Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

OKAY 👏 This made my childhood self happy. This is exactly the kind of book that made me fall in love with reading in middle/high school. This book is not nearly as popular as it should be! I was unsurprised to see the author is a teacher, this has school reading material all over it (in a good way).

It took me a little longer than I wanted to adjust to the story, but once we were in it, I liked it more and more. I almost think the stakes could have been higher in some aspects - the possibilities are endless with this concept - but I was never disappointed.

But that ending - I might have teared up. Also, it ended so fast! I was hoping for a bit more of a wrap up or conclusion to our characters moving on from here. It really felt abrupt. But, I know there is a book 2 (& 3!) so I'll be hopping into those soon anyway 😄

Time travel stories can be difficult to pull off, but The Time Trials handled the concept in a way that felt exciting, accessible, and incredibly engaging. I loved slowly uncovering the rules of the world alongside the characters, and each new revelation made me even more invested in the outcome.

The pacing kept me hooked from beginning to end, blending adventure with thoughtful character development. The emotional stakes never got lost beneath the larger science fiction concepts, which made the story even stronger.

This was an imaginative adventure that left me eager to see where the series might go next.

The story follows Finn Mallory as a scholarship recipient for the prestigious Wharton Academy. Finn and three other students are invited by their history professor to be members of the Young Historians Club, but their fieldtrips are far from ordinary.

I was gripped with the book from the start, with an intriguing story and easy to follow writing, this was a definite page turner. I did find some of the time jumps between chapters jarring, as it felt that some of the story was missing, and I would have liked to hear how the story progressed from the previous chapter.

I found all the characters easily readable, and the four main characters meshed together great. The romance was unexpected, but I quite enjoyed it as it developed.

I am excited to continue with the story!

Thank you to the authors, publisher, and NetGalley for having this available to read!

The Time Trials by Jon and Dayna McConnell is a great fast paced time travel book. It has an elite boarding school setting and has high-stakes competitive historical games that involve collecting artifacts from specific time periods within a set amount of time. It involves healing from personal trauma, guilt, grief, self blame, high parental expectations, isolation, terrifying scenarios, corruption, and mysteries. The characters are quite diverse and have to look past their differences. This book is an emotional roller-coaster. It made me feel anxious, heartbroken, hopeful, and frustrated.

I got this honestly because it looked like something that my son would enjoy at night before bed. I was not wrong. We have both become invested in the story of Whorton Academy and Finn and the Historian Society. Worth a read/listen/ any other way you can consume it. It reminds me of Hunger Games, Harry Potter (without the Author) and Gregor the Overlander. The characters are relatable even to someone who isnt even in highschool anymore/hasn't gone yet, and the story is compelling and you want to know what happens next. We were only 3 chapters in when I requested the other 2 novels in the series!!!

I didn't know what to expect from this book, but my goodness....it was so good! I couldn't put it down. I immediately started the second one. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this book and they all grew through out the story in their own unique way.. I did question some of the adult choices, but it wouldn't have been as a great a story with out them. This is reminiscent of Hunger games but with a time travel twist.

I received a free E-ARC from Net galley and Two Crows Press for my honest review.

This was a good read, and I loved the twists and turns. The authors have created a wonderful, gripping story.

I enjoyed the journey this story took me on and i cant wait to see where these characters will go next. I really enjoyed the details (physical, temporal, and emotional) that made it easy to immerse myself in the book, things that i could easily identify with each character. Some of the storyline may be predictable but it doesn't matter since i was invested enough i still needed to see how it unfolded! I hope we learn more of the other characters' lives in the next books as this group has the potential to be more then plot devices for the main character, obviously i cant wait to read more!

I really enjoyed this one! The concept of a secret club running competitive time travel games hooked me right away, and Finn's backstory dealing with guilt over his parents' deaths gave the story real emotional weight. It took me a little while to settle into the pacing, but once things picked up I was completely invested, the four main characters meshed together really well and the unexpected romance developed nicely. Some of the time jumps between chapters felt a bit jarring, like pieces of the story were missing, and I wished the stakes had gone even higher given how much potential the concept has. That ending got me a little emotional though it felt abrupt and left me wanting more closure. Still, this was a fun, gripping read and I'm excited to continue with the series.

I loved the competitive game concept, secret-club atmosphere, and increasingly sinister mystery behind the timekeepers

Thanks to NetGaglley and Two Crows Press for the eARC.

I read this book years ago, I think. It felt so familiar to me. But seeing it through new eyes gave me a great reading experience. I loved the world building in this book, I loved our main character. So much of it worked so well for me.

Wharton Academy is an elite private school full of wealthy students, however, every year they award a full ride scholarship to one student. One of the last things Finn’s parents did for him before they were tragically killed in a car accident was to apply for the Wharton Academy Scholarship for the Unfortunates. Upon receiving the scholarship and arriving at Wharton Academy, Finn is assigned to be a part of the Historical Society Club, a club that no one knows much about. At the first club meeting, students are told that they have the option to take part in a competition that will involve traveling back in time to complete four challenges. Finn and his club mates agree to participate, and what follows is an adventure that pushes the comfort levels of each participant as they learn to work together as a team and test their own personal capabilities. For Finn, this means not only navigating a new school full of privileged students, but also learning to trust, rely on, and work with a small group of individuals he has just met.

I absolutely fell in love with this book. The imagery and word choice alone had me smiling as I pictured the setting and characters. I appreciated the way the authors quickly jumped into the action and didn’t feel like there were any dull moments, all the while developing the characters and showing their growth throughout the course of the novel. I also found myself plotting and preparing for each of the challenges, forming my own strategies and solutions, as the characters prepped themselves. That being said, there were a few things that I found myself wishing as the story progressed. I felt like the relationship between Finn and Everly was a bit forced and rushed towards the beginning of the story. I also wished that some time had been given to each of the other teams in the competition so that we weren’t relying solely on what we, the readers, were being told, but rather that we could have experienced or been shown. Lastly, I felt like the last challenge was short changed the time and attention it deserved. The time within the challenge should have been expanded and developed more. All that being said, I was fully immersed in the story and had a hard time pushing pause to return to reality.

4.5 Stars Ages 13+ Clean, dealing with grief, death, peril, and violence

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the authors for providing me with an ARC. As always, all thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

Okay, this book was made for me. I’m a huge fan of dark academia, deadly games and time travel tropes. And The Time Trials has all three!

In The Time Trials, we follow teenager Finn Mallory, who is struggling with the loss of his parents. He gets a scholarship to a prestigious school, almost as a sort of charity award. He reluctantly accepts an invitation to join a history club. But then it turns out it’s not a normal club. No, the teacher asks the four students if they want to take part in a time-travel competition… What starts as a unique opportunity to set the past right soon turns into a deadly fight for survival.

What I found most interesting was the way the authors handle time travel. In this world, you can’t change the past by travelling back in time. This immediately avoids a lot of complicated questions surrounding the butterfly effect.

The challenges were my favourite part of the book. I would have loved to read more of the history and, especially, more of the challenges. Some of them felt a little rushed. And I thought that was a shame, because that’s where I found most of the tension.

As the story progressed, the focus shifted more towards character development and the relationships between the team members. The authors managed to show the different personalities really well in a limited amount of time. And they all develop throughout the story. The four of them really become a family.

Personally, I found Finn the least interesting character. Unlike his teammates, I felt like Finn had the least character growth out of the four. At the same time, I understand why. His grief is still very fresh, while Everly had already found a way to deal with hers. His passion for music and his special friendship with Edison, his autistic roommate, did give me a nice insight into his personality.

The book is quite detailed, though. Sometimes, this made me feel more like I was being told what was happening instead of experiencing it myself. In short, I wanted more show than tell.

Still, I’m curious enough to continue with the next book. The concept is interesting, the team dynamics work well, and I especially want to see where the time travel and challenges will go next. So yes, I’d definitely like to keep reading!