Ella and the Fractures in Time: Time hopping adventures on the Twilight Express

by Jennifer Nelson

Embark on an extraordinary journey through time with Ella Harper, the intrepid bookworm who dares to board the enigmatic Twilight Express. Aided by the mysterious Conductor Alaric Timewell and accompanied by brilliant inventor Dr. Amelia Quirk, Ella must unravel the secrets of this fantastical train to fulfill her destiny.

As she hurtles through the ages on this time-hopping adventure, Ella encounters exotic locales, from the bustling streets of Victorian London to awe-inspiring futures teetering on the edge of chaos. Caught in a whirlwind where time unravels before her very eyes, Ella becomes entwined in the Twilight Express’s clandestine mission to safeguard the fragile thread of history.

Will Ella rise to the challenge and embrace her destiny, entrusted with the power to mend fractures in time? And all the while, can she navigate this labyrinthine odyssey and find her way back home?

Join Ella on an exhilarating adventure filled with mysteries and puzzles that will ignite your imagination. Delve into historical dramas, uncover secrets long buried, and witness the intricate dance of time as Ella discovers her place as a guardian of history's unfolding tapestry. Step aboard the Twilight Express today and prepare for a journey unlike any other.

158 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 25, 2025

About the author

As executive producer at Classic FM, Jennifer Nelson works with presenters including Alexander Armstrong and Bill Turnbull. She has produced Classic FM's weekly film music programme since 2014, interviewing many of the directors and composers featured in this book. She has won Gold Sony Radio Academy Awards as producer of music documentaries for BBC 6 Music and Absolute Radio, and was named 'Producer of the Year' at the inaugural Global Awards in 2015. She is currently studying part-time at Birkbeck University for a Creative Industries Management MSc and when she isn't in the radio studio or university library, can often be found in the cinema.

Reviews

[Kieron Roberson · Rating 2 out of 5]

*I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.*

Ella and the Fractures in Time has an excellent premise. A bookish girl is up reading late at night and encounters a mysterious train which transports her back in time with a mission to untangle “knots” in time (ie. Resolving anachronisms).

Unfortunately, the execution does not live up to the potential of the premise.

The prose is both wordy and redundant. Descriptions have minute details, but somehow don’t provide enough broad strokes to give a mental picture of what’s going on. The same details are repeated ad nauseam, but are also inconsistent (we get that the hoodie is navy blue with constellations, as it’s mentioned about five times through chapter 2, but the author doesn’t seem to be able to decide whether the constellations are on the inside or outside…)

Because of the weird details and redundancy the plot moves very slowly. It took about 2 chapters for Ella to climb down from her treehouse, exchange about three sentences with the conductor, and enter the train.

There’s really no character development— or even any kind of unique voices for each of the characters. They all use very similar vocabulary and speaking patterns (and the dialogue is very clunky).

The vocabulary used is far above the reading level of the target audience (I had to look up a few words and I have a college education and 34 years of devouring every book in sight, ain’t no way a middle schooler is going to know what half of this means).

All in all I was very disappointed with this read. I was hoping to be able to recommend it to my daughter as she’s in late elementary school and likes time travel and fantasy genre books, but alas it is not to be.