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The Time Thief
Imagine a world where everyone is born knowing the exact moment they will die.
A world where, at birth, everyone is randomly assigned a clock, pre-wound and counting down to their final immutable, unquestioned, and absolute second. For most, it’s an unchangeable fate. For a privileged few, it’s an opportunity.
With less than a year left on hers, Mia has already made peace with the inevitable. At least until a violent encounter fractures everything she thought she understood, revealing a possibility that should not exist: that Time can be stolen.
Mia finds herself working alongside two Keeper brothers, sworn guardians of the order of Time. Quinn is steady, composed, and bound to the rules that hold their world together. Miles is sharp, defiant, and far more willing to defy them. Drawn between their clashing orbits, Mia begins to question everything she was raised to believe, down to the very Time she has left.
But as truths surface, so does something far more perilous: a love that was never meant to take root. Shaped by grief, divided by loyalty, and shadowed by the knowledge of being doomed from the start, it becomes a bond as fated as it is fragile.
Set in a richly imagined steampunk world inspired by the glamour and grit of the 1940s, The Time Thief is a romantic, clockwork-fueled tale of stolen futures, fractured loyalties, and the fleeting, fragile beauty of Time—and those we choose to spend it with.
A world where, at birth, everyone is randomly assigned a clock, pre-wound and counting down to their final immutable, unquestioned, and absolute second. For most, it’s an unchangeable fate. For a privileged few, it’s an opportunity.
With less than a year left on hers, Mia has already made peace with the inevitable. At least until a violent encounter fractures everything she thought she understood, revealing a possibility that should not exist: that Time can be stolen.
Mia finds herself working alongside two Keeper brothers, sworn guardians of the order of Time. Quinn is steady, composed, and bound to the rules that hold their world together. Miles is sharp, defiant, and far more willing to defy them. Drawn between their clashing orbits, Mia begins to question everything she was raised to believe, down to the very Time she has left.
But as truths surface, so does something far more perilous: a love that was never meant to take root. Shaped by grief, divided by loyalty, and shadowed by the knowledge of being doomed from the start, it becomes a bond as fated as it is fragile.
Set in a richly imagined steampunk world inspired by the glamour and grit of the 1940s, The Time Thief is a romantic, clockwork-fueled tale of stolen futures, fractured loyalties, and the fleeting, fragile beauty of Time—and those we choose to spend it with.
574 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 30, 2026
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May 22, 2026
(Edit: 6/19/26 - Looks like this author is not above talking shit about her honest reviews on tiktok lol. Calling me a liar and saying that I made up things about what this author said on her author pages on SM is kind of crazy? I'm sorry if my review bothered you, but nothing I said in my review was a lie. I went into this book with certain expectations based on this author's own marketing strategy. What exactly would I need to make up? I'm glad that others have enjoyed this book, but I didn't, and I think I'm well within my rights to say so. Other people might feel the same way and might want to save themselves the time of reading something by someone who doesn't care to edit their book.
And also the AI use on socials is really gross. It appears they've been taken down now, but the fact that she waited until after being called out leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.)
ACAB Includes Time Cops
1.5 Stars. I received this book as an ARC and was anticipating a fun found-family romp through a steampunk universe. What was delivered was a meandering love triangle with a confused setting and a plot that didn’t ramp up until at least 80% through the book. This was an incredibly frustrating read from start to finish and honestly if I wasn’t buddy reading this I would have DNF’d after 100 pages (and even that would have been me being generous – I wanted to give this author a fair shake).
I’m going to try to keep my thoughts organized but honestly that’s probably more effort than this review deserves. I’ll try to break my train of thought down into sections:
1. The story
2. The world building
3. The characters
4. The writing itself
Let’s dive right into the meat and potatoes of this review with The Story.
**From here on out my review contains spoilers**
This book for the most part is a love triangle “will they won’t they” romance between the FMC and the two Time Cop brothers, Miles and Quinn. Underlying this romance are whispers of a plot, wherein mostly Miles and Quinn kind of try to solve the mystery of who is putting Mia’s life at risk, and there is sort of a…… mystical element of preordained fate going on? But for the most part we are meandering around trying to decide which of these brothers Mia wants to boink more.
I’ll be real with you, the story is pretty whatever, as far as romance goes. Mia is the sole survivor (as far as she knows) of a home invasion and is rescued by our two MMCs. She is invited to live under their protection at their compound while Miles, Quinn, and their stand-in father figure Jonathan attempt to solve the mystery of who would want to harm Mia and her family. This would have been a fine premise if we spent any time at all trying to puzzle out this mystery. Most of the book is a convoluted slog that managed to accomplish very little in its 500ish pages. We see Mia go on some dates with Miles and Quinn, we sort of solve a mystery, we (barely) deal with some character death, but for the most part this book left me wondering, “what’s the point?”
This book was sold as a steampunk adventure romance, and I feel like it doesn’t deliver on the steampunk or the adventure aspects. The way this book was marketed was a lot of over-promising and under-delivering, which isn’t necessarily a problem with the storytelling, but when you promise one thing and deliver another…. Well, I think I’m within my rights to be at least a little bit annoyed.
This point I think is a good lead-in to my issues with the World Building:
So. Steampunk, where? The main theme of this book is time, sure, and the main characters are all wearing clocks, I guess, though the only person’s time piece we really discuss in depth is Mia’s so whether or not you could actually call this a motif is tenuous at best. But centering the story around the theme of time doesn’t do enough to qualify this as Steampunk in my opinion. We’re firmly outside of the Victorian era, so we lose all of that iconography, so what this world is actually supposed to look like, I do not know.
The story takes place in Butte, Montana, which would have been an interesting choice if any of the characters actually felt like they were from there. Truly, it feels like this book was meant to take place in a more “traditional” steampunk setting, like London. All three main characters feel like Londoners, and that’s mostly in the way they speak to each other/their mannerisms. They all seemed SO out of place for the setting, even if this world is supposed to be divergent in some way from our own.
And on that note – 1940s Montana and we’re not talking about WWII? At all? Nobody looked at the clocks that were handed out 18-20 years prior and went “hm, we sure do have a SHITLOAD of young men dying really young. Wonder what that’s about?”. It just seems like there were LOADS of missed opportunities to do fun world building stuff with the concept of everyone’s lifespan being preordained and it feels like it wasn’t addressed because it didn’t directly have an effect on the FMC.
The singularly interesting thing that happened with the world building was also there and gone in a flash. At one point, Mia is separated from her clock and begins experiencing physical symptoms of pain, like she will actually die if she doesn’t have it on her person anymore. This was told to us a few times throughout the narrative, but to see it in action was actually interesting!! Unfortunately, this author NEVER digs deep enough into the concepts of this book that are actually cool. Why not have Miles, brutal as he is, smash someone’s clock to eliminate them? No, we would rather have him shoot people in the head because that’s the easier choice. Cool.
If you’re trying to read a book full of disappointing missed opportunities, this is the one for you.
I guess we should talk about The Characters:
Mia is your typical FMC. Nothing remarkable going on at the surface. She is sold very much as the “regular girl” of the series, stepping into a world of rogues. In the author’s marketing she did call out that she was a non-magical FMC, but this is not a magical universe so??? I’m not giving this critter points for being human when the rest of the universe is as well.
What I take issue with is the idea that Mia is sold as accepting her fate and making peace with the fact that she is going to die, when clearly she has not. The book opens on a jaded Mia with a chip on her shoulder seeming angry about her fate. And she spends much of the rest of the book that way! It seems like the only emotions that Mia is allowed to feel is either guilt for dying, lust for our two MMCs, and then guilt again for daring to want something when she’s fated to die.
The two MMCs, Time Keepers (read: cops [ACAB]) Quinn and Miles run your standard sun and moon trope. Quinn is blonde haired, blue eyed, polite, chivalrous, always keeps his head. While Miles is the stereotypical tall, dark, and dangerous. He is always brooding, drinking, whoring, calling Mia “princess”, and generally being an annoying asshole. From the way Miles is described as spending all his time in bars and prize fights, smoking his fancy pipe, I KNOW this dude smells bad. To contrast Miles’ brash and frankly fucking annoying nature, Quinn is… boring. He is your archetypal “princely” type and is constantly calling Mia by a name that she hates all in the service of being proper. Quinn is not funny, he isn’t interesting, he is just there and attractive and of course that’s why Mia is drawn to him.
There are scant other characters in this book, but for all they serve the plot they might as well not be there. Two of the three other named female characters die leaving little to no impact on the story, and the third is only around whenever the author remembers that we need a stand-in mother figure for Mia. Mia’s “best friend” who is killed in the first handful of pages seemingly only exists so that Mia can have one more thing to feel guilty about and then is never mentioned again. And the unnamed female characters? Well, they’re women that Miles brings home from the bar to prove that he does, in fact, fuck.
In the epilogue we are introduced to two other Time Keeper characters, a brother and sister team, and THEY ACTUALLY SOUND INTERESTING!! Admittedly I might have just been starving for some variety after slogging through 500+ pages of the MQM show, but it just speaks to the overall lack of depth I was getting from the main three that two throwaway characters from the EPILOGUE were giving more than they were.
Moving on to The Writing:
This author spoke a lot on social media about how she was proudly ignoring suggestions from her beta readers and editors, which is an insane thing to brag about when this book is in desperate need of a proper editor. The prose is slow, and long winded, sentences are WAY too long, and this book feels like it’s wordy just for the sake of being wordy. Not every noun needs an adjective. The length of this book does nothing to contribute to the narrative, it just turns the whole nearly 600 pages of it into a painful meandering slog. All of these would be forgivable offenses if the prose were beautiful, but it simply doesn’t get there for me. It’s like we opened baby’s first thesaurus to find another word to describe Quinn’s oceanic/sapphire/cobalt/icy blue/deepest lagoon gaze. I lost track of the amount of times I screenshot a description of one of the brothers’ eyes because that is this author’s ONLY TRICK.
And there is no escape from the slog. The dialogue drags as well – almost every conversation between two characters turns into one character performing a long-winded soliloquy, just vomiting information at the other. The author does a lot of telling and not showing – LITERALLY. Major plot points are explained to us via dialogue when the author could have slow dripped them to us through the narrative. And this author bragged so much about how she’s long winded and likes to sit in scenes and feelings for a while. Amber Lynn, you SAT IN THE WRONG SCENES!!! Quit dedicating pages and pages to boring conversations and let us feel what your characters are feeling!!
Even the fight scenes drag!! The final fight scene, the last bit of excitement in the book is so slow and difficult to parse. I had such a hard time trying to discern what people were doing because this author feels the need to over-explain every single move to her readers like we’re meant to be watching a movie. I spent a lot of my time reading this book thinking that the author assumed I was an idiot. Every little thing was over-explained to the point that I found myself yelling, “I GET IT!!!” on numerous occasions. And the kicker is that the stuff that was over-explained DID NOT MATTER in the slightest to the narrative!!
The other huge issue I had with this book was the author’s use of POV shifts.
This book is written in third person, and we are mostly in Mia’s POV for the duration of the book, except for a handful of instances where we will shift either into Miles’ or Quinn’s perspective. These perspective shifts occur without any warning – suddenly within the same chapter we’ve left Mia behind and oh, I guess we’re following Quinn now! I will admit, I am used to the multi-POV convention of giving each character their own chapter to clearly delineate who we are following, but the way that we switched so suddenly within the same chapter was… not a style choice I appreciated.
I had a huge issue with this mostly because it felt like the POV shift only happened when the author felt “stuck” with Mia and needed a way to move the narrative forward. Any meaningful progress in the story happened while we were outside of Mia’s POV, which I felt was a HUGE disservice to our main character. Why isn’t Mia allowed to discover things on her own? Why does every ‘aha!’ moment happen when Miles or Quinn are behind the wheel??
And furthermore, this robs us of the opportunity of getting to connect more with Mia! When Mia’s mother dies and we see it happen through Miles’ and Quinn’s eyes, we are robbed of the chance to see Mia respond to it. When M and Q are told to ransom Mia in order to keep the villain from killing again and they return home to her and start acting weird about it, it doesn’t hit the same because I ALREADY KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. Mia sits in discomfort on her own and I can’t sit in it with her and feel connected to her because I know too much!! I can see what’s coming for her and it prevents me from feeling the emotional impact of learning these things alongside her.
So much could have been done in just Mia’s POV. It would have done us a lot of good to be able to sit with her through all her main emotional events (discovering how her mother was killed, etc). The boys don’t even get to have moments together where they just develop their relationships with one another. Every conversation circles back to Mia, which leaves every other character feeling hollow. I get this is ultimately a romance, or whatever, and that characters are going to have conversations about their romantic partners. But none of these characters feel like people. They feel like a series of tropes in a suit and a duster jacket.
Furthermore, the dialogue is bad. It’s just not good. I simply don’t believe that people talk like this, where most conversations devolve into some sort of therapy-speak pep talk. Mia is lectured to by one character or another more times than I can count, and even though I’m a certified Mia disliker, don’t talk to my girl like that??? Following the final fight, when Mia is processing major character deaths and is having a nervous breakdown, Miles has the gall to give her this gross lecture about how “it’s not how you break, it’s how you put yourself back together” and then GIVES HER PERMISSION TO BREAK DOWN???? Fuck the fuck off and let the lady crash out!!!!! It was sooooo condescending and out of pocket and frankly out of character to see this happen, and it happens OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. God this book pissed me off so much.
The last thing I will bitch about is how at the end of this book, every “aha!” moment came to the main characters in a dream!! Mia wakes out of a dream having realizations about what her clock truly is, and then not 20 pages later, Miles wakes out of a dream and realizes who the villain is. HELLO???? Did we get stuck??? Did the author forget that there was a point to this book beyond the three MCs canoodling with each other and realize that she needed to wrap it up with the quickness??? Because that’s how it feels! It doesn’t feel like a twist, and I don’t feel surprised having this information dropped on me in the 11th hour. I feel annoyed that I wasn’t able to guess any of this at all. The plot feels like an afterthought that I begged and pleaded for for over 400 pages and the author finally went, “fine, here” at the very end of the book. What an incredibly frustrating and disappointing read.
Anyway, I went off the rails here, but this book was bad. Bad writing. Bad characters. Bad story. Just not fun to read at all. There’s a couple of good lines in here, and the concept could have been really cool if the author cared to expand on it. But this was altogether an incredibly boring and frustrating will they won’t they romance that I would have been better off DNFing.
And also the AI use on socials is really gross. It appears they've been taken down now, but the fact that she waited until after being called out leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.)
ACAB Includes Time Cops
1.5 Stars. I received this book as an ARC and was anticipating a fun found-family romp through a steampunk universe. What was delivered was a meandering love triangle with a confused setting and a plot that didn’t ramp up until at least 80% through the book. This was an incredibly frustrating read from start to finish and honestly if I wasn’t buddy reading this I would have DNF’d after 100 pages (and even that would have been me being generous – I wanted to give this author a fair shake).
I’m going to try to keep my thoughts organized but honestly that’s probably more effort than this review deserves. I’ll try to break my train of thought down into sections:
1. The story
2. The world building
3. The characters
4. The writing itself
Let’s dive right into the meat and potatoes of this review with The Story.
**From here on out my review contains spoilers**
This book for the most part is a love triangle “will they won’t they” romance between the FMC and the two Time Cop brothers, Miles and Quinn. Underlying this romance are whispers of a plot, wherein mostly Miles and Quinn kind of try to solve the mystery of who is putting Mia’s life at risk, and there is sort of a…… mystical element of preordained fate going on? But for the most part we are meandering around trying to decide which of these brothers Mia wants to boink more.
I’ll be real with you, the story is pretty whatever, as far as romance goes. Mia is the sole survivor (as far as she knows) of a home invasion and is rescued by our two MMCs. She is invited to live under their protection at their compound while Miles, Quinn, and their stand-in father figure Jonathan attempt to solve the mystery of who would want to harm Mia and her family. This would have been a fine premise if we spent any time at all trying to puzzle out this mystery. Most of the book is a convoluted slog that managed to accomplish very little in its 500ish pages. We see Mia go on some dates with Miles and Quinn, we sort of solve a mystery, we (barely) deal with some character death, but for the most part this book left me wondering, “what’s the point?”
This book was sold as a steampunk adventure romance, and I feel like it doesn’t deliver on the steampunk or the adventure aspects. The way this book was marketed was a lot of over-promising and under-delivering, which isn’t necessarily a problem with the storytelling, but when you promise one thing and deliver another…. Well, I think I’m within my rights to be at least a little bit annoyed.
This point I think is a good lead-in to my issues with the World Building:
So. Steampunk, where? The main theme of this book is time, sure, and the main characters are all wearing clocks, I guess, though the only person’s time piece we really discuss in depth is Mia’s so whether or not you could actually call this a motif is tenuous at best. But centering the story around the theme of time doesn’t do enough to qualify this as Steampunk in my opinion. We’re firmly outside of the Victorian era, so we lose all of that iconography, so what this world is actually supposed to look like, I do not know.
The story takes place in Butte, Montana, which would have been an interesting choice if any of the characters actually felt like they were from there. Truly, it feels like this book was meant to take place in a more “traditional” steampunk setting, like London. All three main characters feel like Londoners, and that’s mostly in the way they speak to each other/their mannerisms. They all seemed SO out of place for the setting, even if this world is supposed to be divergent in some way from our own.
And on that note – 1940s Montana and we’re not talking about WWII? At all? Nobody looked at the clocks that were handed out 18-20 years prior and went “hm, we sure do have a SHITLOAD of young men dying really young. Wonder what that’s about?”. It just seems like there were LOADS of missed opportunities to do fun world building stuff with the concept of everyone’s lifespan being preordained and it feels like it wasn’t addressed because it didn’t directly have an effect on the FMC.
The singularly interesting thing that happened with the world building was also there and gone in a flash. At one point, Mia is separated from her clock and begins experiencing physical symptoms of pain, like she will actually die if she doesn’t have it on her person anymore. This was told to us a few times throughout the narrative, but to see it in action was actually interesting!! Unfortunately, this author NEVER digs deep enough into the concepts of this book that are actually cool. Why not have Miles, brutal as he is, smash someone’s clock to eliminate them? No, we would rather have him shoot people in the head because that’s the easier choice. Cool.
If you’re trying to read a book full of disappointing missed opportunities, this is the one for you.
I guess we should talk about The Characters:
Mia is your typical FMC. Nothing remarkable going on at the surface. She is sold very much as the “regular girl” of the series, stepping into a world of rogues. In the author’s marketing she did call out that she was a non-magical FMC, but this is not a magical universe so??? I’m not giving this critter points for being human when the rest of the universe is as well.
What I take issue with is the idea that Mia is sold as accepting her fate and making peace with the fact that she is going to die, when clearly she has not. The book opens on a jaded Mia with a chip on her shoulder seeming angry about her fate. And she spends much of the rest of the book that way! It seems like the only emotions that Mia is allowed to feel is either guilt for dying, lust for our two MMCs, and then guilt again for daring to want something when she’s fated to die.
The two MMCs, Time Keepers (read: cops [ACAB]) Quinn and Miles run your standard sun and moon trope. Quinn is blonde haired, blue eyed, polite, chivalrous, always keeps his head. While Miles is the stereotypical tall, dark, and dangerous. He is always brooding, drinking, whoring, calling Mia “princess”, and generally being an annoying asshole. From the way Miles is described as spending all his time in bars and prize fights, smoking his fancy pipe, I KNOW this dude smells bad. To contrast Miles’ brash and frankly fucking annoying nature, Quinn is… boring. He is your archetypal “princely” type and is constantly calling Mia by a name that she hates all in the service of being proper. Quinn is not funny, he isn’t interesting, he is just there and attractive and of course that’s why Mia is drawn to him.
There are scant other characters in this book, but for all they serve the plot they might as well not be there. Two of the three other named female characters die leaving little to no impact on the story, and the third is only around whenever the author remembers that we need a stand-in mother figure for Mia. Mia’s “best friend” who is killed in the first handful of pages seemingly only exists so that Mia can have one more thing to feel guilty about and then is never mentioned again. And the unnamed female characters? Well, they’re women that Miles brings home from the bar to prove that he does, in fact, fuck.
In the epilogue we are introduced to two other Time Keeper characters, a brother and sister team, and THEY ACTUALLY SOUND INTERESTING!! Admittedly I might have just been starving for some variety after slogging through 500+ pages of the MQM show, but it just speaks to the overall lack of depth I was getting from the main three that two throwaway characters from the EPILOGUE were giving more than they were.
Moving on to The Writing:
This author spoke a lot on social media about how she was proudly ignoring suggestions from her beta readers and editors, which is an insane thing to brag about when this book is in desperate need of a proper editor. The prose is slow, and long winded, sentences are WAY too long, and this book feels like it’s wordy just for the sake of being wordy. Not every noun needs an adjective. The length of this book does nothing to contribute to the narrative, it just turns the whole nearly 600 pages of it into a painful meandering slog. All of these would be forgivable offenses if the prose were beautiful, but it simply doesn’t get there for me. It’s like we opened baby’s first thesaurus to find another word to describe Quinn’s oceanic/sapphire/cobalt/icy blue/deepest lagoon gaze. I lost track of the amount of times I screenshot a description of one of the brothers’ eyes because that is this author’s ONLY TRICK.
And there is no escape from the slog. The dialogue drags as well – almost every conversation between two characters turns into one character performing a long-winded soliloquy, just vomiting information at the other. The author does a lot of telling and not showing – LITERALLY. Major plot points are explained to us via dialogue when the author could have slow dripped them to us through the narrative. And this author bragged so much about how she’s long winded and likes to sit in scenes and feelings for a while. Amber Lynn, you SAT IN THE WRONG SCENES!!! Quit dedicating pages and pages to boring conversations and let us feel what your characters are feeling!!
Even the fight scenes drag!! The final fight scene, the last bit of excitement in the book is so slow and difficult to parse. I had such a hard time trying to discern what people were doing because this author feels the need to over-explain every single move to her readers like we’re meant to be watching a movie. I spent a lot of my time reading this book thinking that the author assumed I was an idiot. Every little thing was over-explained to the point that I found myself yelling, “I GET IT!!!” on numerous occasions. And the kicker is that the stuff that was over-explained DID NOT MATTER in the slightest to the narrative!!
The other huge issue I had with this book was the author’s use of POV shifts.
This book is written in third person, and we are mostly in Mia’s POV for the duration of the book, except for a handful of instances where we will shift either into Miles’ or Quinn’s perspective. These perspective shifts occur without any warning – suddenly within the same chapter we’ve left Mia behind and oh, I guess we’re following Quinn now! I will admit, I am used to the multi-POV convention of giving each character their own chapter to clearly delineate who we are following, but the way that we switched so suddenly within the same chapter was… not a style choice I appreciated.
I had a huge issue with this mostly because it felt like the POV shift only happened when the author felt “stuck” with Mia and needed a way to move the narrative forward. Any meaningful progress in the story happened while we were outside of Mia’s POV, which I felt was a HUGE disservice to our main character. Why isn’t Mia allowed to discover things on her own? Why does every ‘aha!’ moment happen when Miles or Quinn are behind the wheel??
And furthermore, this robs us of the opportunity of getting to connect more with Mia! When Mia’s mother dies and we see it happen through Miles’ and Quinn’s eyes, we are robbed of the chance to see Mia respond to it. When M and Q are told to ransom Mia in order to keep the villain from killing again and they return home to her and start acting weird about it, it doesn’t hit the same because I ALREADY KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. Mia sits in discomfort on her own and I can’t sit in it with her and feel connected to her because I know too much!! I can see what’s coming for her and it prevents me from feeling the emotional impact of learning these things alongside her.
So much could have been done in just Mia’s POV. It would have done us a lot of good to be able to sit with her through all her main emotional events (discovering how her mother was killed, etc). The boys don’t even get to have moments together where they just develop their relationships with one another. Every conversation circles back to Mia, which leaves every other character feeling hollow. I get this is ultimately a romance, or whatever, and that characters are going to have conversations about their romantic partners. But none of these characters feel like people. They feel like a series of tropes in a suit and a duster jacket.
Furthermore, the dialogue is bad. It’s just not good. I simply don’t believe that people talk like this, where most conversations devolve into some sort of therapy-speak pep talk. Mia is lectured to by one character or another more times than I can count, and even though I’m a certified Mia disliker, don’t talk to my girl like that??? Following the final fight, when Mia is processing major character deaths and is having a nervous breakdown, Miles has the gall to give her this gross lecture about how “it’s not how you break, it’s how you put yourself back together” and then GIVES HER PERMISSION TO BREAK DOWN???? Fuck the fuck off and let the lady crash out!!!!! It was sooooo condescending and out of pocket and frankly out of character to see this happen, and it happens OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. God this book pissed me off so much.
The last thing I will bitch about is how at the end of this book, every “aha!” moment came to the main characters in a dream!! Mia wakes out of a dream having realizations about what her clock truly is, and then not 20 pages later, Miles wakes out of a dream and realizes who the villain is. HELLO???? Did we get stuck??? Did the author forget that there was a point to this book beyond the three MCs canoodling with each other and realize that she needed to wrap it up with the quickness??? Because that’s how it feels! It doesn’t feel like a twist, and I don’t feel surprised having this information dropped on me in the 11th hour. I feel annoyed that I wasn’t able to guess any of this at all. The plot feels like an afterthought that I begged and pleaded for for over 400 pages and the author finally went, “fine, here” at the very end of the book. What an incredibly frustrating and disappointing read.
Anyway, I went off the rails here, but this book was bad. Bad writing. Bad characters. Bad story. Just not fun to read at all. There’s a couple of good lines in here, and the concept could have been really cool if the author cared to expand on it. But this was altogether an incredibly boring and frustrating will they won’t they romance that I would have been better off DNFing.
June 13, 2026
I started this book not knowing I would have to clear my schedule to finish it before I could do anything else! It was so good, the story, the writing, the way you were drawn in emotionally to the characters and each of their stories. I highly recommend this book. It will be one I read many times I know for sure. I can't wait to read what else comes from this author.
May 23, 2026
Im truly at a loss of words on what to say about this book. This book had me hooked after the first chapter. I love love loved the concept of knowing how much time a person knows they have in life. In all honesty if this was real I don’t know if I would spend my days living or be petrified.
Miles character was amazing to me, the back story of what made him the way he is really got to me. The tough bad boy who has so much heart break :(
I loved that fact that we got banter in this book but also deep loving from different levels. Excellent job.
I think this book is going to go places. I want front row seats when it becomes a movie!!!
Miles character was amazing to me, the back story of what made him the way he is really got to me. The tough bad boy who has so much heart break :(
I loved that fact that we got banter in this book but also deep loving from different levels. Excellent job.
I think this book is going to go places. I want front row seats when it becomes a movie!!!
May 31, 2026
****MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS****
This had a really cool concept somewhat similar to Justin Timberlake’s In Time movie. People are born with a clock with a random amount of time and when the clock runs out, they die.
Our nihilistic FMC Mia was given only 23 years and is living the final months of her life when her family is brutally murdered and the people who save her give her a glimpse of the inner workings of their corrupt government.
The concept and plot itself were great, and I also loved this author’s style of writing. It was elevated and witty all throughout and she does an amazing job setting up relationships between characters.
I do wish the pacing moved a little faster. There were times the focus on the relationships dragged on with little plot development for extended periods. There were also a couple of scenes towards the end that could have been better explained.
Tropes/Tags: Slow burn, love triangle, Victorian era, corruption, found family
This had a really cool concept somewhat similar to Justin Timberlake’s In Time movie. People are born with a clock with a random amount of time and when the clock runs out, they die.
Our nihilistic FMC Mia was given only 23 years and is living the final months of her life when her family is brutally murdered and the people who save her give her a glimpse of the inner workings of their corrupt government.
The concept and plot itself were great, and I also loved this author’s style of writing. It was elevated and witty all throughout and she does an amazing job setting up relationships between characters.
I do wish the pacing moved a little faster. There were times the focus on the relationships dragged on with little plot development for extended periods. There were also a couple of scenes towards the end that could have been better explained.
Tropes/Tags: Slow burn, love triangle, Victorian era, corruption, found family
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2026
Loved this book from start to finish. I couldn't put it down!
Amber has built an interesting gritty world and concept in this book with complex characters. Her writing style leans on descriptive style and allows the reader to build the characters and the world in their minds well throughout the book. She describes the scenes and moments in great detail.
The overall concept of your time on earth being pre-determined but yet your actions can still affect your outcome gives the concept a complex layer. I.e things like dying in wars, murder, car accidents, etc dont affect the time that is shown on a characters clock. The characters know their allotted time on earth but don't act recklessly, besides FMC for their own reasons, because they know outside factors and their actions can affect their death to have an earlier outcome than what they were allotted.
Mia, the FMC, provides a fun read as she doesn't show up expecting the two MMC to save the day. She is gritty and complex on her own and doesnt read as "princess complex" while still showing that she was not exposed to much of the world growing up. The two MMC, Miles and Quinn, are also intriguing as they are polar opposites but yet they still interact with one another in an interesting way. Both characters are detailed well, interesting, and lovable in their own ways. You want to root for them both!
The book follows these three main characters, mostly from Mias perspective, but there are moments throughout the book where the POV shifts to the two MMC. This is done exceptionally well and gives us insight to these characters during pivotal moments.
Overall the pacing of the story is great and keeps the readers wanting more. I will say the ending, climax, felt a bit rushed towards the end of the book but I am hoping the author will expand upon these moments in the next book as the characters recover from the events that unfolded in the last few chapters.
Overall great read and cant wait for the next book in the series to find out more about the characters and the world she has built!
Amber has built an interesting gritty world and concept in this book with complex characters. Her writing style leans on descriptive style and allows the reader to build the characters and the world in their minds well throughout the book. She describes the scenes and moments in great detail.
The overall concept of your time on earth being pre-determined but yet your actions can still affect your outcome gives the concept a complex layer. I.e things like dying in wars, murder, car accidents, etc dont affect the time that is shown on a characters clock. The characters know their allotted time on earth but don't act recklessly, besides FMC for their own reasons, because they know outside factors and their actions can affect their death to have an earlier outcome than what they were allotted.
Mia, the FMC, provides a fun read as she doesn't show up expecting the two MMC to save the day. She is gritty and complex on her own and doesnt read as "princess complex" while still showing that she was not exposed to much of the world growing up. The two MMC, Miles and Quinn, are also intriguing as they are polar opposites but yet they still interact with one another in an interesting way. Both characters are detailed well, interesting, and lovable in their own ways. You want to root for them both!
The book follows these three main characters, mostly from Mias perspective, but there are moments throughout the book where the POV shifts to the two MMC. This is done exceptionally well and gives us insight to these characters during pivotal moments.
Overall the pacing of the story is great and keeps the readers wanting more. I will say the ending, climax, felt a bit rushed towards the end of the book but I am hoping the author will expand upon these moments in the next book as the characters recover from the events that unfolded in the last few chapters.
Overall great read and cant wait for the next book in the series to find out more about the characters and the world she has built!
Review of advance copy received from Author
This is the kind of book you completely get lost in—the kind where the world around you fades out and all you can think about is what’s going to happen next. Even when I wasn’t reading, my mind kept drifting back to Mia and everything she was going through.
Mia’s character is written with so much depth and intensity. Her fire isn’t just something you read about—you feel it. The way Amber unravels her story, slowly revealing pieces of her past, her family, and the unexpected connections she forms along the way, makes everything feel so real and emotional.
The two MMCs are such strong contrasts to each other, and that dynamic makes the story even more compelling. They’re complete opposites, but somehow both equally lovable in their own ways. I found myself constantly torn, trying to figure out who I was rooting for, which made the emotional payoff at the end hit even harder.
The slow burn in this book is done beautifully. Nothing feels rushed, and every moment builds in a way that keeps you invested. By the time everything starts coming together, you realize how carefully everything was woven from the start. And that ending—full circle with a twist I didn’t fully expect—left me sitting there just processing everything I felt.
What really stood out to me was how layered every character was. No one felt one-dimensional; everyone had depth, flaws, and growth that made them feel human and relatable. It’s rare to find a book where you’re this emotionally connected to so many characters at once.
This is one of those stories that keeps pulling you back in, making it impossible to put down. The kind where “just one more chapter” turns into hours of reading. And even after finishing, it stays with you.
Definitely a book that lingers long after the last page.
I’m happy got this chance to be an arc reader for this book !
Mia’s character is written with so much depth and intensity. Her fire isn’t just something you read about—you feel it. The way Amber unravels her story, slowly revealing pieces of her past, her family, and the unexpected connections she forms along the way, makes everything feel so real and emotional.
The two MMCs are such strong contrasts to each other, and that dynamic makes the story even more compelling. They’re complete opposites, but somehow both equally lovable in their own ways. I found myself constantly torn, trying to figure out who I was rooting for, which made the emotional payoff at the end hit even harder.
The slow burn in this book is done beautifully. Nothing feels rushed, and every moment builds in a way that keeps you invested. By the time everything starts coming together, you realize how carefully everything was woven from the start. And that ending—full circle with a twist I didn’t fully expect—left me sitting there just processing everything I felt.
What really stood out to me was how layered every character was. No one felt one-dimensional; everyone had depth, flaws, and growth that made them feel human and relatable. It’s rare to find a book where you’re this emotionally connected to so many characters at once.
This is one of those stories that keeps pulling you back in, making it impossible to put down. The kind where “just one more chapter” turns into hours of reading. And even after finishing, it stays with you.
Definitely a book that lingers long after the last page.
I’m happy got this chance to be an arc reader for this book !
Review of advance copy received from Author
Wow.
Honestly? I'm blown away. The opening chapter hooked me with intrigue immediately. It set up the tone of the mystery and the world we would be diving into.
The main character Mia has a fiery spirit that I love, but her grief,depression, and other deep complicated emotions are vivid. You FEEL how dampened and trapped she is, my heart broke for her immediately.
And then we meet our two MMC's. I havent been so torn between which brother I love more since high-school, when I read my all time favorite book. This is up there, seriously, top ten most amazing books I have ever read. They're both so wonderful in such different ways, I really wasnt sure how I would feel with whoever she ended up with. I cried, I giggled, I groaned with frustration, and then I sobbed. I cant tell you who it is, but I was equally devastated and not disappointed.
I suspected some of the twists, but I wasn't 100% sure if was right. The way Amber Lynn wove the story together was beautifully done, and there were a couple of times i actually gasped at the reveal. All together, the plot of this book with its wonderful, deep, multilayered characters made the twists hit hard and the action so packed with tension I couldn't put this book down. The longing and tension romantically had me swooning, I seriously want to start it all over again.
This was an ARC read, and also the longest review I have written a book in a long long time. I cant recommend this book enough, if you have ever thought about taking one of my book recommendations, make it this one.
Honestly? I'm blown away. The opening chapter hooked me with intrigue immediately. It set up the tone of the mystery and the world we would be diving into.
The main character Mia has a fiery spirit that I love, but her grief,depression, and other deep complicated emotions are vivid. You FEEL how dampened and trapped she is, my heart broke for her immediately.
And then we meet our two MMC's. I havent been so torn between which brother I love more since high-school, when I read my all time favorite book. This is up there, seriously, top ten most amazing books I have ever read. They're both so wonderful in such different ways, I really wasnt sure how I would feel with whoever she ended up with. I cried, I giggled, I groaned with frustration, and then I sobbed. I cant tell you who it is, but I was equally devastated and not disappointed.
I suspected some of the twists, but I wasn't 100% sure if was right. The way Amber Lynn wove the story together was beautifully done, and there were a couple of times i actually gasped at the reveal. All together, the plot of this book with its wonderful, deep, multilayered characters made the twists hit hard and the action so packed with tension I couldn't put this book down. The longing and tension romantically had me swooning, I seriously want to start it all over again.
This was an ARC read, and also the longest review I have written a book in a long long time. I cant recommend this book enough, if you have ever thought about taking one of my book recommendations, make it this one.
Review of advance copy received from Author
What do you mean this is her debut novel?
This is the type of book that you clear your whole weekend to read. It has intrigue, romance, suspense. I really liked Mia as a character. She was spunky and always ready to jump in and get things done.
Quinn was sweet and a perfect gentleman. I liked him as a love interest, but Miles...
Miles, Miles, Miles...my beloved.
I read an advanced copy, and stayed up well past 1 a.m. reading because I needed to know how it ended.
I liked the time frame and location the story was set in, it's not common or overdone. Amber has a way of world building that makes you feel fully immersed.
The whole construct of the story, the way time is handled, is just phenomenal. It's worth the time you spend to read it, and after knowing how time works in the story, you'll realize how precious that statement is.
Amber Lynn is definitely an author that you need to follow. She's already done something magical with this and I can guarantee, it's only going to go up from here.
This is the type of book that you clear your whole weekend to read. It has intrigue, romance, suspense. I really liked Mia as a character. She was spunky and always ready to jump in and get things done.
Quinn was sweet and a perfect gentleman. I liked him as a love interest, but Miles...
Miles, Miles, Miles...my beloved.
I read an advanced copy, and stayed up well past 1 a.m. reading because I needed to know how it ended.
I liked the time frame and location the story was set in, it's not common or overdone. Amber has a way of world building that makes you feel fully immersed.
The whole construct of the story, the way time is handled, is just phenomenal. It's worth the time you spend to read it, and after knowing how time works in the story, you'll realize how precious that statement is.
Amber Lynn is definitely an author that you need to follow. She's already done something magical with this and I can guarantee, it's only going to go up from here.
Review of advance copy received from Author
I just finished reading this book and I have to say I really enjoyed the mystery and that it takes place in Butte, Montana. (Montana is the Best!!) Now, I really loved how the writing dragged me in and made me care about all the characters. The twist in the story had me emotional, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.
This quote is what got me more than anything, “Yes, She was fragile, but not like dried flowers or blown glass. She would be fragile like a bomb.” There is so much growth in this book that keeps you reading.
From the description, “Set in a richly imagined steampunk world inspired by the glamour and grit of the 1940s, The Time Thief is a romantic, clockwork-fueled tale of stolen futures, fractured loyalties, and the fleeting, fragile beauty of Time—and those we choose to spend it with.”
I definitely recommend reading this and I’m thankful that I got the opportunity for this ARC read
This quote is what got me more than anything, “Yes, She was fragile, but not like dried flowers or blown glass. She would be fragile like a bomb.” There is so much growth in this book that keeps you reading.
From the description, “Set in a richly imagined steampunk world inspired by the glamour and grit of the 1940s, The Time Thief is a romantic, clockwork-fueled tale of stolen futures, fractured loyalties, and the fleeting, fragile beauty of Time—and those we choose to spend it with.”
I definitely recommend reading this and I’m thankful that I got the opportunity for this ARC read
Review of advance copy received from Author
I was fortunate enough to receive an ARC copy of this book, and what an absolute privilege it was.
The writing is simply beautiful, drawing me in from the very first page. The author demonstrates remarkable skill in developing characters that feel authentic, making their journeys all the more compelling.
This novel is romantic, emotional, and utterly gripping. The story kept me turning pages late into the night, invested in every twist and moment.
Without hesitation, I give this book 5 stars. I definitely recommend it to anyone seeking a moving and memorable story. Don’t miss out on this remarkable book!
The writing is simply beautiful, drawing me in from the very first page. The author demonstrates remarkable skill in developing characters that feel authentic, making their journeys all the more compelling.
This novel is romantic, emotional, and utterly gripping. The story kept me turning pages late into the night, invested in every twist and moment.
Without hesitation, I give this book 5 stars. I definitely recommend it to anyone seeking a moving and memorable story. Don’t miss out on this remarkable book!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Mysterious, shocking twists and heartbreak
This book made me cry and is very emotional. I loved both of the male main characters and understood her conflict and attraction to both. It was an interesting concept and the twist was unpredictable. The ending was sad but bitter-sweet and I look forward to seeing what the second book involves.
If you are looking for a book with secret organisations and agents, a girl who's running out of time but finally wants to live because she's found a reason to, found family and 2 hot male characters that are completely opposite but both loveable then you really need to read this.
This book made me cry and is very emotional. I loved both of the male main characters and understood her conflict and attraction to both. It was an interesting concept and the twist was unpredictable. The ending was sad but bitter-sweet and I look forward to seeing what the second book involves.
If you are looking for a book with secret organisations and agents, a girl who's running out of time but finally wants to live because she's found a reason to, found family and 2 hot male characters that are completely opposite but both loveable then you really need to read this.
Did Not Finish
April 30, 2026Unfortunately in the first 30 pages there is a detailed sexual assault scene. I was not aware of this prior to getting the ARC. As of my own boundaries and experiences when I read a scene like that I won’t read the book further. Which is a shame as I really liked the way it was written prior to the scene.
July 6, 2026
“The price of life is and always will be death.”
I had fun with this book! If you enjoy love triangles, a gears-and-western backdrop, and the idea of having a countdown to your death, then pick this one up!
I had fun with this book! If you enjoy love triangles, a gears-and-western backdrop, and the idea of having a countdown to your death, then pick this one up!
June 27, 2026
I'm not one for romantasy but enjoyed this and will look forward to the next book. Beautiful writing!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Omg!
This was SO good!
The twists and turns!
And the fact I have been to some of these places made me feel the feels.
I cannot wait to find out what happens!
I wanted it to keep going when it ended.
If you like Cassandra Clare and her Shadow Hunter series, or Kayla Edwards and the House of Devils, you’ll enjoy this.
It’s different but makes you feel the feels. I can’t explain it, just read this, it won’t disappoint!
This was SO good!
The twists and turns!
And the fact I have been to some of these places made me feel the feels.
I cannot wait to find out what happens!
I wanted it to keep going when it ended.
If you like Cassandra Clare and her Shadow Hunter series, or Kayla Edwards and the House of Devils, you’ll enjoy this.
It’s different but makes you feel the feels. I can’t explain it, just read this, it won’t disappoint!
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