Reviewed by Sadonna

TITLE: Rook’s Time

SERIES:  Carnival of Mysteries

AUTHOR:  Kim Fielding

PUBLISHER:  Tin Box Press

LENGTH:  362 pages

RELEASE DATE:  July 10, 2024

BLURB:

Simeon Bell just hasn’t been himself.

Although he has spent a happy year as a roustabout with the Carnival of Mysteries—accompanied by his beloved, Crow Rapp—lately something has felt off. Maybe he hasn’t been himself because he doesn’t fully know who he is. Abandoned in a foundling home as an infant, he has never known anything about his family and has never met another of his kind.

A tiny box found on the carnival midway leads Simeon and Crow on a quest to Simeon’s childhood home in the Victorian slums of London, where he discovers the ability to move through time. With Crow’s steadfast love as his anchor, Simeon searches across the decades for answers about his identity. The more he travels, the more he learns about his history… and the more he faces the danger of losing himself entirely.

Rook’s Time is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series and a sequel to Crow’s Fate. Each book includes at least one visit to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it’s on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains an East End orphan and Illinois farm boy, both of whom are far more than they seem; occasional help from three mysterious women; and a lot of rooks, crows, and their kin.

REVIEW:

Oh my!  What a ride this book is.  If you read the first book (which I think is rather essential for this sequel) I believe that you will find this new book a worthy sequel.

Simeon has so much more going on and so many secrets and history to unravel.  Now that he and Crow are solid, he’s restless in a way that can’t be remediated in their current environment – the Carnival of Mysteries that moves time and place.  As a foundling, Crow has very little to go on as to where he’s really from and who he really is.  His Victorian life wasn’t great – but he always had a sense of optimism.  Even when things were hard and uncomfortable and he was likely dying of TB and drawn to the carnival, he’s taken everything at face value for the most part and made the best of the hand he’s been dealt.

When Simeon and Crow get together in the first book, they discover things about Crow and his past and who he is.  Now it’s his turn to support Simeon in a similar, but then again dissimilar, quest.  His quest takes them back to Victorian England the one small clue he had about his people that he ran away from as a teenager out of fear.  Seeking those people out again now as he travels through time provides some answers but opens up many other questions.  As he and Crow try to uncover his origin, there are other factors at play.  How is Crow able to move through time?  Why was he not raised by his family?  What happened his parents?  How are the entities that he and Crow met in the past on Crow’s quest to find the truth of his origin involved in Simeon’s quest to discover what and why he is who he is?  Lots of question, very few answers.

Of course things are bound to get worse before they get better.  Crow does his best to anchor Simeon and supports him unconditionally – even if it means staying in Victorian England.  They are a team and they won’t be separated.  When he manipulates time and ends up causing himself issues and Crow too, it becomes painfully clear that he doesn’t understand his power and he may have set in motion something more powerful, dangerous and uncontrollable then he ever imagined.  They are in for a world of hurt, but they are in it together – although they do need help from old friends too 🙂  At the end of the day, their love sustains them through all the trials and tribulations they have to face.  They learn a lot about themselves as individuals as well as a couple.  And it’s exhilarating and exciting and frankly a bit scary to see where they go and where they end up 😉  They just fit and they are going to do everything to make sure they will be together – whenever and wherever that might be.

I absolutely adored this story!  It’s a very very Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride of a story.  So compelling.  So many really intricate touches and details – philosophy, literature, history – all rolled together with overlapping themes and quirky tie-ins.  If you are a student of any of those subjects or even have a passing interest, I think this book will prove to be fascinating.  Kim Fielding is a master storyteller.  Her command of the language is so engaging.  The descriptions of the time and place in this story is superb.  I was pulled in from the first page and kept going and going until the last word.  There are some wonderfully clever devices in the storytelling here also that I found so interesting and really added to the sense of urgency of the story and the fallout of the law of unintended consequences.  But what really shines through is the strength of the love and bond between Crow and Simeon and how they are truly together as a team.  They are each other’s anchor and home.  I highly recommend both this and the previous book she wrote in this multi-author series.  Absolutely fantastic writing – wonderful sense and description of times and places and above all a really heartfelt story of true love.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Amazon