A real whirlwind, full of sarcasm and heart. If only history at school had been this fascinating! I really enjoyed this first instalment in the series, and the character of Max is a real highlight.

Content warnings: violence, attempted sexual assault, miscarriage

I've been a fan of this series for a really long time, so I couldn't resist the chance to review them when they popped up on NetGalley. They're funny, exciting, warm-hearted, fast=paced adventure romps with a surprising amount of emotional depth, and I just adore them all. This first entry in the series introduces us to the disaster-prone historians of St Mary's, who undertake archaeological and anthropological research through the means of time travel. Plot-wise, so much happens that you just can't really sum it up - it's incredibly fast-paced! We see Madeline Maxwell (known as Max) go through her interview and training for St Mary's, plus trips back to WWI, the Cretaceous period, and even more. The book covers about 5 years (in regular time!) in around 400 pages, and it's not like they're uneventful ones... Something is always happening, and more often than not, it's going wrong.

I fell in love with the smart but madcap Max, who narrates the book in an engaging voice that manages to sit perfectly between wry and reflective. She's capable, but has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I was rooting for her throughout, whether she was facing down a bitchy instructor in her time-travel training classes, or literally coming face to face with a T-Rex, or dealing with much more emotional stakes. I love the glimpses into the different departments of St Mary's - all the side characters are well-drawn and amusing, and you start to get a sense of the wider effort behind time travel. The whole set up is just so much fun! There are darker moments in the book, but they're handled well, and as I say, things are so fast-paced that the overall adventure feel is never spoiled.

Recommended for those who love the Invisible Library and Gail Carriger, and fans of the lighter-hearted works of Connie Willis, or those who wish there were books with the sense of derring-do and humour of the The Mummy films. This is the perfect escapist adventure!

Perhaps the most baffling thing to me is that I hadn’t heard of these books sooner. Pitched for fans of Jasper Fforde (yes) and Ben Aaronovitch (yes), these are science fantasy comedy books (yes) set in North Yorkshire (yes), about a team of eccentric academics who have found a place to make the most of their skills, but have somehow developed into a society that seems more than a little odd to the average outside (yes). It’s like someone trawled through my brain and then translated it into a book perfectly designed to tip my dopamine receptors.

The story opens with Max, a doctor of history, being recruited by St Mary’s, a sub-campus of the fictional University of Thirsk, specialising in historical recreation and archaeology. Allegedly. In fact, they run a line in time travel, heading back to specific incidents and observing how they really played out, reporting back on perceived inaccuracies, and allowing the University to take the credit. The line is strictly observation – no interaction, no interference – because if you change history, history will do its best to remove the problem. And by problem, it means any interfering historian.

Plot-wise, the story is quite light, but that absolutely doesn’t matter as far as I’m concerned. What this book gives me is a fantastic ensemble cast, absolute chaos filled with some delightful banter. There’s quite a wonderful love story with some delightful chemistry, a great narrative voice, a ‘found family’ tale which hits all the right buttons for me, and a very British turn of phrase and pace that I really enjoy. There’s a little conspiracy, a lot more… death than I was expecting, but while the deaths are handled poignantly, they don’t overshadow the fact that this is a farce as much as anything. Carry On Historians.

I expect a lot of this is because this is book one of what appears to be a fairly long series, so the Taylor took the time to really enjoy fleshing out her universe and her characters, giving enough plot to hang the development onto. One thing which I did struggle with was the passage of time – I thought a handful of months had passed between Max joining St Mary’s and the end of the book, but instead it’s over a period of six years. It doesn’t feel like six years to read, Taylor manages to trim the fat and still find time to indulge in character growth and relationship building. It reminds me of fanfics I’ve read, where authors write out the downtime for characters that you don’t see in shows, and have fun with the relationships outside of plot. It was wonderful to get that same structure and feeling in a novel, and really helped me get to grips with the characters and the setting. I ship Max and Chief intensely.

This is definitely more science fantasy than science fiction. Taylor makes no attempt to explain the science behind her time travel, and aside from a brief nod to paradoxes, she instead just expects the reader to accept the conceit – time travel exists, St Mary’s has access to it and a lot of other shiny tech. That’s all you need to know for the story to work and for you to be able to enjoy it. I think anything more involved would have ruined the tone. It’s not a book about science, it’s a book about messy people and messy relationships and messy history. It’s a book about sexing up the Humanities, so giving too much time to the STEM aspects would have been counter-productive.

It’s hard to know what else to say about this book without giving away what happens. Perhaps it’s good to be brief in that case – I loved it, I desperately want to read the rest of them, but I’m going to ration myself so that I don’t run out, and also so I actually get rid of some of the other titles on my TBR before I get entirely distracted by adding another 10 from the series plus short stories, plus however many from the sister series Time Police.

If you want a book that reads like a proper British farce, this is the book. If you want to get a real, deep insight into what I love in a story, and what I find funny, this is the book. If you want a good laugh and an easy, fun read, this is the book.

Briefly:

A fun, not too plot-heavy, farcical British comedy with time travel romps, a romance I fully get behind, moments of real pathos, and lots of absolute chaos.

For me there was just enough plot to move the story on, but it was almost the background for character and relationship development. It didn’t feel slow, it felt great.

It’s a series I’m genuinely looking forward to reading more of, because it doesn’t feel stressful to read, but I’m invested. Instead of pulling me along by making the plot dark and tense, Taylor has done it just by making me want to spend more time with the characters, regardless of what happens. I could just read about a normal day.

Rating: 5/5 – I had a lot of fun with this book, and I’ve no doubt I’ll have fun with the rest of the series.

A really good book is often formed out of a chemical reaction. In this instance where action and humour combine to forge a story which is fast-paced and exciting while making you laugh out loud. The tag-line for the book, is, for once, accurate. “If you love Jasper Fforde or Ben Aaronovitch, you won't be able to resist Jodi Taylor.” There is the crazy, Lewis Carroll-like-turning-the-world-upside-down comedy of Fforde, choice phrases that make you chuckle, witty observations of people and their behaviour that captures the eccentricities of the British. There is also the credibility of Aaronovitch in the research and knowledge that accompanies the adventures across history. And it’s not dry history either, its fascinating touches that you probably never learned in school – but ought to have done. The result is a book I could not put down, I simply fell in love with it.
The publishers define the story as: ‘the first book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History.’ It’s time travel Jim, but not as we know it. It’s academic, conducted to inform professors in dusty lecture theatres, with data and research methods uppermost. Except, as its main character, Dr ‘Max’ Maxwell finds out on her first trip into the past, History doesn’t tolerate interference.
The characters make this story so vivid. People who are frequently funny, though that is never their intention. People who are thoroughly unpleasant and deserve everything they get. They are real in the sense that they behave like the passionate people they are, they live, eat and breathe History. They argue, they fight, they have sex. Pretty much in that order. Add the Jodi Taylor’s rebellious whimsy to the mix and you can’t help but love these people, right down to their need to drink tea as each emergency unfolds. I mean, where else would you find time travel devices where essential equipment begins with a kettle, mugs and tea bags?
But don’t expect this to be entirely a story that has you giggling. The action set pieces are thrilling, fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat stuff. There is real danger and characters die – and are mourned. People you will care about. That’s what I mean about the chemistry of a good book. It takes talent to bring the two elements together to form a story that makes you laugh one moment and shed tears the next.
There’s a huge collection of St Mary’s chronicles. I’ve added them to my reading list. I can’t wait to see where things go next. And laugh along the way.

Just One Damned Thing After Another (the title is taken from a quote by Arnold Toynbee) introduces us to Madeleine Maxwell who, as the novel opens, is encouraged by her old schoolteacher and mentor, Mrs de Winter, to apply for the position of historian at St Mary’s Institute of Historical Research. Max, as she is known, is instantly intrigued; she has had a passion for history since discovering a book about Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt as a child. She applies for the job and is invited for an interview, but as she is shown around her future place of work, she quickly becomes aware that this is no ordinary academic institute…and that the historians of St Mary’s are no ordinary historians.

The Institute has developed a form of time travel which allows the historians to travel back in time inside fully equipped ‘pods’ in order to investigate some of history’s many mysteries – large and small – at first-hand. From “being able to say with authority, ‘Yes, the Princes in the Tower were alive at the end of Richard III’s reign, I know because I saw them with my own eyes’” to understanding the secret of Greek Fire and how to handle a Roman chariot, the possibilities are endless. But so are the dangers: pods that malfunction with terrifying results, hostile groups of rival time travellers, as well as all the other hazards you would expect to find on a journey into a less enlightened time. Max and her friends are constantly getting into trouble – particularly Max, who seems to attract disaster like a magnet – but they see it as a risk worth taking in return for being able to see and experience so many wonderful things.

We don’t learn a huge amount about any of the historical periods to which Max travels (only the Cretaceous period has a significant amount of time devoted to it), but that’s not really the point of the book. The enjoyment is in following the adventures Max and the other St Mary’s historians have as they travel through time – and in sympathising with Max’s various accidents and mishaps, some of which are her own fault, but certainly not all! The story is narrated in Max’s own strong and humorous voice, which adds to the sense of fun.

Apart from Max herself, though, I didn’t feel that I got to know any of the other characters very well, but maybe they will be developed further in future books. Although I don’t feel the compulsion to continue with this series immediately (I did enjoy meeting Max, but I think I would find it a bit overwhelming to spend too long in her company), I do still plan to read the second book and am looking forward to finding out where the historians will travel to next. And of course, now I’m wondering where I would choose to go if I had one of the St Mary’s pods at my disposal…

I absolutely adored this book and I can't wait to carry on with the series. As a proper history buff, I loved the topic and the story was so funny. I would love to be a 'historian' and be able to witness some of the events that they go back to in this novel.

A clever combination of time travel, erudite history and humour.
The first of Jodi's Taylor is in the main a fun romp of a tale with historical scholars, dinosaurs and a great deal of tea.
On the whole it works but occasionally the various elements jar - for example, the sexual violence is a lot more serious than hapless academics blowing things up in the name of research.
That said, I immediately bought the second in the series and was hooked on the central characters and the history they revealled.

I adore this series. It can only be described as pure escapism! The time travel / investigating history concept had me hooked but the fun characters and story development has made me a life long fan!

Amusing time-travel romp chock full of all sorts. It was rather silly at times but as long as you don't think about it too much it was good fun. Reminded me a little of a not so polished 'Thursday Next' Jasper Fforde novel written in an 'Urban Fantasy' style. I'll definitely read more of these action-packed adventures but will try and refrain from reading them back-to-back to avoid potentially getting irritated by things I've probably ignored or not noticed so far.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)

I really loved the development of this book and I can’t wait to read the entire of this series! Full review up soon!

I have just finished reading reading Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor.

It is the first story of a series. To sum this book simply (which admittedly is difficult) would be to say it is pure escapism at its best. I loved the book. The characters we meet through the novel take you on their historical adventures, and the story is an engrossing imaginative retelling of historical events.

Our first person narrator Max is a young woman with a difficult, if slightly cloudy past to become a doctor and to literally 'change' history. The book follows her first years working for the mysterious St Mary's, this is a secret organisation that uses that old sci-fi favourite time travel to study history. Naturally this leads to some mishaps and a few scrapes along the way.

Max is an interesting character, a talented woman with a keen sense of humor who manages to plan an escape in the most difficult of circumstances. Naturally for a book that relies on the sci-fi trope we have mad scientists, people with unexpected talent, along with bitter rivalries, solid friendships and not so solid friendships. . Max is interesting character with much to like and I know this will be a series that I will continue with.

Just discovered this author. Really enjoyed this book will now be reading the rest of the series.
Would highly recommend this book. 5 stars

Maddie 'Max' Maxwell PhD is inaugurated into St Mary's Institute of Historical research which uses time travel to grub out the facts of history. Dark, exciting and hilarious in turn, this is a real page turner and yet delivers some real laugh-out-loud moments. Max is the product of a bad upbringing, saved only by the right teacher at the right time. Now that same teacher (retired) points her at St Mary's.

The institution is chaotic and dangerous. Eccentric hardly begins to cover it. Some of the staff are just plain bonkers, but in a useful way. Historians lose their lives or end up injured in a variety of ingenious ways, but somehow they keep functioning. Max survives her initial training, gets promoted to 'historian' and is attracted to tech Chief Farrell. Great! She's in business!

But someone is messing with the timelines, using history for pleasure and profit. On a trip to the Cretaceous to study dinosaurs everything comes to a head and Max must cope!

This book's a lot of fun and highly recommended. I immediately went out and got the second in the series.

I received a free ecopy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity.

I am a little late to the party in reading The Chronicles of St Mary’s as book 10, Hope For The Best was published last month. On the other hand, when you discover a new author and book series you love, finding out there are 10 books and 14 short stories to date, is no disappointment.

The premise is ostensibly about time travel though it’s a label that is denied in the blurb. St Mary’s is officially a history research facility that send historians through time to observe major historical events. The plan is not to interfere but gain an accurate picture. However, as any good scientist will tell you, the act of observing is itself a form of interference and inevitably the intrepid band of historians get into unforeseen trouble.

Having recently read and enjoyed White Silence and Dark Light (Elizabeth Cage Series), I was interested to see how different the style would be in this older, longer series. The style, in fact was very similar with Taylor’s dry British sense of humour. The heroine, Madeleine Maxwell (Max) is very different though. Max is an energetic, proactive and often angry woman who is not afraid to get her hands dirty.

Another shadowy character in the background of this book is History itself. History has a strict rule of none interference meaning that historians who try to change history, even by accident, are likely to be unceremoniously bumped off. The death rate in this novel is astonishing. I am hoping that in later books this concept will be developed but worried who will fall victim.

The structure of this book is a little unusual. Not for Taylor, a three act formulaic construction with a tension ratchet at thirty, sixty and ninety percent. The title is incredibly appropriate, as the book hurtles from one situation to another. The end of one adventure only heralds another, making it impossible to find a good place to take a break. Ah well, who needs sleep anyway!

This book is a wild ride, perfect for those who love a humour, adventure combo. There is little science involved but an intriguingly close up look at history is included. Climb on the roller coaster and see where and when it takes you.

Madeline "Max" Maxwell is a historian who travels through history. The danger comes when history starts to fight back.

I received a free copy from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Max is recruited by St Mary's, a top-secret facility that has discovered time travel, and uses it to research all of those niggling historical questions. Rather than being stuffy and strict, St Mary's is a madhouse, and its historians aren't much better.
Max soon discovers that they're not the only ones with access to time travel, and the other guys are more interested in money than knowledge.

This book is chaotic.
Which is kinda fine, and suits the main character Max, who can be as crazy as a bag of drunken squirrels.
It did mean that it was hard to follow in places, and jumped around a fair bit.
The beginning was slow, but helped to build the background. The middle was crazy, but entertaining. By the time I got to the end, I felt exhausted trying to keep track of everything!

It's a shame, I've never read a book that has swung from LMFAO-this-is-awesome-5-stars to OMG-my-eyes-are-crossed-1-star, and back again. I think I got whiplash.

There were so many parts where I had to go back and re-read stuff. With the way the story read, and how she interacted with her colleagues. I thought that Max had only been at St Mary's for a year maximum; but suddenly its five years since she started, just because.
There were times other characters suddenly changed without warning. There seemed to be a pattern of men Max trusted, suddenly treating her like shit.

Then there were times that I cheered, because she said exactly what I wish I could say to people.

I loved St Mary's and I want to join the Historians, but I don't think I want to carry on reading the series. At least, not until I've recovered.

So excited for this series, I held off until it's pretty much complete as hate waiting for the next installment!
Absolutely loved this, it's got a fantastic concept with great characters and some delightful humour running throughout. It's completely different to other fantasy series that I've read; time travellers historians with a fabulous steampunk feel. Can't wait to read them all!

The first in an established series that has a definite Dr Who vibe (with a bit of Harry Potter with science replacing magic) as a team of academic historians hurtle around time and space to investigate history in real time. Max is a delightful narrator with her bright, wry outlook, and Taylor keeps the book balanced between frothy bonkers-ness and something a bit steelier. The jump back to a military hospital behind the lines of the Somme during WW1, for example, inserts some seriousness amidst all the crazy. Still, there's not much that a cuppa and a biscuit won't cure in Max's world...!

I'd previously read a couple of the later books and while it's easy enough to catch up with the story, it's still fun here to see how Max got involved with St Mary's, learn about her training as a time-traveller, and see the start of her romance.

It would be nice if the surrounding characters were a bit more defined - they're little more than a name and a cast list entry - and there are times when I wanted to spend more time in the history visits. Still, this is delightful and charming switch-off reading.

"History is important. Far more important than most people believe. And it is under attack."

* * * * * 
5 / 5

Hilarious, witty, banterous, serious, disturbing, and light-hearted. Just One Damned Thing After Another made me feel just one damned emotion after another: I felt intrigued and amused and in awe and afraid and disgusted and impressed. I ran the whole gamut of emotions and closed the book feeling both extremely satisfied and yet wanting more.

"Please be honest, Dr Maxwell, is this admirable calm because deep down, very deep down, you think I'm clearly insane and this is going to be one to tell in the pub tonight?"

"Actually, Dr Bairstow, deep down, very deep down, I'm having a shit-hot party."

Madeleine Maxwell is a historian by degree and she's looking for a job (aren't we all?). She's recommended to interview at St. Mary's without ever really being told what exactly they do; St. Mary's tagline is that they explore major historical events in contemporary time. Simply put, they time travel. Say someone wants to find out if their ancestor did die of old age or was actually poisoned by their scheming heir, they pay St. Mary's to "investigate", presumably thinking this means doing some reading. St. Mary's sends a team back in time to record what actually happened. Cool stuff.

I think I liked this book so much because it felt, weirdly, a little bit like a Star Trek adventure. There's the excitement of the missions, the joy of "first contact", the varied cast of diverse people, and small, snarky interactions between them. Madeleine - known personally and professionally as Max - is a joy. She felt like a twist on the typical kind of "Bella Swan" kind of character - she's clumsy and a little bit dense in love, but she's also hotheaded and passionate and brave and so wonderfully, desperately in love with the past. She's witty and banterous and sexy and afraid; Max felt human.

"There have been two moments in my life when everything changed"

I was particularly impressed by how finely Just One Damned Thing After Another walked the line between being surprising and having a strong plot. It's often the unfortunate case that books that surprise me in terms of plot twists and character developments are surprising because they are ridiculous, or because the book has felt so directionless that I had no idea what was happening. This book has a strong if somewhat standard plot - Max becoming acquainted with timetravel and the missions of being a historian, with a "twist" where she discovers something shocking in the past - that continually surprised me. I was on the edge of my seat. One of the revelations was somewhat horrifying and made me feel physically ill, but it somehow didn't feel distasteful or out of character.

Just One Damned Thing After Another has a wide range of reviews: for some it was a bit of a miss, and for others (like me) it was an absolute hit. This book doesn't take itself too seriously and takes one on a voyage through time and space. The only complaint I have was the romance (Max deserves better).

My thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

This was a ripping yarn in the best possible way. Max and the historian concept had me hooked from the start. A good and varied cast of characters with a very helpful who's who at the outset. Like a mad fun school for grownups with appropriately bad villains and wry humour. I am hooked and will definitely be reading more. Thank you to Headline and Netgalley for providing me with this free ARC.

The ridiculous and endearing bunch of tea drinking, time travelling historians that you never knew you needed.

Slightly daft, easy read with characters and a world that you won't be able to help but fall totally in love with.