Rach's Reading Club

Words 213
Characters 1215

Title: THE TOAST OF TIME
Author: Jodi Taylor
Related to Series: CHRONICLES OF ST. MARY'S
Release: December 25 2021

Review: Jodi Taylor has just very recently leaped into my Pantheon of favorite authors. While I generally read books that are serious, solemn, thought-provoking, and often scary (Science Fiction, Mystery--Golden Age and Cosy, and some Horror, plus Serious Historical Fiction and Nonfiction), the stories of Jodi Taylor are such a delight and encouragement. Both the intrepid, adventurous, feckless, historians in The Chronicles of St. Mary's, and the full-of-themselves Time Police, are suffused with trademark British pluck, grit, and that famous "stiff upper lip" (carrying a cherished medieval sword hidden in one's trousers, as is the case in THE TOAST OF TIME!). Taylor's humor is exquisite, and the perseverance of her characters tremendously inspiring. Whether a Christmas short story, a novella, or a full-length novel, I'll come away from any Jodi Taylor story satiated, satisfied, chuckling, and heartwarmed.

THE TOAST OF TIME finds "former" St. Mary's historians Maxwell and Markham banished from St. Mary's, "hiding out" with "recovery agents" [bounty hunters] Smallhope and Pennyroyal at their hidden estate, doing recovery odd jobs, this time a "Flying Auction" advertised momentarily on the Dark Web, of priceless long-lost treasures from various eras---an auction conducted in the past (time travel), at the abandoned, bereft, country estate that will eventually house St. Mary's! What could POSSIBLY go wrong? (Smiles)
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