Jolly romp with the time travelling band at St Mary's. Well written and plotted, great characters and one-liners throughout. Works well as a single read so not necessary to have read earlier volumes, but you will be encouraged to go back to the earlier adventures by the quality of this offerring.

I can't help but feel that my adventures with Madeline, "Max" Maxwell are slowly winding down. I've traveled up and down the Time Line with her for many years now. From the Cretaceous, (dinosaur), period to the distant future (where there is no tea, gasp). Max has explored a dizzying number of events throughout history.

This novel has Max time jumping at a furious rate. She is trying to bring down the big bad "Insight" whose organization only exists to destroy and sway events throughout history. They have no regard of the repercussions, only their own agenda.

This novel has Max and her trusty sidekick, Markham, teaming up with the highly effective and truly devious bounty hunters/recovery agents Pennyroyal and Lady Amelia Smallhope. In the future, Max has infiltrated the notorious "Insight" organization. She works in the bowels of their headquarters as a clerk under the direction of Bridget Lafferty, super villain and head of administration. Insight hides in plain sight as an historical research facility and essentially Max is an information gopher.

Max ping pongs around the timeline putting out fires, (and sometimes engulfed in them), trying to be one step ahead of them while appearing to be a respectful, (yes we are talking about Max), new trainee on her first timeline missions. She pulls these off with aplomb, or not!

This was a fast moving, highly descriptive, beautifully executed time bounce, and at times hazardous exploration in this the 14th novel of The Chronicles of St. Mary's series.
I hope that this will not be the last we see of Max's story.

Thank you NetGalley and Headline Publishing for the ARC. All opinions expressed are strictly my own.

The Good, The Bad and The History by Jodi Taylor

Thank you Netgalley for an arc for an unbiased review.

I'm a huge Jodi Taylor fan. Huge. I even mention her in my Netgalley bio bit. I am a disaster magnet, who has merchandise as well as books, and follows groups on Facebook.
So, I had to push all that aside to try and ensure that I read this to review and be as unbiased as I could be.

Now, the one problem some readers might have picking this book up. It is not a standalone book to the series. You do need to read the others, preferably in sequence, as there is a lot referenced from previous books. Obviously as an avid reader of her books, this isn't a problem for me. However, for some it could well mar their enjoyment. I'm not marking the book down for this, as plenty of books in a series require you to read from the start, but I feel I should mention it.

So, anyway.

We have, once again, delightful chaos, brought in this instance primarily by Max and Markham. I mean, the two who probably bring the most calamity as they hop along the timeline of history. What could possibly go wrong?

What Jodi manages so well in her writing is how she can have you laughing, then crying, then laughing again within minutes. Her ability to turn from humour to angst to emotional is a ride few authors can do well. If there was a masterclass for this, Jodi would lead it. This book is no exception.

I also loved how we got some more on Markham. His story has always been tinged with a mysterious past, but Jodi recently brought in a lot more about him in a previous book. I was always worried by revealing what she had, it might diminish the character somewhat. Never fear. If anything I found it broadened Markham's character and as a result, brought fresh aspects to his relationships to those around him, with Max especially. Not always an easy feat 14 books in. But for me, that's the beauty of Jodi's writing.
We know we are getting a wonderful wordsmith, humour that is apparent, some of it less so, but once it clicks, it's just delicious to read in a new light. Again, we get these moments here.

Max starts us off and this book jumps right in where book 13, A catalogue of catastrophe left off.
Jodi is also a master at pulling in history, her research is often meticulous, and I found myself again marvelling how she brings these books to life in her own indomitable way.

Jodi has brought a slightly darker element perhaps more than usual to this book, but it doesn't feel out of place. Far from it. The tone for me was balanced.
We had a brief reappearance of xxxxxx (no names here, sorry) that made my eyebrows go up. But actually it made sense, so I'm surprised I didn't suspect it as a possibility at least.

The ending is satisfying and while I was worried this might be the last of this series, I was grateful for three words at the end that say otherwise.

If you love books with history, time travel, humour, snark, angst and love, then you really should give the series a chance. Start at the beginning, plus check out the short stories (details are all available on Jodi's website including a reading order) and I truly hope they bring you as much enjoyment as I gain from them.

How do I rate this book?
I adored it. I think this is by far the best she has written from the entire series! I do not say that lightly. It really feels as if Jodi elevates this above the rest. How on earth she does this, I'll never know.

5/5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 if I could give more, I would.

If there is a book series that makes me laugh, loose sleep as I can’t put it down and wish I could jump through the pages to join in more than St. Mary’s I have yet to find it! If there is a fictional duo who I want to be best friends with more than Max and Markham I’ve yet to find them either!

Once again Jodi Taylor writes a book that is the perfect mix of history, humour and fast paced plot. Markham and Max speed up and down the timeline trying to stay out of trouble and inevitably finding it, normally landing in it head first. From China to Egypt, past to future can they save the day or have they taken a risk too far this time?

At this point quite honestly if Jodi Taylor was to write a plant catalogue I would read it! She makes writing look effortless and peppers her books with Easter eggs, funny one liners and so many little details that I never get fed up of reading them.

The best book of 2023 so far!

This book was wonderful. I have enjoyed every book I've read by Jodi Taylor so far and this was no exception. The St Mary's Chronicles are some of my favourite books of all time and this was just fantastic. It made me laugh and cry and everything on between. I hope there will be more books because this kind of felt like a goodbye. I love how well the book brought everything from the past 13 books together and I hope to read more in the future.

Things are going as usual at St. Mary's - in other words, reeling from bad to worse and Max - who isn't surprised? - is popping all over the timeline. Max is the central figure in this book.

The book opens with police trying to question Max, and that was hysterical. Then she pops over to China a couple of centuries in the past and ends up in a riot. Then she changes things up by taking a job in the future, where she is spying on an organization that is dangerous to the whole timeline - and to Max, when they figure out who she is. This is complicated by her boss wanting to date her.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, although I was confused the entire time. I've read this entire series several times, and always discover something new. The books should be read in order.

I received a review copy from the publisher Headline via NetGalley. It was my pleasure to voluntarily read and review this book.

This is the 14th book in the series and the quality of writing and story is still well up there. We have been dragged along with Max and her adventures across time and the world and this is yet another great story.

More chaos and calamities from everyone's favourite historians. The Good, The Bad and The History follows directly on from A Catalogue of Catastrophe with Markham and Max on a secret(ish) mission to infiltrate the insidious organisation known as Insight. There's visits to Victoria England and ancient Rome among others with the goal to stop nefarious so and sos from bringing down History and along the way we have Max suffering from travel sickness. And not just any travel sickness, but all consuming, lost in time and space, sickness.

As usual I found this utterly delightful. Max and Co, as I've mentioned previously, have a special place in my heart and I will devour any and all stories that Jodi has to tell about his wonderful found family. Max at this point in the series is starting to think about settling down, much to Leon's delight, and it was interesting to see her come to the realisation that she can't carry on jumping up and down the timeline forever. Even if she wants to. So what do you do when your whole life has revolved around your job? You get a new one working for a highly criminal organisation that may have links to your own chequered past, obviously. I was also nice to see more of Markham and Max's relationship. After recent Markham revelations he's much less the mystery man, and it's allowed Jodi to expand on his already overwhelming personality even more. I'm not alone in saying Markham is my favourite character.

The plot, as usual with St Mary's books is all over the place in the best way. And that ending was not what I was expecting at all, and really begins to bring together thr plots from books 8 onwards. Threads begin reaching their end point, schemes begin to come to fruition. If you're new to the series I absolutely would not recommend starting here because you'd understand it even less than me, who's 14 books and countless novellas in by this point. Start with Just One Damned Thing After Another. Please. It's amazing, and you'll get to see all these plots come together in a really satisfying way.

I love my yearly St Mary's read, and the joy I feel after finishing that last page is yet to be matched by any other book series. If you like time travel, chaos and a hearty dose of British humour and hijinks I really recommend.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish this fictional mess because I simply couldn't seem to make heads or tails of what was going on... And last but not least
( and I really don't want to get into it) the quality of the pdf was so dismal that I have decided that from now on I will no longer request nor download titles that are not offered as an epub format.... Many thanks anyway but what a strange struggle it has been....

The Good, The Bad and The History is the fourteen novel in the hugely popular The Chronicles of St. Mary's series by Jodi Taylor.
As this is book 14, a lot has already happened but I'll briefly summarise the current situation:
Dr. Madeleine Maxwell (Max) was working at the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research. St. Mary's is not a typical institution and the staff frequently time travel to review events in history - along with resolving the odd problem and saving historical treasures. Max is now working as a Bounty Hunter and her companions continue to be as eccentric as ever. Max and Co are attempting to finally bring down the evil Insight corporation, but the dogged Time Police are following closely behind and ready to arrest anyone who gets in their way or breaks the law.
I particularly enjoyed all of the historical references and events in the story and full credit to the author for her research and dedication for the time travel aspects.
The story is full of tongue-in-cheek humour, mostly coming from Max and her colleague-in-crime, Markham, which adds a great sense of levity to the darker elements of the storyline.
If you are interested in starting the series, then I would recommend that you go back to the start and begin with book one, Just One Damned Thing After Another. I've been meaning to begin the series for some time and decided to dive in with this latest addition - despite being advised not to do so by other reviewers.
In short, you can definitely start with the most recent novel and quickly catchup with the storyline. A list of characters at the start of the novel, helps the reader to determine who is who and their roles (ie, St Mary's tend to be good, Insight are the baddies etc). However, there are references throughout the novel to previous events and reveals that are evidently major plot twists but it took this reader a while to catchup as I was unfamiliar with the characters unconcerned. I'm going to start with the first book this weekend and commence working my way through the full catalogue (short stories included) until I'm full up-to-date and then I'll re-read book 14, knowing that I'll fully enjoy the story.

I am a huge fan of this series and was thrilled when I was approved for this early copy.

I don't like seeing Max struggle to continue her time travelling, but I adore watching her jump around history causing chaos with Markham. They're such a great duo. Pennyroyal adds extra hilarity to proceedings in this book. He has really grown on me as a character.

There were some great developments in this book, some really tense moments and some huge shocks. I loved them all. Jodi never fails to surprise me in her books, and this was no exception.

I feel like we've been building to Matthew's bombshell reveal for a while now, but it still came as a shock and I loved the way it was addressed in the book.

I did feel like a lot of loose ends were being tied up in this book, it sees the end of a certain storyline. I really hope there's going to be another in this series because I have some questions I need answers to.

Okay, so this is #14 in a series and I have not read any of the other ones. Unfortunately with this series I feel this is not a standalone read and I feel I missed out a bit on what happened in the first 13 books and therefore felt lost.

Which is a pity as I quite enjoyed the characters and context of the book. But I think what I need to do is see if I can gather the first 13 books in the series and start from scratch as having read the reviews of others it sounds like a great series.

Thank you NetGalley and Headline for giving me the chance to read and review this book. Most importantly thank you for letting me find a new author and series that I know have to investigate further.

The Good, the Bad and the History" by Jodi Taylor is the 14th instalment of the Chronicles of St Mary's. The series is a fascinating mix of history, time travel, and humour, but these are not standalone book and need to be read in series as this takes place straight after the events of the last book. The story follows Max, a fun protagonist who jumps through time to witness some of history's most epic moments but it's starting deal a physical toll.
Taylor's attention to detail and witty writing style make for an enjoyable and engaging read. If you love history, adventure, and humour, this book series is a must-read and this story is as much of a rollercoaster as the previous instalments.

Oh My Days - can this series get any better!? Honestly, I know I always say this, but you really need to start from book and and read in order. Including all the in-betweenies if you can. Otherwise you will just sit there not fully understanding all the gloriousness that is St Mary's and the amazing character that is Dr Maxwell. I only discovered the series a few years ago myself so it is possible! Oh and while I have your attention, go check out the author's other series - the spin off from this one The Time Police, and also the Elizabeth Cage books. All completely brilliant!
So... back to this book. Maxwell has left St Mary's (do keep up) and has joined forces with Pennyroyal and Smallhope, as a time travelling bounty hunter. She is posing as librarian Nicola Hay whilst she recuperating from the assassination attempt by the nefarious organisation known as Insight. Insight is a legitimate historical research organisation and if you believe that... Maxwell is determined to get better and, with backup from her new associates, is hopeful that she can bring them down once and for all. And in a book about time travel (I know but, it really is) that's not going to be easy!
I love this series. I mostly played catch-up by listening to the wonderful Zara Ramm narration. But occasionally I get my mitts on an early ARC and read it. In Zara's voice in my head obviously! I am not sure which I prefer but I would definitely not turn down an ARC cos I want to wait for the Audible. Although, that said, I already have a credit earmarked for it when it's released.
What more can I say about this series that you wouldn't already know having read the 13 previous main books and all the inbetweenies...? If, like me, you've got here, you already think you know what you are getting. You just need someone, like me, another big big fan of all things Jodi and St Mary's and Time Police, to tell you you are right. So... stop reading reviews, buy the book already and dive straight in.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

In The Good, The Bad and the History we are getting part two of Max and Markham recovery agents extraordinaire and the first half of the book is much the same as the last book, there’s an excursion to the Boxer Rebellion to save some silky yellow books that will be worth a fortune one day when St Mary’s happens to find them but all in all the first half is slow. I miss St Mary’s and the gang. I want them back. The second half of the book is Max doing her undercover ops routine which again, more of the same, is super slow. Then it all kicks off Max is bouncing about all over time and space and pukeing her guts up in the process, rescuing kids, some good people get beaten up some bad people get killed, there’s a Traitor at St Mary’s! (Gasps) that’s more like it. So all in all this felt like round up of an loose ends and brings the timeline up to date with the start of Time Police books so that’s tidy too.

I was given an ARC by the publisher's, Headline, for an honest review.

This begins where the last book, A Catalogue of Catastrophe, ended. Max is back at St, Mary's recovering, at least for a short time. The book starts off at a fast pace and does not slow down. As usual there are the usual disasters and Jodi does have a talent for making you laugh and cry, sometimes in the same paragraph.

Max is working for an organisation named Insight in filing which is located in a dusty basement. She is there to gain information to their illegal and highly reprehensible activities. Markham is there to watch her back with his 'fun facts'. I will not go into detail due to spoilers but I will say there is never a dull moment.

I was worried as I got towards the end as it looked to be the final book in The Chronicles series but it states very clearly in big bold letters, Not The End. Phew.

Well done, Jodi. A great read and I will be buying my own copy when it is published.

The St. Mary Chronicles is one of my favorite series, it is my go to when getting out of a read slump. I’ve been reading Jodi Taylor’s work for years, and this book did not disappoint. It was quick paced, the story was exciting, and the humor had me laughing. My favorite bits are the historical parts. I feel I gain knowledge that my public education had left out. Jodi Taylor books don’t conform to my rating system, 5 ⭐️ because I love them and think everyone should read her book.

I really enjoyed this book. The writing style was absolutely fantastic and I loved being transported back into Taylor's writing. I had binge read this entire series on my iPad during lockdown and it provided me great pleasure in reading this book. I am forever in debt to Jodi Taylor for providing an outlet into a fantastical world when this world was locked and broken.

Upon receiving it, I should have reread the series as there is quite a bit of backstory that you needed to remember, so you would not be able to read this as a standalone due to missing important information. Because of that, some of the book went over my head a little bit as my memory on it had slightly faded. I highly recommend this book and cannot thank the publisher enough for granting this wish!

The Chronicles of St Mary's have managed to supplant any nostalgia to become my go-to comfort series, and for the last few years, I have treated April 14th (formerly publication day, and serendipitously my birthday) as an excuse to pour myself a margarita and imagine that I too am a disaster magnet, about to jump into pod and race up and down the timeline. If ever there was a fictional world that I wish I could be in, this is it.

This is not a stand alone book, and is very much the latest (14th) book in the series.

As the 14th instalment of this fabulous series, somehow it gets darker, with totally unexpected twists and turns, but Jodi Taylor's trademark wit inevitably shines through. Much more thriller-y than previous books as it explores the identities of shadowy figures and the insidious organisations, and the wheels within wheels/ conspiracies within them - carrying on from seconds after Catalogue of Catastrophe left off.

In short, I love this series. If you haven't already, pick up Just One Damned Thing After Another, and catch up so that you can enjoy this one too. It's a riot - in the best possible way. You're welcome.

I tend to keep reviews short and sweet and not include any of the blurb, so this is basically what I liked and didn't like about the book. I will be doing so in a vague-ish way in order to avoid any kind of spoilers.

I've been a huge Jodi Taylor fan since reading the first St Mary's book and have read all that has been published so it's fair to say I was keenly looking forward to reading this. I was super excited when my wish to get a review copy was granted on netgalley.

When last we left the St Mary's extended gang there was quite a lot happening and this book is a great continuation. It contains what I've come to see as the usual rollercoaster of Jodi's writing skill. I find it difficult to pinpoint my favourite characters as because this is the 14th book in the series they've all been with me for a long time but Jodi's characters I find very likeable until they are not and then they are simply horrid!

If you are new to Jodi's books then you may wish to start with an earlier book so you can follow the characters and the developments a little easier. A reader could very simply read the book in a standalone way as there is enough back story to explain without it getting tedious for those who know what's happened. However, I just feel that there is an advantage to the story growing along side the characters.

I found the book very hard to put down and if you are similar you may wish to book in some late nights for reading. I really enjoyed the book overall and such a lot happens.I'm already anticipating the 15th book with eagerness, even though I obviously have quite a wait for it to be written. I hope that you enjoy the humour, the honour and the privilege of the story as much as I did. I've no hesitation to rate it 5 stars for me.