I finished this book and immediately wished I had some time travel ability so I could go back and make up for the sleep I lost, staying up to find out what happens.

What a unique take on time travel! I loved the nearly all female cast, the inventiveness of moving through time, and how two women, Ruby and Odette, are at the heart of a really strange murder mystery. It begs so many questions, particularly--how can you kill a time traveler if they can always move ahead and see how they will die? A fantastic, fast-paced read. I can't wait to see what Mascarenhas' will do next!

I’m not sure what it is about myself and time travel books, but I’m particularly drawn to them. I LOVE a well written time travel story, and The Psychology of Time Travel certainly did not disappoint! What I loved most about this one was how plausible the author made it all seem, it felt very well thought out. The murder mystery aspect kept me on my toes the entire time, and the character relationships were very well constructed! Also, loved that the entire book was filled with badass female characters! Definitely recommend this one!!

I enjoyed this book - I do love.time travel stories! I received an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

<i>I received a copy of this book from Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.</i>

Books about time traveling never fail to pique my interest. It's an intriguing concept and I like how authors cleverly use it to explore limitless possibilities. The Psychology of Time Travel weaves these concepts and ideas to create a thrilling story that keeps readers on edge.

The novel begins when four women successfully invented the time machine in the 1960's. However, when one of the pioneers manifested a mental instability, the other three outcasted her to save their project's credibility. Since then, they did tests and research to prevent any weak minded people from having the unfortunate circumstance whenever they are using the technology. Moving forward to the present time, a mysterious body was found. The body was impossible to identify because of its damage. In this time where the suspect could be anywhere and anytime, thanks to the time machine, catching the killer will not be as easy as expected.

Told through different perspective and time zones, the narrative became more intriguing and entertaining. It might be a little confusing at first, but once you get used to it, the story actually flowed smoothly. Also, this book is not a character-driven story, so readers will only know a little about each character. The world building and the concepts are well explained and detailed. I like how they seem to be so realistic that these things might actually happen in the future.

The best thing I love about this book is how every detail became clearer and fitted perfectly into place towards the end. It is obvious that the whole plot was very well thought of. Plus, this book mixes a variety of genres that I love; science fiction, mystery, and thriller.

Overall, The Psychology of Time Travel is a brilliant novel that combines mystery and science fiction flawlessly.

I give this book 4 stars!

3.5 stars--somewhere between liked and really liked.

I adore time travel books, and this one has a lot of fascinating details--time travelers regularly hang out with their past or future selves (or past/future friends and family). They develop their own slang (included in an index!) and occasionally return with spontaneously materialized items--books or small trinkets--on them. So cool!

It also deals with the specific psychological issues suffered by time travelers--becoming hardened to death (why mourn a parent's passing, for example, when you can just pop into the past and visit?) or feeling out of time.

The characters were likable, and overall this was a breezy, very fast read. I wish it had a touch more depth (especially when dealing with serious issues like murder, mental health, mortality, etc.), but still greatly enjoyed this book--especially how it tied multiple plot threads together.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas is a time traveling story! It really took me a while to figure out the various characters and sub-plots. (all perfectly normal for time travel stories). But, once you dive in.. and get it fixed in your mind where the story is going.. you can follow along.

My Mom was a psychologist.. so, this story was one that I wanted to see the unique spin that the title seemed to imply. And, the book did deliver. There is a price every human pays just for existing.. and there surely would be a price one would pay.. if one's story is erased from existence.

Without giving away too much of the story.. just give it a chance.. and stick with it.. you'll enjoy the tale!

What an amazing concept and I hope there's more coming to flesh it all out. This felt rushed, and I was often a bit confused by the 'time jumps' in the story-telling, but not so much that I wasn't able to quickly figure it out. One things for certain, I want MORE of this author and series!

Four female scientists, each bringing their own special piece to the puzzle, created the first time machine in 1967. However, one of the four, Barbara, doesn’t continue on the same path as the original three women.

The book about time travel does a lot of it—it takes a bit to get into the stories as you are following a few points of view and different timelines. But I promise you that once you get into it and stick with it you won’t be able to put it down. The connections and interwoven layers of time and space all come together to form a wonderful first novel for the author.

THIS PREVIEW MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.



In 1967, time travel ceases to be a theory and becomes reality, a triumphant success for a project spearheaded by four female scientists. Soon enough, the pioneers, Margaret, Barbara, Lucille, and Grace, hop between present and future as if they’ve never done anything else. Unfortunately, Barbara soon begins to show signs of mental instability, a side effect of time travel. To prevent any stigma to fall upon the project, the remaining pioneers decide to force Barbara into resigning.

Some fifty years later, a student finds a badly disfigured body in a locked room in the basement of the museum where she volunteers. Who is the dead woman, and why was she murdered? In order to find the answers she desperately needs to regain her equilibrium, Odette decides to join the Conclave, the organization regulating and facilitating time travel.

There is a lot to like about this novel: all the primary characters are women, which is a refreshing change of pace. The premise of the book is certainly intriguing, and the setting unique. These are the strong points of “The Psychology of Time Travel.”

The story is interesting enough to easily allow the reader to pick up what part of the plot takes place in which timeline, but all throughout, I never connected to any of the characters. While I wanted to follow their exploits until the conclusion, it was like looking into live-action panorama box from the outside, which made the experience somewhat less than satisfying.

A plot point that bothered me incessantly was the flippant way in which time travelers reveal the future to other characters and even meet their older and younger selves. Considering the rigorous selection and training process potential time travelers have to go through before joining the Conclave, it would be downright dangerous to simply spring someone’s future on them, not to mention that apparently in this story, too, you can’t really change anything about it, just as you cannot change past events.

Furthermore, the book could have benefited from vigorous editing. The writing style reads very much like the original intent was to submit a short story that kept getting longer and longer, and even as short story, this would have looked like a decent second draft at best.

Ms Mascarenhas clearly has a passion for story-telling and some refreshingly unusual ideas about alternate realities. I look forward to reading more tightly crafted novels by her in future.

“The Psychology of Time Travel” is published by Crooked Lane Books. I received an ARC via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

The Psychology of Time Travel
By Kate Mascarenhas
due February 2019
Crooked Lane

Its 1967. Four female scientists create the first time travel machine, each woman a pioneer in her scientific field. They begin to believe that time travel could have far greater significance to our lives than we could have imagined, and it could change how we all live.
Fifty years later, time travel has become big business. Ruby Rebello becomes fascinated with her Grandmothers work in science, but no one can provide any details. Ruby finds a newspaper clipping from the future that foretells of the murder of an unidentified woman Ruby becomes convinced is her Grandmother.
This engrossing speculative fiction was absolutely riveting and fantastic. The development of the time travel machine-called the Conjurers Candybox that teleports into the future; The Conclave-a group that studies the impact of time travel, gave me a new perspective on time travel. The Conclave could impact lives by making relationships seem pre-arranged when you can check in advance who your partner(s) will be and the outcome before you even knew the person. You could start to see death as an inconvenience when you know the date people will die, being sure to add the date to your calendar so you don't forget their funeral, and can leave the day free.
The diversity and polyamorous characters added much perspective to the development of the Candybox as well.
This is a fascinating, rich novel of intrigue and wonder. Written with a beautiful and timely prose and message this speculative fiction and murder mystery at its best.
It includes a glossary that could stand alone its so fascinating and a Time Travel Conclave Battery of Psychometric Test with 10 questions to see if your a good candidate for time travel.
Get This Feb 2019.
Thanks to Crooked Lane and net galley for this ARC
#ThePsychologyOfTimeTravel #NetGalley

Quirky time travel murder mystery! 

What more could you want in a book. It's a debut novel and it was a very intriguing concept. 
There's time travel, race and sexual orientation issues, mental illness and romance. It sounds like a mishmash of subjects but it all ties together very nicely. Gives reason to pause and think if we as a society have the skills and knowledge to build time travelling machines and if we did could we handle it? Would you want to know the exact date of your death and HOW you were going to die? How would we react to meeting our future selves and our yet unborn children? Would we get confused trying to figure out which time was the true time? Wouldn't they in fact be all true, just different? 
At the end of the book the author drafted what she calls a Time Travel Psychometric Test. Ten (10) questions and your answers deem if you are suitable candidate for time travel.
Very interesting book which was a quick read that I couldn't put down. 

I received this ARC from the publisher Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased honest review.
Thank you!

2.5★

"Dear Reader,
If you could travel through time, where would you go?"


I requested this on Net Galley because it stated that readers who love the newly regenerated female Dr Who would love this story. I have to disagree. I feel like the only resemblance is that the time travelling pioneers are female. Otherwise, I think that recommendation is a little overstated and may have set my expectations a little high.

I thought that the plot was a little messy, and initially it was confusing rather than enigmatic. It was however, immersive, I did want to find out more, and I loved reading about the time travel rules and logistics that the author included in her story, it gave what was a clumsy plot a solid, substantial base.
"When you're a time traveller, the people you love die, and you carry on seeing them, so their deaths stop making a difference to you. The only death that will ever change things if your own."

I thought that the complex web of characters was quite hard to follow, especially when I'm going in and out of the book due to real life commitments (boo), I thought that the links between all the characters would have been more beneficial if the characters themselves had discovered them, in my opinion it would have simplified everything for me and given me a better understanding of the dynamics across the array of characters.

I found that the pace of the story was really spot on, the stakes raise slowly and steadily throughout the book and the plot remains consistently tense. However;

The time travel trial is the weirdest thing! And not good weird either, more like extremely strange bordering on silly and pointless. I had no idea what significance the trial had other than a great build up and a baffling climax. I've left it a day to mull over my thoughts and possibly catch on to something I was previously missing but... nope, it's a sore thumb in what should be a serious time travelling story.

I will say that I find that the writing is very good, it kept me going, and although I was disappointed, and pretty baffled, I found that the narrative was engaging, the characters were quirky, and generally likeable, and Kate Mascarenhas' world building was really original.
"Two women, who'd already witnessed each other's deaths, married on the first day of spring."

Although I did feel that although the world building was original, it was also a little lacking, I feel that an attempt at time travelling Sci Fi should be extremely detail orientated to make the readers believe, rather than a mass of loose ambiguous explanations and a glossary at the end. There's no real in depth clarification of how the time travellers seem to have no sense of consequence, and why exactly they seem to become less humane and dismissive the more they leap through time.

Overall a pretty average Sci Fi that did a good job of breaking boundaries but didn't ensnare my interest completely. If I was to compare this book to a food, it would be hummus; I could dip my cracker in it and fill my belly, but there aren't any sensational flavours.

Thank you to Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars. This book had several elements that I enjoy- time travel, feminist speculative science fiction, and an LGBTQ+ romance. It took me a while to get into it, but I eventually cared enough about a couple of the characters to want to read this through to the end.

My favorite characters were Barbara, Ruby, and Siobhan. The character of Lucille was barely mentioned, and I think it was a shame, since she was one of the characters that I was most curious about.

I think this story suffered from too many character points of view. The segments were short, and jumped around so much that as soon as I started to enjoy one of the periods of time, it would abruptly end and I was left repeatedly thinking about where the next segment fit into the time line. It made for a disjointed reading experience.

Many of the side plots felt unresolved at the end. There was so much going on with all the characters that it would have taken a lot longer to wrap them up in any kind of meaningful way, so instead it felt like they were just abandoned.

Overall, this was good and worth the time I spent reading it. If you don’t mind lots of character POV’s, you might enjoy this more than I did. There are some great, even moving, sections in this book that were excellently written.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.

This was a very enjoyable page turner. Starting with the women scientists who made time travel a reality and then flipping forward to experience the implications of that as we work through a mystery. It's interesting to see how the book plays around with the idea of how time travel would work if you let go of the idea of paradoxes and instead focus on the psychological impacts. I would have enjoyed more of that, actually, and more of the societal impacts - what happens in a world when information from the future can bleed back into the past? How does culture change as a result? Maybe a sequel can quench this curiosity?

If you enjoy time travel stories this is a great engaging tale from a new author. I enjoyed the story line and eagerly await her next book.

This book is about four women who discover the means to travel through time as well as the resulting murder and mystery that this cause to occur in the future.
I loved this book so much, it was full of smart, creative, diverse and interesting women whose lives all became changed by time travel. The murder mystery gives the plot a level of intrigue and mystery and I enjoyed how all the perspectives and time lines merged and overlapped in time to explain the events leading to the murder. I like the way the book imagined what if would be like if we could travel through time and explored both the positive as well as negative effects it could have on the individual as well as those that did not travel through time.
I would definitely recommend picking this one up, I couldn't put it down.

This is the third time travel book I have read in a row. First, I read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, a timeless (pun intended) classic. Next, I read an upcoming release called Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen (review to follow), and last I read The Psychology of Time Travel. I didn't seek out three time travel novels to read in row, dare I say, they found me? Maybe my future self was planting these books in my life for some reason? I'm kidding. But really...?

The Psychology of Time Travel was different from the other two books in one very specific way. The genius scientists who change the world when they invent time travel are ALL women! Margaret was a baroness turned cosmologist, Lucille came from the slums and wound up making radio waves travel faster than light. Then there was Grace, an expert in the behavior of matter, and Barbara who specialized in nuclear fission. Between the four of them, they created a miracle of science. The day they tell the general public about their stunning break through, Barbara has a mental breakdown on live television causing the four scientists to remove her from the group. Barbara gets well, then goes on to live a normal life while the remaining three continue their work. Work which later becomes an entire network of time travelers and a world wide organization. The rules and laws created for this very new and amazing technology are overseen by the ever increasingly powerful and ruthless creator Margaret. She will stop at nothing to protect her creation, even if it means putting her goals before the well being of her fellow scientists.

One day, a woman's body is found in a room locked from the inside at a local toy museum. It is unclear who the mystery woman is, and the young lady who found her finds herself unable to move forward until she figures out who she is,and why she was killed. Around the same time, Barbara, the scientist who was booted from the group years earlier, receives a mysterious folder paper rabbit. The rabbit is an inside joke between the group of scientists, but why would they be reaching out to her after all this time. When she unfolds the rabbit, she is startled to discover it is a death certificate from the future. Even more startling is the fact that there is no name listed. Who is going to die?

This book was a ton of fun to read. I definitely found myself going cross-eyed a few times reading the Science-y parts, but one of my favorite things about speculative fiction is reading all of the details an author has put in about the world they have created. It is so cool to read about the future and to visualize the cool new technological advances that will be made past my lifetime through the writers eyes.

I read a lot of books that sound outside of a casual readers taste. My Mom always looks at me sideways when I recommend a book such as this one to her. But each time she gives a unique book a try, she is always pleasantly surprised. So, pick this one up! I think you will also be surprised. :)

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this Advanced Readers Edition of The Psychology of Time Travel.

See this and other book reviews at www.BookItForward.blog

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Thank you to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Psychology of Time Travel.

Time travel is a difficult subject to write about, much less make movies about. It's the paradox problem that we have trouble with. The only movie that managed this conundrum was the awesome Back to the Future trilogy.

I REEAALLLYYY wanted to like this more than I did.

It had it all; female scientists, time travel, a murder mystery!

I'm all in.

** Minor spoilers ahead **

Bee is a scientist and along with her fellow female scientists in crime, they have developed a time machine in the 1960s.

After testing the machine themselves, Bee suffers a nervous breakdown and is committed to an asylum; as a result, the others ostracized her, an act perpetrated by Margaret Norton, the ringleader and Mark Zuckerberg wannabe.

Fifty years later, Ruby, Bee's granddaughter is pulled into the time travel world when her grandmother receives a message from one of Bee's scientist ex-friends. It leads her on a whirlwind, often confusing trip through past and present to unravel the clues and figure out what's what.

I'm still not sure what's what and what happened.

Let's start with the GOOD points:

1. Female scientists! Using their brain. Not many men in sight! And when they are, they are in the background, moved around like chess pieces. Or husband pieces.

2. Every character, bit and supporting player, is nearly all female, a few of them members of the LBGT community!

3. The premise itself: the psychology of time travel. How does psychology affect your brain chemistry? Your relationships? Yourself?

4. The relationship between Bee and Ruby. Ruby's relationship with her mother was poor but her connection to Bee was sweet, tender and sentimental.

5. The unique aspects of time travel the author utilizes; the acronyms, the creation of time travel lingo, the ability to travel into the past and present and apparently have no issues messing with your current timeline or the possibility that you might never be born.

6. And there's also a murder mystery made all the more strange due to the time travel aspect.

7. Women lead the show!

And, here come the BAD:

1. The poor portrayal of female relationships between Bee and her scientist and friends. Margaret's excuse that Bee's breakdown reflected poorly on the image of time travel and the reason they should forget about her was atrocious.

But then every book needs a villain so hello! Margaret.

2. The lack of the psychology of time travel. Readers are told that constant time travel makes the travelers cruel. We are given some example of these cruelties, mostly in the form of Margaret's demeaning and malicious behavior, but the causes are not fully explained or elaborated.

Do time travelers go mad? Psychotic? How does anyone stay sane, really?

When you think about it, its a frightening concept if one day such an ability would come to pass.

Traveling between time and dimensions and meeting people you love, miss, hated, forgotten is a formidable, horrifying endeavor.

How does anyone maintain their neutrality, humanity and make sense of the world after all they have done and seen?

I really wanted the author to elaborate more on the title of her book, expand on it, give it more depth and focus.

How does time travel change you? Your concept of humanity? Morality? Mortality?

3. The relationships Ruby had felt contrived and didn't really add to the narrative, especially the one with the married woman. Her chapter could easily have been edited or pared down and no one would be the wiser.

4. The constant flip flop between past and present. Its confusing and I found it somewhat difficult to keep up with the timelines; I'm not sure there is a way to make it less confusing, though.

5. The lack of world building. I wanted to know more about Candyboxes, the marketing and business of time travel, and how time travels affects civilians who do not travel.

6. The narrative deviated too often to personal relationships that felt forced. I wanted to know more about Bee and her scientists; how did they begin working together,

It's disheartening that a story about female scientists becomes a stereotypical cliche when the women stop speaking to one another.

Were they so naive and passive that all of them deferred to Margaret? Maybe one or two of them but all? I found that difficult to believe.

7. I wanted to know more about Bee and the other scientists; yes, even Margaret. Was she always that cold and calculating or did time travel exacerbate her worst qualities or bring them to the surface?

As always, a great premise with potential that is knocked down by too many characters, past and present narrative arcs and poor character development.

The bones of a good story is here but the meat is kinda stringy.

It took me about three fourths of the way through the novel to know if I liked it. I finally decided that I did.

Selina Ascends is a different sort of novel. It has an entirely logical and serious narrator set in a world this is completely absurd. It is like an adult, more outrageous, version of Alice in Wonderland. It is all based on the Tower of Babel, and it was my son who pointed out to me that it is following the seven deadly sins - we think. It is not clear cut enough to say for sure. Especially since this is just the first part. However, you can see sloth, greed, and lust pretty easily.

The novel features Selin, a school teacher that decides to take his wife on a honeymoon to the Tower of Babel. What he does not realize is that everything that he has read about the tower is wrong. It is a world all it’s own and travelers are pretty much doomed as soon as they get off the train, or airship.

It is really the world building that drives this novel. The characters are good, but not brilliant. The writing is also well done, but not brilliant. The world is a genius all of it’s own. There is a complex interplay between all of the worlds. Some of the interconnectedness I saw back on the first level. Some I did not even flush out until I talked about this book with my son. We had some interesting conversations about this world. The interactions between the characters are more interesting then the characters themselves. Although it has been interesting seeing them change, depending on the floor that they show up on.

I am interesting to see where Bancroft goes with this in the second book. While I am fairly confident in the final destination, I am fascinated about the journey to get there.

An original and good story but a bit hard to follow at times. It moves between dates and different perspectives with a large cast of characters so at times is a little confusing. Four women scientists, in the mid 60’s, develop a time travelling machine. They have tested it and travelled through time themselves. But one, Barbara, suffers a breakdown in public just as they are going to go public with their machine. The other three feel they have no alernative but to delete her from their invention so that they can maintain credibility. It was very interesting how the concept of time travel was developed.