Time Traitors

Time Traitors Series #1

by Eli Donovan

Jurassic Park meets Romancing the Stone

Dr. Grace Carson is one of the lucky few scientists cleared for time travel. Years ago, her husband nearly destroyed her career by poaching dinosaurs. Grace turned him in, divorced the deadbeat, and two years later she's ready to return to the work she loves: studying dinosaurs in their natural habitat. She has no interest in the new time agent, Ben Nakamura, assigned to her research station. No matter how charming or clever he is.

Unfortunately, her team isn’t alone. Poachers are trapping dinosaurs for the black market again. Another scandal like this could kill her research if it comes out, and Grace's boss wants her to look the other way until the thieves are gone. But Grace can’t bring herself to let the criminals get away.

When the poachers discover Grace's plans to blow the whistle, they attack her research station. Nakamura and Grace flee into the forest with her time machine, but it's broken in the process. Nakamura knows a secret cache where they can hopefully fix the time machine, but it means a perilous trek through the wilderness.

Braving prehistoric dangers together shows Grace she can trust Nakamura with her life, but she’s still not sure she can ever trust him with her heart.

Genres: Science Fiction, Romance, Dinosaurs, Time Travel

269 pages, Hardcover

Published June 30, 2024

About the author

Eli Donovan is an author who thinks dinosaurs are just neat and grew up reading too many Jane Goodall biographies and fairy tales. Eli lives in Southern California with a husband, kids, and one grumpy elderly cat.

Reviews

[Wick Welker]

Time Traitors is a fun adventure book focusing on a team of scientists that go into the past to study dinosaurs, their rival poachers, and the history between them. The writing is clean and economical and the story doesn’t get lost in the weeds of exposition or over-explaining. When we’re talking about a time traveling industry that gets almost on the same level as civilian air travel, I don’t really need too much explaining about how this works because I’m already showing up with my disbelief suspended and the author does a good job of laying down the necessary but scarce details. All I needed is that “time tubes” are doing the time traveling heavy lifting and that’s what I got. The author moves along quickly with two POVs: one a PhD who is trying her best to study dinosaurs and a poacher. These two characters are deeply connected and their relationship is one of the main drivers of the story. There is a dash of budding romance which is welcomed alongside the action that bursts out about halfway through the book. The storytelling is tight and no energy is wasted. The tension, characterization and pacing were all very well done and I was never bored. This is a thriller that I found worthwhile to read although I don’t think it offers much profundity beyond the action. At any rate, I recommend it for fans of thrillers and romance and a dash of dinosaurs.

I received a copy of the ebook as a judge for the SPSFC4 competition. This review has no bearing on the book’s standing in the competition.

[Tirzah]

Disclaimer: Many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this. It was a fun read and I’m thankful I got to read the copy I got.

What a ride this book was! It was a breeze to read and held your attention well. I couldn’t pry my eyes off of my phone screen as I read through my copy. The pacing was done so well that I barely felt time pass. It felt like I time travelled along with the characters into the prehistoric era and experienced it all with them.

Loved the sapphic romance that happened with Julia and Xia. While Julia’s character is questionable and shifty, she has more dimensions to her that I was grateful for. The plot twist that happens mid book when Grace and Julia meet tho - I felt like I should have seen it happening a mile away, but it still surprised me the way it did. I’m glad the author was sneaky at how they built up the reveal.

Also I was surprised there wasn’t more of a paradoxical effect when we come across someone from the future who meets their past self. Yet as a Doctor Who fan, I guess time is just a big ball that’s all wibbly wobbly. Time travel is so fascinating and this take on time travel raised a lot of questions for me.

Another thing I loved about this book is how it’s sprinkled with small references to Jurassic Park and literally has the book appear in one scene as well. Calling the pachy “the friar tuck of dinosaurs” is another fun call back as well. I also liked the tree climbing scene. Anything that gives an homage to the JP books made me smile and love this book more.

While I love dinosaurs, I wish the romance was a little more scaled back in this book. There was a dinosaur chase of course, but there isn’t as much horror as I felt like there could have been. Yet, I also don’t think it’s needed. This has its own charm and appeals just as much.

Overall I give it four and a half stars. The half being that I wanted a little bit more of the fear and dread these dinosaurs can give. That’s all. It’s a solid book and is a fun read for those who love dinosaurs and romance as well. Definitely would recommend this and reread this again.

[Nancy Foster]

I am one of the judges of team Space Girls for the SPSFC5 contest. This review is my personal opinion. Officially, it is still in the running for the contest, pending any official team announcements.

Status: Finalist
Read: 100%

This is the last book I had pending for my volunteer duties as an SPSFC 5 judge. At around 260 pages, it was much shorter read than several of the other semi and finalists and I read it rather quickly.

Expect some minor book spoilers in my review!

What would happen if time travel became commoditized and protected under a secretive organization called the Time Guard? And more specifically, what would happen if travel to the Cretaceous risked being banned due to constant run ins with rogue poachers?

While Time Traitors follows a well trodden path mixing Jurassic Park style scares with Time Travel, it does try to set itself apart with the introduction of a dual POV structure of two estranged women named Grace and Julia. Grace was given a long-awaited second chance to restart her dinosaur research after divorcing her criminal ex husband. Julia meanwhile just happens to be Grace's former Mother-in-Law and blames her for getting her darling golden child arrested. That alone offers some nice conflict because Julia is 100% aware Grace has returned to the past.

The curious thing is that despite hating how their relationship soured, Julia is more preoccupied helping a rag-tag group of irresponsible (and horny) poachers over taking long-awaited revenge.

Grace on the other hand, suspects poachers have arrived after noticing disarray at her new lab. Unfortunately, rumors are circulating one member of the research and Time Guard custodian team is a traitor. I liked how the book is so shifty about making the reader guess who is the bad guy because seemingly any one of them could be it.

Yes, even that really yummy & unattainable new Time Guard guy Grace is so definitely not interested in (lol) named Ben Nakamura. No siree! She is sooooooo not into starting a fling even when the lab rooms are cramped, the food terrible and he's so irresistibly hot.

Ahem, yeah, apparently, this is not solely a Sci-Fi dino time travel thriller. In a way, I felt Time Traitors was quite similar to the Ministry of Time where a large focus in the novel is the sexual tension between the female scientist and a bachelor male time traveler with a military background.

While Ben and Graham are different in various ways (I felt Graham's personality was far more fleshed out), they are both likeable. I even felt Ben reminded me a lot of the intensity and demure devotion of the male coportagonist of the Chinese animated time travel film named The Girl Who Stole Time (Shi Jian Zhi Zi / 时间之子). Shiqi is frighteningly (in a good way) similar to Ben Nakamura.

For better or worse, while a lot of the twists in Time Traitors makes sense because there is a hidden traitor living among them, it is a book that can be frustrating because so many scenes happening later are conveniently possible because everyone forgets Ben Nakamura is armed with a nifty sonic boom gun. Seemingly, even Ben forgets he has that weapon, and all signs the other two guards either forgot to bring one along or lost them along the way.

What is more confounding is that the poachers are conscious of the high mortality rate from dino ambushes and care more about spending passionate all nighters sharing sleeping bags instead of getting themselves injected with nifty injury repairing nanobots. The book never mentions Julia voicing concerns with the poaching leader they should get some nanobot injections, and perhaps additional tranquilizers given the propensity of some of the smarter dinos to escape cages.

One of the things that worked so well in Jurassic Park is that hell broke loose in the island due to the unfortunate combination of a hurricane forcing massive staff evacuation, a disgruntled IT guy that sabotaged security systems to steal IP tech and Hammond being too distracted entertaining the scientists and lawyer when the park was still not 100% operational. The quips between Nedry complaining about Hammond's cheapskateness in hiring more staff offers insight why the park became a death trap later in the story. I felt Time Traitors only partially did well in emulating the chain of events through the mystery traitor and irresponsibility of the junior poachers. This convenient lack of weapons/medicines felt the most obvious during the final third of the book to me. I sadly can't explain mucher further due to spoilers.

I also felt the book didn't fully make its mind on whether to become a thriller or sci-fi romantasy. Making thriller and horror stories balance with romance is harder to do than with a folk fantasy setting. However, despite my personal complaints about books like The Ministry of Time, I felt that book nicely portrayed the nascent romance. Time Traitors felt like it remained at a crossroads whether to focus on the action or the romance. Since I entered the book with thrill expectations akin to Jurassic Park, I found the dalliances to be a bit distracting, whereas readers with romantasy expectations will feel frustrated the book's spicy level is Taco Bell mild sauce at the most. This book does have homophome typos such as errors with the it/its/it's and I believe I recall seeing an except/expect typo as well.

If readers set the romancing to the side, the early chapters of Time Traitors in particular reminded me a lot of a little known indie Sci-Fi thriller romp named Genesis by C.A. Voss. If readers liked the action aspects of this book, they should that book a try.

In a nutshell, Time Traitors delivers a cozier thrillfest with various dino species that were well thought out, a nice ex-DIL/MIL rivalry, a likeable male love interest, plentiful queer rep and an entertaining 'who is the traitor' mystery. While the sequel isn't out yet, there is a short story interlude that nicely fits in with the final 10% of this book focusing on Ben's POV. At only 64 pages, it seems like an intriguing read and I would certainly like to read it and see how the story played out from Ben's POV.

[Helyna Clove]

I read this novel for The Self-Published Science Fiction Competition, SPSFC. The following review is my own personal opinion as a judge in Team Space Girls and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole.

First of all, I really need to read more dinosaur adventure books. I need recommendations, people, where are y’all hiding your dinosaur books?

Anyway. :D Time Traitors is a time travel book with dinosaurs and that already made me very excited to start reading it. We find ourselves on the side of Grace Carson, a scientist who regularly travels to the past to study dinosaurs and the prehistoric world. She hasn’t done it in a while, though, after an incident that nearly destroyed her career (and life), namely, discovering that her husband illegally hunted dinosaurs on the research missions she took him to. Oops. Now, after a long investigation and with her ex-husband in jail, Grace is getting a new chance, new students (and a bit more robust security detail) as she once again leaves to the past to be among her favourite creatures. Unbeknownst to her, and as we get to see, a new-old group of poachers already claimed the area near the research base on a mission to capture dinosaurs, and among them, an old acquaintance of Grace’s. As the two sides confront each other, with distrustful Time Guard on Grace’s side and her career on the line once again, what is the right decision? Leave it well enough alone or fight for the life of her beloved dinosaurs…and eventually for her own life as well?

The setup of the book was excellent with a quick explanation around time travel and how and what it’s used for, and an introduction of the main characters with the emphasis on Ben Nakamura, a handsome and charming time agent ordered to keep an eye on Grace during the mission. We very quickly get to the past as Grace and co. gets settled on the research station, and immediately get to see the poachers as well. I needed a bit of time to connect Julia to Grace, as Grace’s backstory around her husband and research only becomes totally clear later, but I ended up really liking the choice of these two POV characters. I preferred Grace’s parts, but Julia’s personality grew on me, and I found her motivation relatable and her relationship with Grace very interesting. The writing felt straight-forward, casual, and focused on action, but there are nice character moments as well, mostly connected to Grace and Nakamura. I especially liked our looks at the dinosaurs and Grace’s enthusiasm around them. This is a fast-paced book, so we don’t get a lot of time to muse about the animals, but I appreciated those tidbits. As time goes on, and the researchers find more and more traces of the poachers, a strange, violent death also sows distrust between them, since there might be a traitor among them, working with the enemy. There are attacks, dinosaur and human both, chases, sneaking around, getting trapped, fighting ourselves out of near-death situations. There are also deaths! No one is safe, honestly.

By the end, it’s a race to even be able to travel back in time and safety, and Grace needs to work together with Julia to have a chance for survival. There’s also a further twist on the time travel aspect which was very cool. Plus, even through all the action, we see Grace and Nakamura’s relationship evolve, and I really liked their duo and chemistry.

I have to say the action-parts did not always manage to hold my attention that well, and like I mentioned, the sections with Julia and the poachers were sometimes less interesting to me. I would also have loved to get a more in-depth look at the side-characters, like the students, Grace’s boss, and the other Time Guards, which would have improved on the tension and whodunnit when trying to figure out the traitor among the science team. At the same time, it is obvious that the book wants to remain a fast, action-y, somewhat light adventure, and it perfectly encompasses it at all times, staying in its lane.

I had a lot of fun, Grace was a great character to follow, and Time Traitors is a perfect read for a dynamic, tension-filled, even slightly romantic adventure—with lots of death and dinosaurs.

[Geetha Krishnan]

I read this as part of the SPSFC 5. It’s a semifinalist, which means, the quality is high, so I started out with expectations.
The book revolves around time travel which is regulated and there are agents and everything. Dr. Grace Carson is a researcher who’s nuts about dinosaurs and wants to learn more about them at their natural habitat. Which means time travel.
Trouble is Grace already had permission once and set up a research base and everything, but it turned out her husband, now ex-husband, was in league with poachers and they were poaching dinos.
Grace turns him in (what else), but she’s also held accountable, and while her name is cleared, no one trusts her, and hence she can go back in time, but accompanied not just by her head of department, but also a time agent.
However, the poachers aren’t giving up, and they have roped in Grace’s former mother-in-law, Julia as an accomplice, promising they would help break her son out of jail. So, both teams are out there in the wild, in the same time period, but while the poachers know of the research team’s presence, the researchers don’t know the poachers are there.
I found the plot very interesting, but also, completely predictable. The writing was engaging, and the two character voices were distinct enough. What I had trouble with was connecting with the characters. Grace’s passion for dinosaurs aside, there’s nothing about her that felt real, and Julia was even worse.
Like I couldn’t even sympathise with her wanting to break that deadbeat son out of jail. In my opinion, he deserved it. So from the get go, I hated Judith, which made it difficult to connect to her or her character arc overall, which is actually important to the story.
Grace often behaves in thoughtless ways and only seems to realise the impact of her actions only when others point it out.
Like she never thinks. At all. Which annoyed me to no end. So, yeah, I had problems with both PoV characters.
Grace and Julia are clearly foils to each other, both researchers who reacted completely differently when faced with the actions of someone they both loved, albeit in different ways. I get as his mother, Julia is bound to be a bit biased but come on. She raised him, and seeing as she has no qualms about shacking up with poachers, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.
None of the deaths made me sad; tbh, they made me feel nothing, which is why I said the characterisation did nothing for me. The plot carried the book, which isn't my favourite thing.
The book is well written, but lacked any kind of emotional payoff for me
That aside, this was an entertaining read, and as someone who loves dinos (is there anyone who doesn’t? If you don’t, don’t come near me), I enjoyed this book a lot. The danger of being in that era is clearly brought out. There has obviously been a shittonne of research done, which I applaud because man, that thing is hard. The writing and plot are both excellent.
If you like sci fi with dinosaurs and time travel, a sprinkle of romance, and a heap of adventure, this book is for you. Believe me, you’re in for a wild ride.
This review reflects my personal views and not my team's.

[Mike]

Disclaimers first: I got a review copy from Netgalley, and then another (more up-to-date) review copy directly from the author, who is on the same writers' forum as me.

This is a solid SF thriller in the manner of Michael Crichton (who gets name-checked at one point), combining time travel and dinosaurs, two of his best-known premises. It starts out an unspecified period into the future, but quickly moves to 70 million years ago, where one of the viewpoint characters is studying dinosaurs and the other is poaching them. The two stories converge after a while, and it turns out that the two women have a pre-existing relationship, which adds to the already high tension.

It's a pacey story, with a high body count among the secondary characters, but it doesn't skimp on relevant characterization, relationship development, or setting details (while avoiding infodumps and long scenes about the characters' inner struggles). There were a few moments when I felt a bit of a strain on the suspension of disbelief, but not too badly so.

Time travel is hard to write well, in part because it's easy to get snarled up in crisscrossing alternate timelines that make less and less sense the more they play out, and the author has cleverly avoided this by setting a "the timeline doesn't change" rule. Which is then broken late in the book, but in a way that adds rather than detracting.

Overall, this is a soundly written book that will satisfy readers who like a bit of SF content in their thriller or vice-versa. Personally, I'm more of a cosy fantasy fan, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and it enters my Best of the Year list with no difficulty.

[Annalisa]

I quite enjoyed Time Traitors. There was time travel, time travel Agents, dinosaurs, action, and a couple of kisses. I expected there to be a bit more romance from the description. We follow Dr. Grace Carson, a scientist, who is returning to the prehistoric era for the first time in years after turning in her husband for poaching dinosaurs. Going back to her work studying dinosaurs in their natural habitat is all she wants. However, like the last time when she gets back it starts to look like the poachers might be back as well. Parts of her team want her to turn the other way but again she can't do that.

I was surprised to get into the story and have it told from the point of view of both Grace Carson and Julia (poachers). Having the two narratives did add to the story. It was interesting to see the poachers version of events and get more of the backstory as well.

I would not have qualified this as a romance as it felt more like a time travel story to me that included a romance plot line. I did like that it took what scientists know about dinosaurs and use that in the book. For what appears to be a debut novel I thought this was well done. I'll be looking for other books in the series.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in return for my honest opinion.

[Doc Honour]

Enjoyed this book all the way through. Very good sci-fi adventure in time travel, sort of like Thursday Next meets Jurassic Park. If you like imagining dinosaurs and what it would be like in their world, Ms. Walker has done a fine job of building on that imagination. Starts with an opening that drew me in from the first pages. Maintained a high, almost unbearable level of tension, so much so that it was difficult to identify a climax. Great characterizations with several surprise linkages that come into play later in the book. Good underlying plot line with a murder mystery well told and well hidden; most of the characters could have been the murderer until the reveal. (But of course, how do you have a "murder" in the time of dinosaurs, when people are getting eaten right and left? Read the book; it fits.) Some of the choices made by characters left me puzzled or unbelieving, particularly in relation to their lack of respect for the dinosaurs, but not so much as to jar me out of the imagining.. Specious inclusion of alternate gender issues that did not add to the story. Descriptions are vivid and put me there, in that world. I could well imagine a movie maker wanting this one. Ending is completely believable and well written. All in all, well worth my time; a very nice piece of work.

[The Reading Ruru (Kerry)]

Disclaimer: Read as a judge for SPSFC5 (SpaceGirls). Opinion and score are my own and do not reflect entire team 7.5/10

If you love anything and everything Dinosaur, time travel as well as a fast paced action adventure story, then Time Traitors is the book for you. Technically it’s a well written book and will hit well with a targeted audience.
Story line is from 2 POV's - Grace, the Paleontologist who has been given a second chance to go back in time since her ex husband was involved and jailed for his role in a black market of dinosaurs and other prehistoric artifacts. Whilst Grace was innocent and the one who informed on him, she has never been fully trusted. The other side of the story is told by Julia, Grace's ex MIL who has joined a poaching team that has promised to get her son released.
Due to extenuating circumstances, the 2 teams end up at murderous odds with each other and then "working" together to get back home.
As I said, there is murder but there is also betrayal, a traitor, mistrust and even some romance all with a lot of "hand-waving" and a suspension of belief, but hey, that's SFF.
This was a relatively ok quick read (took me between 60-90 minutes to finish in one sitting). It wasn’t a 'deep' read, just a lot of fun. Perfect for the cold winter day we're having.

[Gwendolyn]

Thank you netgalley for allowing me to read this book. I was so excited to start this book and It was so good! It’s very different from any book I’ve ever read and I love that about it! It started off slow at first but I got more intrigued as the book went on. I definitely would have liked a lot more romance but I enjoyed the adventure and mystery. I really liked the two different point of views you get. The plot twists were great and made me feel so many different emotions.

[Eli Donovan]

Romancing the Stone...but with dinosaurs! This is the book my little Grant and Ellie shipping heart always wanted as a child. And now it exists! I can have dinosaurs with my kissing. (But not kissing dinosaurs; that's a different type of book.) This one is a fast-paced, action thriller through the jungle crammed full of all the coolest dinosaurs I could manage. Think Michael Crichton with a strong female lead. I hope you enjoy it!

[Rie Lee]

Truly a delight. Tons of adventure with a substantial side dish of flirtation, and all of it is fun. Love the imagining of the prehistoric world and the accuracy of details like different oxygen levels in the atmosphere; Donovan takes the time to really make us feel rooted in the world, then makes for a plot twist right when you least expect it. I fell in love with Nakamura and Grace, and I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel!

Also the Grace/Julia relationship is so bittersweet I love it <3

[Erin Ampersand]

Dino scientist gets to go back in time again after her poacher husband’s arrest. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks she deserves a second chance, and her ex wasn’t the only one harvesting velociraptors.

Read for: Dinosaurs, mysteries, great characters

Avoid if: “Time shenanigans” makes you shudder