Invictus was the first book I've read by Ryan Graudin and I'm really glad I gave it a try. The book was a little slow for me at times, but overall, it was really interesting. I absolutely loved the time travel parts.

Invictus takes place hundreds of years in the future. Faraway (Far) McCarthy is training to be a time traveler. During his testing, there are always issues with his date of birth. Far's mom gave birth to him on a ship while they were in void between time. She did the one thing she wasn't supposed to do during time travel, interacted with someone from the past. Not only did she speak to a gladiator in 95 AD, she got pregnant by him. During Far's final exam, he is spotted by Marie Antionette in the Sim. She winks at him and Far is positive his Sim was hacked, but he fails.

Far receives a message to meet someone about his future. He goes and ends up signing on to go into the past to steal things no one will miss. Far not only wants to time travel, but he's hoping to go on missions to find his missing mom. He chooses the ship's name, Invictus, and his crew. His cousin Imogen was my favorite character in this book. She is the ship's historian and is very colorful and happy. She also has a pet on the ship, a red panda. Far's friend Gram is the engineer and his girlfriend Priya is the medic.

The Invictus crew goes back in time for heists and all go well until they get to the Titanic. Things are weird with the numbers and they land four hours later than they have planned. While looking for a book, Far spies another time traveler from the future who steals the book before him. Eliot ends up on the Invictus and says she wants to work with the crew. However, Eliot is there for reasons Far and his crew will have a hard time understanding. They must find a way to make things right because Far should have never been born.

I haven't really read books on time travel before. Historical fiction and science fiction are genres I'm pretty with. I don't read them often. But this book ended up being better than I expected. I enjoyed the writing and details and will definitely be picking up another book from the author in the near future.

I received a digital arc from Netgalley for review. It did not influence me in any way.

You had me at time travel. I looooove time travel books but they are so hard to do well. First of all, there's the means of traveling, the tech involved has to sound plausible and not overly-complicated. The second difficulty is the main rule: do you or do you not change your current timeline if you travel backwards?

You had me at multiverse. Again, a very complex thing to explain (oh boy, string theory is wicked hard!). But I do love Fringe-type stories.

Invictus does both of these well in a truly captivating story. I would love to see more either with these characters or with this tech.

Thanks to Netgalley for the arc to review.

I've read all of Ms. Graudin's books and I was so excited to read Invictus. It didn't disappoint with interesting, and deep ('rebel') characters, time-traveling adventure, etc. I felt it read in a different voice than her other novels, which threw me for a bit, but once I steadied, I really enjoyed it.

Far, a young man who dreams of being a time traveling captain, sees those dreams dashed by a mysterious girl. As he settles in his new life, he again comes across Mystery Girl as he robs from time who -- again-- changes the course of Far's life.

Invictus is a fast-paced adventure told from the view point of the individual crew members. If there's a sequel, I'll be first in line to read it :)

I absolutely loved this book. It delivers on the promise of "Doctor Who meets Guardians of the Galaxy" (which are two of my most loved things!)

From the beginning when we meet Farway's mother and learn of his strange birth, to the end where it starts all over again -- i loved this book. I loved the crew, flamboyant Imogen, calculating Gram, and warm, clever Priya. I loved the fact that they have their own "trash panda". I loved the dynamics of the relationships between the characters. and i absolutely LOVED the world building that Ryan Graudin has done -- she made it so easy to visualize the world of Central and all the timelines they visited.

This book is a fun, bumpy adventure ride from one page to the next. I was sad that it was only a standalone, because i would love to go on another trip with the crew of the Invictus ANYTIME.

The Wolf by Wolf duology is the only thing I've read by Ryan Graudin (so far) and it's one of my favorites. Although Invictus is completely different in tone, it did not disappoint. I absolutely loved this - I loved the crew, individually and together and in their various relationships, I loved the time travel adventures, I loved Saffron the red panda, basically I loved everything. This book has high stakes, great adventures, a lot of humor, wonderful relationships both established and evolving, and some heartbreak. My only complaint is we don't get more time to spend with these characters, and even that is negated by how happy I am that this is a standalone with no cliffhangers and no wait for the emotional payoff. I highly recommend it!

The right book at the right time can be such a gift. I really needed a book just like this just now. After my recent looong journey through a very deep and emotional fantasy series, I felt like I needed something bright and shiny to chase the shadows out of my brain. This book was perfect.

A young man, Far Gaius McCarthy, is a promising time travel cadet whose final exam is derailed by a rogue Marie Antoinette. Things only get more complicated from there.

How to describe this book? Would you like a book about time traveling bff’s skipping through history heisting rare artifacts? Heck yes you would! This book is as fun as it sounds. It grabs you right from the get go and you’re swept along until the very last page.

Thankfully, the time travel aspect is well handled. Books about time travel can quickly get bogged down in complex paradoxes if an author is not careful. Ms. Graudin does a terrific job maneuvering the terrain without losing her sense of fun and adventure.

Far McCarthy, is an excellent character. Cocky and headstrong as he should be in this role, but with a wonderful group of friends keeping him safe and facilitating both his work in the black market, and the search for his missing mother. The ensemble cast of this book is really endearing. They are a terrific group of friends who are genuinely fond of each other and quirky as all get out. I’d love about 4 more books please. If we could have one focusing on each character that would be just great! The author has said this is a standalone book, so I guess I’m not going to get my wish, but hey YOU still have a chance to read this book for the first time! Get to Netgalley quick my book blogging friends, they still have review copies. If you’re reading this review after the book releases, then what are you waiting for, buy it. You won’t be sorry. A fantastic journey awaits!

WOWWWWW!!!!!! That was the most fun I'd had with a book in awhile. I felt like the book had a nice balance of character development and fast paced action. There was no dull moment whether it be a conversation on the ship or world building. I feel like I fell in love with the characters and their banter from page 1. I was surprised to find out the this is only a standalone and while I believe that Graudin wrapped up the story nicely, I just want more adventures with Farway and his crew. When an author makes me want more from their characters, I consider it a success. I've only read the Wolf by Wolf duology (which was just as awesome), but I can already tell that Ryan Graudin is an author whose books I will look forward to in the future.

“Invictus” is a fantastic YA sci-fi adventure. I whole-heartedly agree with Revis’s review which says that it’s Firefly as teenagers with a tardis! Such an apt description. Here, we follow Farway (Far) as he fails to become what he has always desired to become- a Recorder, someone who travels through history to record key events (just as his mother was). Turned away from the Academy, he finds himself entering a life of crime, stealing key artifacts from history for wealthy buyers in the present. He gets to choose his crew (a fun cast of characters) and for each mission they complete, they also get to make one of their own. Things go awry when they are collecting something from the Titanic.

Absolutely engaging and fascinating, we get to explore not just one realm of sci-fi but so many. I won’t say too much to avoid spoilers, but I felt like a kid at Christmas with this book- sci-fi lovers will absolutely rejoice! This book was absolutely an original and delves into how we define ourselves and our world as well as how the past shapes the future. The characters here were fantastic. I loved Far’s cousin, Imogen, whose personality is as colorful as her hair. Priya, Far’s love interest, was steady and solid- I wish we had gotten to explore their relationship more, but it broke the YA barriers for being relatively drama-free and a good dose of a pretty healthy relationship. Gram was a fun character as well and reminded me of Wash from Firefly quite a bit, in the best way!

One of the really great things about the way the book is written is that we don’t focus exclusively on Far’s perspective but get to see things from different character’s perspectives, really giving each of them a life and deeper personality. I also loved that I couldn’t figure out all the twists and turns and the plot kept surprising me as I read- it’s wonderful to follow a story and continue to be surprised by where it takes you. This is a great journey! I could easily see this being made into a fantastic TV show- brilliant characters, fascinating premise, and just the perfect amount of adventure/mystery.

This is a really excellent book which I hope will be followed up with more books featuring these characters. I think it’s a really great sci-fi read (not just YA) and I look forward to more from this talented author! Please note that I received an ARC through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

**Thanks so much to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review!**

I had never read a book by Ryan Graudin before, so I was super pumped when Netgalley allowed this one as a read now option for the first 500 readers. Of course I jumped on the opportunity.

This book is all about time travel, so that already caught my attention. I immediately got a few Doctor Who vibes throughout the book. Plus there's gladiators and the Titanic, etc. What's not to love??

Our main character was also born to two people from different times. It's so interesting.

Despite the awesome time travel premise, I did find the book a little slow at times, but that may just be because I read it during summertime and I'm always in the mood for super fast-paced novels in the summer. Honestly, that's the only downside to this book. Sure, it was fast-paced at times, but it was a little slow sometimes.

I know for sure that I'm going to check out Graudin's past books now!

My review link will go live on September 12.

Okay so Ryan Graudin is officially one of my favorite authors because I have loved every one of her books that I have picked up. Not to fangirl too much, but she is such a master at combining historical fiction and fantasy and her writing brings me so much joy.

Invictus was just EPIC.
I felt all the feels like when I was reading Marissa Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles for the first time.
Don't get me wrong, though--this story is totally different from TLC aside from them both sharing futuristic settings, being sci-fi, and containing a kickass crew of main characters.

In case you couldn't tell, I really loved this book a lot. It was such a well-crafted story and it makes me so happy that it's a standalone. While I love the characters and would probably be happy to read their grocery lists, this story just has such a satisfying arc, like I get legitimate chills just from thinking about it.

I haven't had much luck with time travel books lately, but I just think this one was so well done. It really felt real, like the time travel could actually happen. That's probably because the characters were hella intelligent and some of the things they'd casually toss around as conversation topics were like Illuminae/Gemina levels of complicated, but boy oh boy did I love it.

So, yes. Please read. Loved it <3