This is How you Lose the Time War Book Review

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I had such high expectations for this book! The blurb is immediately intriguing: Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war. That’s how war works. Right?

In a word, this book is confusing. The writing style is very poetic and whimsical and I found myself really struggling to keep up with what was happening. Don’t get me wrong, it’s GREAT writing, I just wanted it peppered between some world-building and character introductions. The authors plunge the reader straight into this world without much explanation and then proceed with long, Dickensian descriptions of things without much plot. I didn’t really understand the time travel nor what exactly the two “factions” were fighting each other for.

The two protagonist red and blue, made the situation even worse because there were no descriptions about them and next to no dialogue, therefore my mental image of what they looked like was unfocused and vague which just meant I never really felt connected to either character. The letters between the characters were good in that you could feel their affection for each other and I liked that they became more intense as the novel progressed. However, when I read a romance, I want a good romance. It’s my favourite genre so it’s a shame even that element of this novel couldn’t save it for me.

I appreciate what this book was trying to do and I liked the “epic” nature of the storyline, I just needed something more fleshed out. That’s not to say I need my books spoon-fed to me – I like having to work hard when reading because the pay off feels even greater. But that was just the problem with this book, there was never any pay off, and for that, it just felt underwhelming.