Second Lives by Scott K. Andrews

Illustrated by: n/a

Series: Timebomb Trilogy (Book #2)

Published: 2016, Hodder & Stoughton

Edition: Paperback

Length: 357 pages

Narrated By: N/A

Genre: Fiction, Science Fiction, Time Travel Fiction, Dystopian Fiction, Young Adult Fiction, YA, Thriller, Mystery

Where Did I Get It? I bought myself a copy at YALC 2016

Blurb: The adventure continues: time is in flux, and only Jana, Dora and Kaz can fix it. But can they trust each other?

It began when three people from three different moments in history discovered that they could travel through time when they clasped hands. But the mysteries surrounding them have only deepened.

There are risks to tampering with established events… timelines become snarled, histories become tangled… and one false move could destroy time itself!

Jana, Kaz and Dora have escaped from their mysterious enemy, Quil, wounded and scared. Taking refuge in a place outside of time, they devise a plan to change the past, altering Quil’s life so that she never meets them.

From the streets of Beirut in 2010 to the domed cities of Mars in 2155 and beyond, the three teenagers fight for their future, and that of all humanity, by trying to rewrite the history of the person who has sworn to destroy them.

Opening Line(s):

Cornwall, England. 7 April 2158, 8:21A.M. – 1 min to timebomb impact

The woman who called herself Quil stood on a ridge with oak trees behind her, looking down into a shallow dell. The morning air was cool and crisp, the sky was blue and the pollen-rich air was alive with insects and birdsong. Below her, within an ornate garden hidden behind tall hedges and ancient brick walls, a familiar building stood, swathed in ivy.

Sweetclover Hall.

My Review: The first book of this trilogy, Timebomb, was one of my Top 10 Books of 2015 and I was excited to pick up the second instalment and read on.

It took less time than I was expecting to remember what happened in book one – but after a couple of chapters I was confident that I had remembered all the important things and was happily sucked back into the story. (I did have one brief ‘I remember nothing about this’ moment when something CLEARLY IMPORTANT was briefly back referenced but I remembered soon enough as I read on. This would have been much less of an issue if I had read Second Lives as soon as I bought it instead of waiting almost another year to pick it up. I have read a lot of other books since Timebomb in 2015!!)

The storyline itself has the potential to be mightily confusing – as you’d expect with multiple characters hopping both backward and forward in time throughout – but Andrews cleverly paces and stages the whole thing so that you are never completely lost.

The three main characters – Kaz, Jana and Dora – are brilliant. They carry the whole story, even when they (and you) aren’t sure what’s going on. All completely different (as you would expect from people who hail from different eras of time) but brought together through circumstance, their relationship really develops in this story. I loved how you got to know each of them a little better in Second Lives and how their interactions didn’t at all go how I expected!

The plot with Quil truly thickens in this story, though I can’t say much for fear of spoilers, and the action is fast-paced and exciting.

I love Andrews’ way with words, his descriptions are brilliant and bring colour to the story without slowing it down. The image of the domed city on Mars with its butterscotch sky has lingered with me ever since I finished reading.

Now I just need book three to come out so I can find out what happens next – and I need to not leave it as long to read again either!!!

My Rating: 4/5*

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