Writing this review is painful not only because I have to confess I read (and really liked) the first book, Timeless, but also because I don't feel Timekeeper is nearly as good in comparison. For fans of Michele and Phillip, yeah, there's a happy ending, but they're not the reason Timeless was such a great book for me. No, what I loved was the historical aspect - because there was just something magical about the way Alexandra Monir handled Michele's story as she explores a century's worth of her family's, and by extension New York's, history.
And unfortunately, that magic has been lost. I was concerned that Secrets of the Time Society was taking the focus of this series off the history and onto Michele's ancestor Rebecca as the villain, and it looks like my concerns are well founded. Because sure, Michele does more time traveling and revisits some of the same time periods she's been to before, but that spark from the first time, like Monir had this meticulously researched plan that brought all these different periods, the end of the Gilded Age, the Roaring Twenties, the Second World War, to life, well, that spark's gone. I loved Timeless because it was atmospheric, it was exciting, it made the history literally come alive, but this time around, I just can't say the same. I don't think I feel nearly the same way about the history, about the different time periods, or even about Monir having the same goal of exploring the past like she did before, because, instead, it seems Michele does all her time traveling in this sequel simply because she needs to stop Rebecca, and it's absolutely disappointing that the same ancestors she visits before (plus Past Phillip) get shallow cameos rather than the more in depth scenes I remember, with the one barely meaty scene reserved for Michele's visit with her father.
As for the actual plot to stop Rebecca, I think I would've enjoyed it more had I not read Secrets of the Time Society, because a lot of Timekeeper just rehashes what I learned from the novella - well except now Michele obviously prevails over her nemesis. In fact, there are even excerpts from Millicent August and The Handbook of the Time Society scattered between the chapters, which is a nice touch explaining the time travel concepts brought up by the story, at least until I (rather quickly) realize that it's just Michelle learning the exact same things Rebecca learned in the novella, the story behind the Timekeepers, the Society, the Keys, and how everything works. And then Michele discovers her father's journal which fills in the back story behind Rebecca and why she's antagonizing Michele, except it's really just another rehash of Secrets of the Time Society, only difference is this time it's Henry Irving telling the story of why Rebecca hates Michele so much rather than me seeing it directly from Rebecca's point of view. But when it's the same story just told in a slightly different way, how can I be surprised by any of the plot developments when I've seen them all already?
So between the sparkless time travel and the plot that's basically a rehash of a novella, Timekeeper is already very thin, far thinner than Timeless ever was. The only other thing going for this book, and I suppose the sole reason why anyone would actually read this given how lame and/or shallow the rest of the book is, is to find out what happens between Michele and Present Phillip. Since their relationship is the only part of the story that's remotely new, I won't give spoilers, except to say be prepared for Michele acting like an insecure, angsty girl until twu love bashes the two of them over the head whack a mole style and they... well, it's so obvious I'll just say the romance between Michele and Past Phillip was done so much better in Timeless than the stuff between Michele and Present Phillip here and leave it as that. Then we have a couple of weird scenes with Caissie that did nothing for me, a reconciliation between Michele and her father that was mildly good despite the unaddressed broken Time Society Cardinal Laws, and a final confrontation with Rebecca that's good in concept but really needed a bit more juice in execution, and... it's over.
Frankly, I was prepared to cut Timekeeper some slack because I was pretty sure it wouldn't meet my expectations after Timeless, and looking at my rating, I probably did. But that doesn't excuse how disappointingly shallow this sequel is compared to the first book, and I really hope the next book, if there is one, returns to the style of the first and isn't a sequel just for the sake of being a sequel.