Audiobook Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway: Timekeeper by Tara Sim

Crushed on by Kelly BookCrushin, on March 23, 2017, in Blog Tour, Giveaways, Reviews / 5 Comments

Audiobook Blog Tour, Review & Giveaway: Timekeeper by Tara Sim

I really wanted to read Timekeeper by Tara Sim when it was released. But if you are like me, I just never found the time, so when the Audiobook Blog Tour became available I jumped, because I can always find time for audiobooks in my day more than I can regular book reading. I listen on my commute, while I prepare dinner, and do my household tasks. I just love listening to books and Timekeeper was exceptional! Check out all the book, audiobook details & sample below, as well as my spoiler-free review, and two super generous tour-wide giveaways!

Timekeeper (Timekeeper #1) by Tara Sim

Category: Young Adult, Fantasy, GLBT
Publication: November 8th, 2016; Sky Pony Press
Audiobook: February 14th, 2017; Forever Young Audiobooks
Length: 8h 50m
Narrator: Gary Furlong
Purchase: Amazon, Audible

Two o’clock was missing.

In an alternate Victorian world controlled by clock towers, a damaged clock can fracture time—and a destroyed one can stop it completely.

It’s a truth that seventeen-year-old clock mechanic Danny Hart knows all too well; his father has been trapped in a Stopped town east of London for three years. Though Danny is a prodigy who can repair not only clockwork, but the very fabric of time, his fixation with staging a rescue is quickly becoming a concern to his superiors.

And so they assign him to Enfield, a town where the tower seems to be forever plagued with problems. Danny’s new apprentice both annoys and intrigues him, and though the boy is eager to work, he maintains a secretive distance. Danny soon discovers why: he is the tower’s clock spirit, a mythical being that oversees Enfield’s time. Though the boys are drawn together by their loneliness, Danny knows falling in love with a clock spirit is forbidden, and means risking everything he’s fought to achieve.

But when a series of bombings at nearby towers threaten to Stop more cities, Danny must race to prevent Enfield from becoming the next target or he’ll not only lose his father, but the boy he loves, forever.

Audio Excerpt:

Review:

[book rating=5/5]

Timekeeper took me by surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating and unique story. The world building is phenomenal and the characters are perfect. This is a rare book that is set in an alternate version of Victorian London, however the writing and the feel of the book makes you forget that it is not present time. Time is the real star of the book and Tara Sim has a brilliant take on the fabric of time and how it controls us all. I am happy to say, as someone who can be very finicky with the steampunk genre, that those elements are light and not the focus of the story.

We are thrust right into the story where Danny, a clock mechanic, is sent to fix a broken clock tower, a number is missing from the clock face and therefore that hour was skipped completely in that town. Whenever there is any damage to a clock tower the town suffers from missteps in time, or sometimes, the worse fate, is the town stops altogether. Danny’s father was a clock mechanic too, and he was sent to a town that happened to stop while he was in it. No one can enter or leave a stopped town, and Danny has excelled at his studies in hopes of finding a cure for the stopped town his father is stuck in. While Danny is continually fixing this old clock tower in the town of Enfield, he discovers that his apprentice, Colton is actually the mythical clock spirit that helps control the time of the town.

Colton and Danny soon form a fast friendship that turns into something quite special for them both. They formed a loving bond that I could swoon along with the entire time. Danny was nervous about his feelings mostly because he knew that fraternizing with a clock spirit was strickly forbidden, however before he met Colton, he didn’t really believe they existed. I absolutely loved these two as well as Danny’s best friend Cassie who works as an engine mechanic and innovator. There were a good clip of characters, but each one had an important role in the story to tell, none felt pointless or there just to have side characters, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I loved getting glimpses of this world through each of the characters views and I am excited for where book 2 is going to take us!

Since this is an audiobook review, let me talk a little about the narration. The narrator, Gary Furlong, is Irish, and I literally could listen to him tell me stories all day long. I was never distracted by the narration, only swept away in the story. He really did a great job switching tones for each character, which is important for a good narration of a book with this many distinct characters. The sound production was excellent and I appreciated the fact that I could speed up or listen at normal speed if I wanted to without any distortion.

For me personally, when listening to an audiobook, I usually have a copy of the book in physical or ebook form, and while I didn’t for my listen of Timekeeper, I didn’t feel like I needed a backup of actual text for comprehension. I absolutely loved the audio and highly recommend it. Timekeeper wasn’t too complex with the fantasy, which can sometimes be hard to comprehend during an audio listen, but overall it was a pleasant listening experience and a wonderful book about the complexities of love and time.

*I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Forever Young Audiobooks. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion or my review.*

Author Bio: Tara Sim

Tara Sim is the author of Timekeeper (Sky Pony Press) and can typically be found wandering the wilds of the Bay Area, California. When she’s not chasing cats or lurking in bookstores, she writes books about magic, clocks, and explosives. Follow her on Twitter at @EachStarAWorld, and check out her website at tarasim.com.

Links:

Website ** Twitter ** Facebook ** Pinterest ** Goodreads ** Instagram

Narrator Bio: Gary Furlong

Gary Furlong grew up in Wexford, Ireland. Throughout his life he has worn many a hat: He has worked as a teacher in Niigata, Japan; a puppeteer in Prague; an improv artist in Memphis, Tennessee; and as a singer and actor all over Ireland. He started narrating audiobooks in late 2015 and hasn’t looked back.

Gary made his acting debut in the musical Godspell as a student. Since then he has pursued acting both on the amateur and professional circuits. Notable roles include Tom Collins in Bare Cheek’s production of Rent in 2010.

Over the course of his five years in Japan, he was an actor, director, and audio producer. It was during this time that he discovered his interest in audiobooks and voice-over.

He now works full-time as an audiobook narrator and voice actor from his home in Ireland.

Links:

Website ** Twitter

Giveaways:

Timekeeper Giveaway #1

Timekeeper Giveaway #2

Tour Schedule:

Mar. 19: The Book Keeper’s Secrets (Review, Spotlight, Audio Excerpt & Interview)
Tales of the Ravenous Reader (Spotlight, Audio Excerpt, Guest Post & Giveaway)

Mar. 20: Reading for the Stars and Moon (Spotlight, Audio Excerpt, & Giveaway)
Next Page Please (Review & Giveaway)

Mar. 21: Candid Ceillie (Review & Interview)
Gota Love Books (Spotlight & Audio Excerpt)

Mar. 22: BookstacksAmber (Review)

Mar. 23: Book Crushin (Review, Audio Excerpt, & Giveaway)
Lilly’s Book World (Review)

Mar. 24: The Desert Bibliophile (Review, Spotlight & Audio Excerpt)
BookstacksAmber (Interview)

Mar. 25: Chapter Break (Review, Spotlight, Audio Excerpt, Interview & Giveaway)

Mar. 26: Dab of Darkness (Review)
Blogger Nicole (Spotlight & Audio Excerpt)

Mar. 27: The Madhouse (Review & Giveaway)

Mar. 28: Rolo Polo Book Blog (Spotlight & Audio Excerpt)

Mar. 29: Mama Reads (Review & Guest Post)

Mar. 30: Novel Ink (Review)

Mar. 31: Glorious Panic (Review & Giveaway)