Rysa Walker's continuation of the Timebound/Chronos universe introduces new characters, and brings back some old ones, but with a twist. For anyone (like me) who's just in too deep to this Chronos universe to let it go, it's nice to have a new jumping off reboot/refresh. Looking forward to more in the series.

A solid second book in the CHRONOS Origins trilogy! I really enjoyed learning more about Maddie and Tyson and reading young Katherine's story was super interesting! I absolutely loved this book and I cannot wait to read book three!

I will start off with I received this book in advance in exchange for a honest review.

I am a huge Rysa Walker and CHRONOS Files fan so I jumped at the opportunity to read this book early. It picks up immediately after Now ,Then, and Everywhen and I would say you definitely should start with that book before reading this or you would be lost though the author does a good job of filling in backstory. To fully appreciate the story as a whole you would best need to start from the original series as several characters we met before make appearances.

I am excited for where the series goes next as we meet some new characters in the Dune family tree line that definitely could have stories of their own and the story itself leads off to multiple storylines for other characters.

I would personally say this was my favorite book in the entire series and the historical storyline in this book and the research that the author complied is amazing.

I only gave the story a four due to the ending which I found a bit underwhelming. We had a huge lead up for 99% of the story but then I felt like it ended like your favorite show that got canceled mid-season.

All in all though a fantastic entry in the series and I’m excited to see where and when our travels take us next.

Due to a problem with send to kindle I was unable to read the title. I realized this problem only now, but it seems there was no sychronization for the past two months.

After not loving the first book in the series I held out hope that this book would redeem the series for me and I wasn't disappointed. This is the Rysa Walker style writing I love and this book kept me turning pages to find out what happened next. I highly recommend sticking out through the first book and reading this one.

I originally fell in love with Walker and her first CHRONOS trilogy. I got very excited when this new prequel trilogy got started and I enjoyed the first in this new series a great deal. This book, however, got a little too complicated to me. Maybe I don’t remember enough details about this first trilogy (don’t even TRY to get into this without having read those) but the was this book started spinning off in a different direction left e a bit dissatisfied. The concept here is still unique and interesting but it just got a bit too complex with the addition of elements other than strictly time travel. Recommend for the most devoted followers but probably a tough read for others. It is the middle of a new trilogy, so perhaps it’s suffering a bit in that regard and the completion of this series will improve.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an ARC through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3707989512

It’s 2136 and Madi is doing her best to bring her boyfriend Jack back to the present. Reeling from recent events, as depicted in the previous novel “Now Then and Everywhen”, Madi is trying to figure out what the next step is. After all, she needs all the help she can get after discovering that a group of people from an alternate timeline are playing a deadly game, using her reality as their playground!

Teaming up with Tyson and his group of CHRONOS historians in 2304, they work together to try to stop these rogue time travelers. But when key events from the past are altered, the entire history of the world gets changed! What’s worse, CHRONOS is erased from existence, leaving Tyson and his team little resources and no idea how to fix it all!

Madi and Tyson all work together, and along with Katherine, they discover that these visitors from another reality are playing a real-life version of a strategy game called Temporal Dilemma. Only this time, this is no game – world history is at stake, as well as the lives of all the players. There are deadly consequences for losing, especially for the world! Can our team of intrepid time travelers win the game and restore history to change it back to what it once was?

As Madi and Tyson’s teams look at the rules of the game, they are also forced to use their skills to try to find the crucial pivot points that caused history to change as drastically as it did. The rules limit the ways they can play, as well as the ways they can alter the past and fix the timeline. This makes an already difficult scenario even more perplexing.

There are also “style points” that if they maximize them, will give them the lead they need to ultimately win. Forced to work within those limitations, they must be imaginative in their investigations and the executions of their strategy. Madi and her intrepid team enter perilous waters with each time period they visit, encountering famous (and infamous) figures from the past.

Their opponents don’t play fair either, as they skate dangerously close to the edge and even cross the line of said rules in the name of winning. This adds additional layers of difficulty to an already complex challenge.

They also must face some of the ugliness from America’s past: racism, sexism, the Ku Klux Klan, and the rise of the American Nazi movement. All these topics and more are thoroughly explored in how they impact history.

As readers, we discover the key figures in those movements, some in plain sight and others extremely well hidden, pulling strings and exerting influence from the shadows. And for Madi’s team, understanding the uphill climb they face makes for a fascinating read against an implacable and wily foe.

Meanwhile, the history of CHRONOS continues to be fleshed out Madi’s friends working on the time travel technology development in 2136, continuing to add to the mythos of the CHRONOS saga.

Mixing all these ingredients makes for an unpredictable novel that deepens the trilogy in engrossing ways. Especially since time travel is part of the mix. But the author deftly keeps the novel on track, following each duo across the different time periods as they attempt to correct how the other team manipulated history.

It all culminates into a rip-roaring finale in a race against time. The setting is also familiar to readers who’ve read other CHRONOS stories. But the stakes have never been higher, and I wondered whether everyone will come out of this unscathed or whether people will die.

Madi, Tyson, and the other members of their team all face challenging situations and the more they explore history, the more they try to pinpoint where it was altered. As a result, we learn more about them, the quality of their character, what they believe in, and how it informs their actions. Their fairness, decency, and strong moral center are assets against enemies who have none of those qualities.

In this novel, the author brings a couple of supporting characters into the spotlight more. The first is Katherine, one of the CHRONOS historians from 2304. In previous CHRONOS novels, it's established that she has a specific role to play in the history of the Cyrists and with Saul Rand. Here, we see her behaving in a way that made me cheer her on with her self-advocacy and independence from others.

As a result, she begins to move away from that destiny in such a way that it makes me think that all bets are off and that time may be irreparably changed, perhaps for the better. But I’m also sure this might (or might not – this is time travel we’re talking about) have further repercussions in the final book in this trilogy.

I also appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed the inclusion of Clio here. She, and her parents, have supporting roles to play in this story. Her backstory is very well intertwined with previous CHRONOS novels and characters. She is also fleshed out and given plenty to do. This is not some glorified cameo; there are some very specific story-based reasons she is needed for this novel.

Also, what you might not know is that she was the main character in the graphic novel “The CHRONOS Files: Time Trial.” Her adventures during and after the events of the first CHRONOS Files trilogy are alluded to in this novel. While you can read this novel and know everything you need to know about Clio, her previous adventures are subtly alluded to here. If you’re interested, I would encourage you to read more about Clio’s backstory.

There are lots of connections to previous CHRONOS stories, some subtle and some more upfront. If you haven't read any of the other stories before now, the author does a great job getting the reader up to speed without requiring that you've read other CHRONOS stories. However, I think you'll find that you'll want to when you see what a wide canvas the author has created with all of her previous stories in this universe.

Finally, thrown into the mix is the wild card, Saul Rand. Known from previous novels as the leader of the Cyrists and the head bad guy from the previous CHRONOS trilogy, he’s causing even more trouble here. Only this time there are two of him (time travel is funny that way).

Both are equally crafty, and each has their own secret agenda. Throughout this story, it made me wonder what shenanigans they were getting into, which side either of them is on, and whether their allegiances are to their team or themselves.

The time travel plot is an intricate one and it boggled my mind how many different story threads, characters, situations, time periods and historical figures were well utilized here. And the historical research is second to none, well incorporated into the story and adding to an already fascinating tapestry being woven here. There’s also plenty of great characters here given a lot of psychological depth and layers to explore. It makes them live vibrantly in my mind and all of them distinctively stood out.

This is a highly ambitious time travel story and that is saying something, considering her previous novels that I have read. It ups the ante from the first novel in the CHRONOS Origins trilogy in a way that made my jaw drop. From an ordinary author, this is the kind of plot that might be saved for the final novel in a trilogy. But not Rysa Walker.

She takes this idea and elevates it in such a way that I was compelled to read one chapter after another without stopping. Taken to such an entertaining and provocative level, it makes me wonder how she will top herself and end the trilogy. I truly look forward to reading that novel when it is ready.

Having read Rysa Walker’s stories, I can truly say that this is her writing at the peak of her storytelling abilities. Writing in the time travel genre has many tropes and she manages to blast through all of them. She boldly tackles many adult and tricky subjects here with aplomb and grace. And that level of skill is infused in every page and I experienced the enjoyment of the story on every one.

In this adventurous story, nothing is easy, the time travel is swift, the surprises are endless and the characters are engaging. Take a captivating ride about using the world’s stage for the largest game of Temporal Dilemma ever played. Also, hope that Madi and Tyson’s teams do their best to make sure the timeline is as intact as they can make it. When you’re done, you will truly hunger for the final book in the trilogy.

Red, White, and the Blues is the latest science fiction story from Rysa Walker. Although this book is a continuation of a series it is quite easy to follow along even if you haven't read the previous novels. Ms Walker gives the reader time travel and alternative histories which fascinate and keep the pages turning to learn more. I want to thank NetGalley and 47 North for an early copy to review.

I really wanted to like this book as I truly enjoyed the original Chronos series. However, I found myself having a difficult time immersing myself in the Chronos Origins series. The first book in the series left me a bit confused and not quite sure that I understood or followed the whole storyline. I was hoping that the second book would help clear things up, but I felt much the same after finishing Red, White, and the Blues. That's not to say it was not a good book or an enjoyable read, I just didn't get the deep engagement and satisfaction that I felt with the original Chronos series.

I do not feel like I connected with the new characters in the Origins series. Maybe it was a lack of character development or just shallow depth to the characters, but I never felt I knew who they were and what made them tick.

The storyline itself was enjoyable and complex. I am still amazed at how Rysa can keep all of the changes and complexities of the timelines in order while writing these books. I have a hard enough time as a reader, let alone being an author trying to develop a world and storyline around them. The twists and turns kept things interesting and made it feel distinctly different than the original Chronos series.

As mentioned before, the story was enjoyable, but I feel it was made too complex to really engage in. I believe that there were too many different character points of view that the story is told from. I constantly had to keep checking back to the start of the chapter to remind myself what point of view I was reading from. This caused a disjointed reading experience for me and ruined some of the continuity. Taking 1 or 2 points of view away would have solved this for me and would have made the overall reading experience that much better.

I need to preface this with the statement that:
1) I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review,
2) The entire CHRONOS Files saga is fairly nostalgic for me. I binged the first trilogy and I have very fond memories of the entire experience,
And 3) I also need to say that this series would probably be fairly confusing to people who haven't read the first series.

I loved the characters and the concept and the world so incredibly much. Even still, when I reread the first book earlier this year to remind myself of some things that happened in the original trilogy, it wasn't QUITE as good as I remembered. But this isnt a review of the first trilogy.

All of that was to say, the first book in this spin-off series, Now, Then, and Every When, hit me with the same feelings as the first time I read that trilogy. Though I had a slower time getting into that book, it quickly picked up and I sped through the remaining 75%. I was into the time period and new characters and the aspects of history that were being explored.

That wasn't exactly the case in this second book. While I still enjoyed it, I feel as though the entire plot of this one centered too strongly on a game that doesn't exist in our world and so was conceptually difficult (for me, anyway) to understand. I found myself wanting the rule book the characters were given so I could maybe follow along a bit easier. Time Chess, aka The Game, aka Temporal Dilemma, was so complex that I kept struggling to understand why the characters were doing what they were doing while also trying to keep up with a period of American history I'm not well versed in.

While I did enjoy reading this and getting to see some returning old faces again, I definitely enjoyed the 1st book better. For one, I feel as though the events of the second book drastically change the timeline with regards to the events of the first trilogy, and I kept getting distracted going down a "timeline" hole of attempting to figure out how the actions of these characters would affect the timeline of the previous books. This might not have bothered me so much if the entire plot of this series, and this book in particular, didn't revolve specifically around changing the timeline and reversing said changes to the timeline in order to return to the "original", ie the timeline from the previous trilogy.

*****SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST TRILOGY, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT YET*****

I also dislike how certain characters are portrayed in this series. Katherine was such a strong individual in the first trilogy, and while I can understand that the events of her life led her to be that way and it was not necessarily how she was in her youth, Katherine is portrayed as annoyingly naive and ignorant in this series.

Saul obviously walks all over her, insults her to her face, demeans her constantly, and all is constantly forgiven, in my opinion, in an unrealistic manner. The author attempts to explain this in the plot in a couple of different ways, and I can't tell if the reason was more that she was genetically tampered with to be more submissive as a side effect of the time period she chose to research, or if we were supposed to believe that she reasoned it all away as "relationship compromise" in which he got everything he wanted and she didn't. She reasons away the awful things he does constantly, to the point where I actually disliked her character.

All of this is to say that, while I clearly had issues with this story, I still love the concept and the characters (Madi and Tyson and Jack in particular!) and will definitely be continuing with the third book. I just had to give this 3 stars because of my issues outline above, but its entirely possible that the confusion I experienced was entirely my fault regarding the timeline issues and the game being played. Also, the politics-heavy time period of history that was chosen was just not my thing, while I know for a fact that others will be more interested in it than I was.

All in all, I do love the CHRONOS Files and CHRONOS Origins, and I'm interested to see where the third book will take all of these characters. This book was not my favorite, but I still enjoyed myself reading it for the most part!

Why oh why do I not read books in order ? I'll have to have a word with myself, it would make life and reading easier for sure. I so wish I had read the first book in this series before jumping into this book, I felt I was playing catch up. There is a lot going on with this book, both in terms of characters, jumping back and forward in time, and descriptions of events like Pearl Harbour on 7th December 1941 and how it brought America into the war, and lots of other events in history. Very clever writing and what an imagination the author has. This is quite a block buster of a book and not a quick read. A very interesting and worthwhile one though.

Red, White, and the Blues is the second book in the Chronos Origins series by Rysa Walker. It picks up immediately from the twist at the ending of the first book, Now, Then, and Everywhen. I would definitely recommend reading these in order. In the first book, the main character, Madi, learns she has the genetic ability to use a Chronos key to travel through time. She is a young adult in 2136, Bethesda, when she discovers a key in the yard of her family's home. In the first book, Madi and her friends from 2136 work with historians from Chronos Headquarters of the year 2304 to repair a rift in the timeline to prevent disastrous consequences set off by alterations in the 1960s. Even though the timeline is restored, the Chronos historians return home to 2304 to find out that they are now "players" in a popular recreational time-travel game called Temporal Dilemma, a.k.a., The Game. Not only does this force them to play The Game, but Madi is also named as a member of their team. Furthermore, the challengers seem to be a team of advanced players from a different/parallel dimension. And, The Game is no longer a simulation, but it is real. The opposing team have already entered their moves which prevent the U.S. from entering WWII, causing an immense time shift with tragic outcomes. Madi, her friends, and the Chronos historians must work together to figure out which historical alterations were made by the other team and what moves in The Game they must accomplish to counteract the time shift and restore their future.

The writing is solid, character development expands from book one with several very interesting threads woven between the characters, both within and between timelines. The historical events, settings and people are described with just enough detail to feel plausible. However, throughout most of the book, the various actions, the multitude of different dates and times, and the historical news snippets are difficult to keep up with and very confusing. This makes the book a less than leisurely read because there is almost too much fractured information to follow. The last third of the book does bring everything in better focus as the story unfolds, and the by end almost everything makes sense.

I gave Red, White, and the Blues 3.5 stars because I really enjoyed the characters and much of the historical content, but it wasn't a compelling read that I couldn't put down. I thought Now, Then, and Everywhen was a bit better, primarily because it wasn't laden with the complexities of parallel dimensions which diminished the reading experience somewhat for me.

I thank NetGalley and the publisher, 47North, for providing this advanced reader copy.

I absolutely love this series!!! Each volume is another piece of this mosaic with characters we love... and love to hate. They are so well-written that we are just attached. I love that the author is not afraid to shine the light on ugly no matter where it is found. We are taking on an alternate universe-type nightmare that happens if the real nightmare was never stopped. Great, great story with our new favorite heroes!

This book is second in the series following Now Then And Every When. Madi, Tyson and their group of friends are pulled into a deadly game of time travel history being altered.
This book was very quick paced. Very interesting to think about what if this or that didn’t happen. Our characters in this bookkeeping actually living in that situation and have to figure out how to change it all back.
I enjoyed this book. Just felt lost in all the history that I wasn’t aware of.

Please note, Red, White, and the Blues is the sequel to Now, Then, and Everywhen and is the second book in the Chronos Origins series. Therefore, this review may contain spoilers for both the Chronos Files and Chronos Origins series.

Red, White, and the Blues picks up from where Now, Then, and Everywhen left off. Madi, Katherine, Richard, and Tyson had just restored the timeline from a real-life game of Temporal Dilemma (TD) where the early assassinations of MLK and John Lennon led to the U.S. staying in the Vietnam War for a longer period. Upon arriving back at CHRONOS HQ, Katherine, Richard, and Tyson are greeted by a message on the TD unit inviting them and Madi to play and advising them to wait for the opening gambit.

Shortly thereafter, the world they know shifts around them with CHRONOS HQ and everything they know disappearing around them. Their research reveals that the timeline has shifted once again and that in this version of history, the U.S. never entered World War II and Nazis won the war. So begins a time hopping adventure where Madi and her friends and the CHRONOS team have to determine what changes have been made to the timeline and find a way to flip it back and prevent any other interference.

The CHRONOS series are extremely well written, readable, and pull in real history and events to build on for the timeline shifts. If you are into time travel fiction, I highly recommend you read all of Rysa Walker's Chronos series and stories in order, I highly recommend this entire series and am always excited to see another entry in the series slated to be published. Red, White, and the Blues cannot be read as a standalone book due to it building upon previous storylines.

i really enjoyed reading this book, it was a great sequel to the chronos origins series. The characters were great and I enjoyed the story.

This is a cut above the usual level of writing. It has a complex plot that's nevertheless fully comprehensible and clear. It's well-researched, but the author doesn't make us drink from the exposition bucket, or throw in research facts that don't make any difference to the story just because she worked hard to obtain them. And despite the review copy I received from Netgalley billing itself as an "uncorrected proof," I noticed hardly any copy editing issues (which is vanishingly rare).

Sure, I've complained in previous reviews of the author's books that the genetic science is bunk, but I'm happy to forgive that, especially since it doesn't figure into this installment all that much. The history is solid, and it's not the usual stuff that everyone knows with the same old historical figures (though Einstein does make a brief appearance); it includes a number of now-obscure real people who were well known at the time, and who either promoted or (in a couple of cases) opposed Nazism in the US prior to the US entry into World War II.

Because this is the story of a nefarious plot to "flip" the timeline so that the US never did enter the war, and the Nazis won. Or rather, it's the story of the struggles of a number of determined, courageous people (and one complete bastard) to flip it back again.

The author seems to be fascinated by World's Fairs; a significant amount of the first series in this setting takes place at the one in Chicago at the end of the 19th century, and this one has the New York World's Fair of 1939-40 as a pivotal location. Again, though, that part of the setting is shown to us with restraint, only featuring the things that are either important or highly noticeable.

The whole story is told in first person present tense, from three different viewpoint characters. The present tense makes all kinds of sense as a way to narrate a time travel book; the first person, though, takes me to the only significant flaw I noted in what was otherwise a highly skilled piece of writing. All three narrative voices sounded exactly the same, despite their quite different backgrounds and personalities, and I often had to flip back to the start of a section to check the name so I knew whose viewpoint I was in (especially when I put it down partway through a section in the same viewpoint and picked it up again later). A writer who is as otherwise skilled as this author should be able to make the character voices much more distinct.

Apart from that one complaint, I enjoyed this very much, and will happily continue to follow the series.

As always, fantastic. The CRONOS world is so rich and intricate and yet I never feel confused. Read in order, as that is essential.