Gwyneth has an abnormal family. Her grandmother goes solely by Lady Arista, her great-aunt Maddy ‘has visions,’ her aunt and cousin treat her like a red-headed step-child (although she’s actually the only member of the family without red hair), and… they all live together. Oh, one last thing I forgot—they believe certain members of the family have a ‘time travel gene.’

Funny story, this is actually one of the first audiobooks I ever listened to ‘for fun.’ When I was younger, I listened to books so I could finish them on time for book reports or other things like that. Do other people do that? Or was that just something our family did? Anyways, this book was so popular that the only copy available was an audiobook. I distinctly remember sitting in my room, headphones on and staring into space, listening to the entire trilogy. Fun times.

Because of my fond memories of the first time I read this book, I decided to give the trilogy another go, and I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the story as an adult. If you’ve been with us for a while, you know that doesn’t always go well for me. Especially with young adult books. I did have to push myself to keep reading at the very beginning because I remembered a lot of it. But after the first 100 pages (or so), I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know everything about the time machine, the secret society, and the point of their ‘mission.’ I was also very fond of Gideon and Gwyneth’s enemies to not-so-much enemies vibe. And the ending…. What? Crazy! Forgot about that. I need to start the next book immediately.

I do have one other side note—I almost didn’t pick up this book, again, because I thought it might be a little bit too cult-y for me. I’ve seen pieces and parts of the movie adaptation over the years, and, if I’m remembering correctly, that portrayal of the secret society was very cult-y. And kind of made me uncomfortable. That’s not how it came across in the book. It was definitely weird (which I think it’s supposed to be), but not dark and creepy and uncomfortable. I would definitely recommend this as a more lighthearted, fun read.