The first in what promises to be an interesting series entitled "Time Corrector", this volume deals with Vince and his first interactions with time-turbulence. I was half expecting this to be an action packed knotty time travel with a side of romance. On reflection though, I preferred what the story actually was. Almost a story of star crossed love, which didn't get a chance to be. Years later, Vince has a second chance at love. If he can sort out what he actually wants.

There is quite a bit going on in the story between flashbacks, new relationships and a brewing political storm. But it felt like the complexity make sense, tying together nicely with all the activity centred around Vincent's life. There is a lot he has to deal with in order to understand what has happened in his life and how he can help Emika.

After the first chapter or two, where the scene and background are set, the novel started to hit its stride for me. From then on steadily delivering hints to help unravel the mystery, while also describing the current struggles of Vince. Each piece slowly fitting together (much like a watch), to become a fascinating page turner.

The level of detail and attention the author put into the props in this story is incredible. The watches, cars, clothing and food are not just described, but specifically mentioned with brands and models. I think Incidental learning is great in fiction, and I was forever reaching for my phone to look up something that had been mentioned. It helped the world building a lot to get an idea of a characters tastes and personality based on what they were wearing or using.

Perhaps the one thing I found a little strange were the flashback scenes in the boarding school. It's a minor thing, but I felt like the characters acted much older than the 6-8 years they were meant to be. I think it may have been a side effect of trying to ensure key milestones kept continuity, while still portraying the relationship with Akane. Overall, that didn't really change my reading of the novel though.

Having reached the end, I am curious to see how this series will evolve. There was quite a lot explored in this volume, but it kept my interest throughout. Avoiding spoilers, I feel like need to see what happens next for Vincent. I'd recommend this to anyone who is interested in a lighter sci-fi/romance novel. Personally, I've bookmarked to make sure I'm notified as I can't wait to see the next instalment from Avi Datta.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

This book was a bit hit and miss for me. I loved the idea and the worldbuilding, and I appreciated that as we bounced around in time the author was always very clear where we were. I love the thought that clearly went into setting up this series, and I'm very intrigued to see where the next book will go. I am assuming we'll get more of an explanation of [redacted here, under spoiler tag in Goodreads review].

The major thing that bothered me was that all of the characters basically sounded the same when they talked, and were not really distinguishable from each other. We got sort of a sense of Emika's personality, in that she was unpredictable, but I felt like the grad students and school friends didn't have distinct personalities. I'm not sure if this was intentional though, if Datta was trying to say that to Vince everyone is essentially interchangeable in his life except Akane. There were a couple of minor quirks that bothered me too, like every character saying each other's names frequently in conversation (rather than using dialogue tags) - it strikes me as a very politician thing to do, but maybe that's because I've only ever heard politicians on podcasts actually talk like that.

Overall, 4 stars rather than 3 because it's the author's first book, and the first in a series. There's a lot of set-up here, so I hope there's more character-building in the next book and we'll see more personality from everyone.