to those who enjoy humor , love and shenanigans !

I have read all the books in this series. I love the way Jodi uses dry humor to make the characters come alive. Her descriptions of the historical events and times in each book with every “leap” into another time period, excites the history buff in me. I couldn’t wait for this last book to become available and sincerely hope she continues to add to this series. The only problem is the typos. In this book there are so many; words that run together, etc., but that doesn’t take away from the story line, just makes it a little difficult to read.

Spoiler Alert: I enjoyed this book despite the fact that the clearly intelligent protagonists overlooked the obvious clues (shiny new chain and padlock clearly placed to prevent exit from a burning building and wedge driven under the door) that SOMEONE obviously wanted them to die. Not a single person wondered how they got there or WHY. And also never expected foul play concerning their missing cohort (eye roll). Excepting this, the book made me laugh and neatly disguised the fact that you were learning history at the same time.

A delightful peek at the goings on at St. Mary's! Loved visiting with old friends Max, Leon, Peterson and Markham and all the other inmates that make up the motley crew of St. Mary's. This chapter of the chronicles had it all; non stop action, laughter, tears, pain and joy and I cannot wait to see what happens next! Thanks Jodi for another delicious adventure with a dash of history on the side.

Please don't be afraid to purchase the book, the formatting issues have mainly been addressed (there are still minor hiccups here and there) but the story (indeed the entire series) is worth the investment!

It was great! I loved every word. Fun and funny and touching and poignant and compelling. Beautifully written. As everyone mentioned, there were many typos but that's easily fixed. Some reviewers have suggested this was the final book. I really hope there will be many more. These books are such a delightful reading experience. Jodi Taylor, please write more.

I really love these books, and this one was no exception. I see that there are people leaving poor ratings, and kind of understand that, but in terms of the book itself - brilliant. It's not fair to the author to give bad ratings for the presentation of the book, BUT the editing is atrocious, and it bothered me all the way through. This is like a poor draft, and I'm so angry that it almost wrecked the book for me.
I'd like to see the ratings on here split, as they do on Audible, so you can rate the story and the way it's delivered. One miserable star from me, the store. Please fix it!!

I completely adore this series. It has a tough, clumsy, and sincere female main character. A talented, sweet and worried male lead, and a supporting cast of lovely eccentrics. It is always a bit touching, a bit sad, and often so funny. The editing is off, mainly words running together often. But the sheer delight of these outweighs that for me.

Im a huge unabashed fan of this series and I did a reread of the first 4 in time to read this and it was an excellent addition to the series. Nice to see something nice happen for Max and Leon for once, instead of the usual running and screaming, being stoned in the street and needing emergency extractions. Of course those all happen too!

Another great addition to the series, Taylor is my new favorite writer. I don't have a lot to add about the plot but wanted to point people to Taylor's Factbook page https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJodiTaylor?ref=br_tf . She has instructions on how to update the book to fix the formatting errors (which worked like a charm) and also info about book six in the series, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?, due out this fall *cheering*.

Jodi has such a fun sense of humour and it comes out in all of her books. I love the characters she has created. Max and Leon, Markham, Peterson are all like old friends that we can't wait to here from again soon. Looking forward to book #6.

A wonderful way to receive a history lesson! I love this series. The way Ms Taylor writes is a welcome change. Laughs, tears, suspense, and the history are all combined to make a very enjoyable read. This is a keeper series of books.

Too often sequels run out of steam but The Chronicles of St. Mary's just keeps getting better. All our favourite characters are back with yet more exciting adventures in history. I must admit that I'm learning more about history than I did at school! And being of suspicious mind, I checked some of the history facts out and yes, they're all spot on!
Great fun, great reading and I see that Book 6 - What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (hopefully not missing spaces :-) ) will be available in autumn.
Highly recommended.

Of the series which is the best thing i have read in years, this book was the weakest of the bunch but since it was a very very good bunch the cards were stacked. So it was still very good , just a little less tbst the very very goid of all the others

I agree with everything said by the other reviewers. Another great read from Jodi Taylor...slightly spoiled by the terrible editing for runtogetherwords! Like every other paragraph. FIX MY BOOK the store!

I loved the story line but the editing was terrible with multiple words grouped together on almost every page. What I'm referring to is a sentence such as (not from the book) "The butler pouredthedrink." It just took some of the enjoyment out of the book.

Another awesome book. I really have fallen in love with these characters. I was crushed before finishing the first chapter, only to be rescued and left on the edge of my seat. Real "page" turner. Already looking forward to the next installment.

I agree with everything said by the other reviewers. Another great read from Jodi Taylor...slightly spoiled by the terrible editing for runtogetherwords! Like every other paragraph. FIX MY BOOK the store!

I loved the story line but the editing was terrible with multiple words grouped together on almost every page. What I'm referring to is a sentence such as (not from the book) "The butler pouredthedrink." It just took some of the enjoyment out of the book.

Another awesome book. I really have fallen in love with these characters. I was crushed before finishing the first chapter, only to be rescued and left on the edge of my seat. Real "page" turner. Already looking forward to the next installment.

Just to start off with, especially considering the low rating, I feel like I should say that the thing that keeps me going is the humor. Jodi Taylor has a fantastic ability to write comedy, snarky dialogue, and chaotic situations that just make me laugh, and I find that endearing. Despite the low ratings, that's what keeps me going. Because I have hope that the rest of the book will catch up to that talent.

Overall, No Time Like the Past is simply a cluster of inconsistencies with no underlying plot which basically abandons all the premises that have been carefully laid down in the previous books. The rules seem simple, right? Don't interfere with the past, don't leave things behind. We know the rules by now. Except in this book, of course. New universe, new rules, I guess? Every time they go into the past, they interfere in big ways, and no one seems the least bit concerned with it. In fact, it's regarded as something they must do to keep the past consistent. It's a pretty large, jarring diversion from the previous rules, and it raised so many paradoxes that I was constantly frustrated by it. In one instance, there's an item left in the past, but there is no attention given to this fact except for a one-line mention of it and an offhand joke by Dr. Bairstow, of all people, and that's it. Shouldn't this be a bigger deal? FOD has been drilled since book one! Even in this book, it's stressed multiple times that nothing gets left in the past. There were other inconsistencies that stood out, but those were the two that bothered me the most.

The characters are their same predictable selves, and there's pretty much no character growth at all in this book. Actually, Max seems to have gone backward and reverted, and for a character who's supposed to be so dang smart, I found myself getting fed up and annoyed at how many stupid things she pulls for absolutely no reason, endangering not only herself but her entire team. Max is supposed to be around 35 by now, but she acts more like she's 15, and I have to keep reminding myself that this is supposed to be an educated woman who's had life experiences and been around the block, but no matter how many times I tell myself, I'm just not buying it.

The villains are the same old, rehashed ones we've had since book one, brought back with no reason or purpose, and then quickly dismissed to get on with whatever shenanigans are planned because, you know, St. Mary's. What the book was really lacking was tension of any sort. There are no stakes. We already know how things are going to end. The "bad guys" are all one dimensional, and their actions are hollow and make absolutely no sense. They're like short-circuiting robots, flipping between different personalities for absolutely no reason other than they're evil, obviously, and need to do evil things by tricking the good guys into believing they're not evil. Duh. There are several moments where Jodi Taylor lines up what I was hoping was going to be a really significant, interesting plot point that would have added dimension to the villains, only for it to be snatched away a moment later in a disappointing scene reversal that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Ultimately, as far as villains go, it was just a big letdown for me.

The plot is nonexistent; the book consists of random scenes strung haphazardly together. It reads almost more like a book of short stories than book five of a series. The ties into previous books feel tenuous at best (nonexistent at worse), and it did almost nothing to further the series as a whole (except for the very ending, but I won't give away spoilers). While I do genuinely enjoy the forays and adventures into the past, by book five, I also expected there to be more of an undercurrent of a plot, especially considering the big plot changes introduced in books three and four (which I'm still not a fan of).

All in all, will I continue the series? Yes. As I said, I'm a big fan of humor, and Taylor has a way with it that I find irresistible. I have to say, though, if book six is anything as offbeat as this book was, I don't think I'll read past that. It's gotten to the point where Taylor is breaking her own rules, nothing entirely "new" happens, and things are getting extremely predictable. I'm going to hang in there for another book and hope for a turnaround.

I love St. Mary series. I love the charm, I love the humor, I love the cynical, practical, brave, devoted and a not a little bit mad heroine. I would volunteer to work at St. Mary's immediately, for free, and even as an admin. So please believe me that I say this with love, but it looks like Jodi Taylor finally decided to throw caution to the winds and write a book based only on charm, a strong voice of the protagonist and no defined plot whatsoever. I have lost my way occasionally in the previous books too, but that was because I was reading too fast, or had to backtrack through a convoluted plot, it was never because there was no story. SPOILERS*** I kept waiting for the story to begin, kept assigning deeper significance to events, kept waiting for everything to tie in together... What I got was: She goes to England and witnesses a family drama, that sort of solves an old legend, she goes to see the Great Exhibition and meets an old enemy with no discernible consequences, she loses a team member we've never seen before, in a completely unpredictable fashion and again with an impact of an extra dying. She organizes a public event which turns to usual St. Mary mayhem. She faces an old nemesis completely out of the blue and resolves it just as quickly with a bit of convenient ex-machina and a spot of emotional blackmail so unbelievable as to be comic. She goes to Thermopylae and then... I would not spoil it that much. Each historical episode is very well written as per usual Jodi Taylor and the usual St. Mary blend of heroics, comedy and pathos.. But in the grand scheme of things. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS. It's a testimony to how much I love these characters that I did not give up when I realized that I had arrived at 80% read without being able to discern the main conflict. Is this the end? Was the whole point to get us to the satisfyingly romantic ending and give a logical conclusion to the characters' story? I want more... Hesitating between 2 and 3 stars

No Time Like the Past is Jodi Taylor's 5th book in the St Mary's series. This time Max and the team are in a "quieter" period of this history. Well, quiet by St Mary's standards.

Max tries to take it easy, but history doesn't like that. The team go back to their roots of rescuing artifacts that are about to be removed from existence, but things never go to plan.

I found this book to be more educational with the history they visit. That's the good thing about these stories, I learn lots as well as enjoying the journeys.

I really enjoyed the open day scenes. I'd love to have visited to see the race.

Again, another great story and since there's lots of history that's happened, there's lots for the team to visit.

I have really enjoyed the whole St. Mary's series! This book is one of my favorites. Max is a kick of a character and is the narrator of the story. The humor helps lighten some of the serious historical events they record. The whole cast of characters interact well and it kept me up late to find out what would happen. I definitely would recommend this book and the whole series to anyone.

I am always excited to hear that Jodi Taylor is releasing another installment of The Chronicles of St. Mary's. Love her writing, her dry wit, her creativity! This installment was very good, though I didn't enjoy it as much as the earlier books. She seemed to have run out of ideas for Max's personal life, and almost completely ignored Leon as a central character. That being said, all the breathless editor's reviews, using words like "rollicking", are spot-on. What a great way to be introduced to history!

If you have read the first four books in this series, you highly suspect this episode won't end well for Markham, since his ghost seems to be haunting St. Mary's.

Resolving that mystery, and uncovering a few others, is all in a time-traveling historian's day's work.

This last installment of the series is emotionally satisfying, with plenty of humor and suspense as well.

Another tour de force from Jodi Taylor. This series gets better and better. Although 4 is still my favourite, this one was highly enjoyable, and of course the ending totally made it for me. For once, we're allowed to have the logical conclusion in a relationship. Hooray!

But the journey to this point was hilarious, fun, crazy and a rollicking read from start to finish. I now can't wait for 6, which is up later this month. Jodi Taylor is one of the top writers of her generation, that's without any doubt at all. Voice, character, plot, twists, wit, humour. You name it, she's got it. I hope there are going to be lots more of St Mary's.

This may be my favorite of all the St. Mary’s series - and, believe me, I love them all! This one is mostly positive with happy endings. Love it! St. Mary's has done it again! That is, Jodi Taylor has done it again. A thoroughly readable, enjoyable, humorous, romantic, crazy book! On to the next one!

I enjoyed it. Not sure "No Time Like the Past" -- or any of the other books in the series -- are great literature, but sometimes you don't need that much. The book is funny and there's a lot of action and a nice romance, plus some interesting history.

Perfect way to escape feeling buffeted by the winds of fate. Watch someone else be buffeted. Jodi Taylor writes addictive stories, with villains and history mixed together. I am left hopeful for the future.

Terrible grammar, editing, story structure, and formatting. How are readers giving this five stars, when many of the five star reviews admit that the editing is a train wreck? It's not just a typo here & there, people -- I stopped reading when I was stumbling over 20-30 errors per page. I am totally disappointed and had to return it for a refund. Reviews should be about the entire product, not just if friends and family of the author liked the story. I RARELY feel compelled to give reviews, but I felt I had to after I bought this based on the five-star reviews. Very misleading as to the actual quality of the product. This purchase was a total disappointment, if you must buy it, at least wait for an edited version to come out. If ever.