Bell, Book, and Key is the finale of the Chronos Origins series and ties up the story of Madi, Tyson, Katherine, and the rest of the team and their attempts to reverse the destruction Saul Rand has wrought on the timeline. This book is the third in the series and it is absolutely necessary to read at least the first two books in the series at minimum before reading this book. I would recommend reading all of the books in the Chronos Files series (which begins with Timebound) first, as well to have a full understanding and enjoyment of Bell, Book, and Key.

Rysa Walker is one of my favorite authors and I have loved every moment of each of the Chronos Origins and Chronos Files books. They do get to be a bit disorienting in places because of the multiverse and different timelines, but they are still excellent books. I was disappointed that this was the last in the series and I hope she'll continued to write in the Chronos universe.

Following up directly from the finale of “Red, White, and the Blues”, book two in the CHRONOS Origins trilogy, Madi, Tyson, Katherine, Clio and the rest of their crew work to pick up the pieces. Saul’s game of Temporal Dilemma continues, and the team must work to figure out the changes to the timeline. Saul’s self-serving changes are more than just a game to him, as his objectives are coming into focus.

As Saul attempts to make the Cyrist religion more entrenched in history, it’s increasingly more dominant in the development of the United States. Science is replaced with fearmongering and perpetuating false beliefs. World history is impacted in significant ways and the history of the CHRONOS organization is also thrown into disarray.

With these changes to the timeline, the consequences become even direr. Not just for history, but also personally for the team. The Sisters of Prudence, a part of Madi’s past, are an organization slowly becoming more important. However, Saul is also hunting them down, for reasons only known to him.

With the fate of the timeline in their hands, Madi and her team must stop Saul from enacting his endgame before it’s too late. From history to their own pasts and the fate of CHRONOS, can they handle the multiple challenges they face before the timeline is irrevocably broken once and for all?

As the third and final book in a trilogy, there are many things this novel needed to accomplish. First, Saul and his mad plan to rewrite the historical timeline needed to be resolved. While I initially found them playing a new round of the Temporal Dilemma game to be like the latter part of book two, it also went off in a very surprising direction and defied whatever expectations I may have had. And it did so in such a clever way that I became even more captivated with the story than before, which can be a difficult thing to pull off in the final book of a trilogy.

Second, a sub-plot lurking in the background of the first two books regarding Madi’s maternal grandmother Thea comes to the forefront here. Her connection to the Sisters of Prudence and their ultimate role in this novel is woven carefully and perfectly into the novel, having a tremendous influence on the resolution of this trilogy.

Third, the origins of CHRONOS and how Madi’s team worked on the development of time travel, which in turn led to the events of the entire CHRONOS saga, brings it full circle in some innovative and imaginative ways. Given that this trilogy takes place in 2136 and CHRONOS was created many years afterward because of these events, it’s enough to cause a time travel headache. It all makes perfect sense in a time travel story like this. Just go with it and be delighted with how it all works. 😉

Finally, all these different story threads are interwoven to form a complex tapestry, the most complicated story the author has crafted yet. There are lots of moving parts, different characters, and even different versions of different characters. The time travel is even faster than before, the changes are more wide-reaching and there seems to be much more time travel in this trilogy than in previous stories.

Plenty of smaller scenes end up adding to larger threads within the novel and proving to be of vital importance, as well. Each revision of history brings new and more dangerous surprises into the story, sometimes working in our team's favor and sometimes, not so much. This novel ingeniously leveled up the cleverness of the plot and the shrewdness of its characters and uses time travel in some wild new ways not previously seen in these stories before.

There are multiple points in history explored in depth here, analyzed from a cultural standpoint and its relevance to their mission. From Charles Manson, his cult, the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, to the witch trials, how it connects to the Sisters of Prudence, and more. All of it relates to these specific pivot points and the mature themes presented here.

It continues to expound upon some disturbing areas, such as how racism amplified the differences between the haves and the have-nots. Demographically, one race looked down upon the other based upon privilege. This is personified by the increasingly unhinged Saul and his ilk over the course of this trilogy.

This is also seen in the development of women’s rights and how Madi and Katherine maneuver their way through many different eras while grappling with these issues. This is most evident with them dealing with the viewing of many women as witches and how their gender gets in the way of their various missions due to these prevailing opinions of the time period. However, Madi and Katherine prove to be more than capable of navigating their way through all this to try to accomplish their goals.

The CHRONOS gene, how gene editing is done in the future to gain an advantage in society and the privileged people it gets offered to is an ongoing theme of this trilogy as well. The idea plays out throughout these novels and especially plays fundamental importance in the motivations of one crucial character here. It masterfully incorporates this idea deeply into the personality of this character and it’s a revelation to behold. It also thoughtfully examines the idea between different characters in 2136 and its impact on the plot cannot be overstated.

Each character has additional layers to them because of these larger themes, how they respond to them and how it showcases their motivations and complicated aspects of their personalities. It adds an even more personal feel to the stories while also raising the stakes and increasing the momentum of the story, making it feel that much deeper. This bold storytelling with wide-reaching implications continues to be one of the many things I enjoy about the author's writing.

As our favorite characters struggle through multiple obstacles as they proactively try to stay one step ahead of Saul and his devious machinations. Madi really comes into her own as a time traveler and her romance with Jack goes deeper as well. Tyson and Clio also have pivotal roles to play in this narrative.
But it’s Katherine’s story that really experiences the most changes here. From her first appearance in Timebound: Book One in The CHRONOS Files trilogy, to now, her transformation and characterization have been the most amazing over the course of six novels. By the time you get to the end of this novel, you will see why.

Speaking of the CHRONOS Files trilogy, there’s plenty of connections to those stories as well. Kate and Trey get mentioned, Kiernan’s family gets more to do here. Simon, through Clio’s recollections, gets mentioned. Even Tate Poulsen gets in on the action here!

The novel really maximizes the action, raised the stakes, and increased the momentum of the story, making it feel that much deeper. This is large-scale storytelling with wide-reaching implications that continues to be one of the many things I enjoy about this author’s writing. Given that I have read all the previous CHRONOS stories, that is quite an achievement.

This novel is a compelling read with plenty of intrigue, suspense, and mystery as to what Saul’s ultimate goals are here with his timeline changes. The ongoing threats to their lives are perilous and not all our characters survive to the end of this trilogy.

The ending to this novel and to the entire CHRONOS Origins trilogy was very satisfying. The ending closes the book on all the events in this trilogy and ties up all the loose ends, while also leaving room for future CHRONOS stories. Unpredictably, it might not end in the way you might think, though. This is the author's most ambitious book yet and it demonstrates her at the height of her storytelling skills to date. Pack your suitcase and travel through time, it’s quite an adventurous trip.

Please note I received an advance copy of this ebook through NetGalley.

This book answered so many of my questions and tied everything up nicely! I still want more CHRONOS stories, and I love everything about this book!

Rysa does it again! Only in a time travel series, can you have a book that is both a prequel and a sequel simultaneously, while focusing on the same core characters in a story that spans just a few waking days while also spanning centuries. It's almost impossible to discuss what transpires in this third volume without giving away any key plot points, but it was masterfully written and delightfully mind-bending. I have loved the Chronos universe since the first book, and this one was no exception.

Finishing this book was bittersweet, as it always is to finish the last book in one of Rysa's series. I love knowing what happened, but am always left yearning for more time with the captivating characters. I sensed some foreshadowing of future stories in the final pages and I certainly hope they come to be.

I discovered the Chronos series through the first book of the Chronos Origins series. I had never heard of it previously, but after reading the first book of the Chronos Origins series, I had to read the original series that started it all. I am a big fan of time travel and alternate reality and the impact humanity can have on changing the past/present/future.

This book is no different and it was a great ride until the end. It was a fitting conclusion to the Origins series that sets up the start of the original Chronos series. It was a bit hard to follow at times and sometimes felt like the characters forgot they could time travel to fix or change something. However, that is more or less to be expected in time travel novels as it could otherwise create a slog of back and forth time travel to resolve perceived issues and problems. Overall, the author handled the timeline and storyline very well and made it enjoyable and 'believable.

Thank you so much to 47North and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I've been reading the books in this series since I first discovered Timebound, maybe 7 years ago? I've loved them ever since. I'm not sure if Rysa Walker has plans to continue on in this universe, but I secretly hope that the answer is yes! I enjoyed the CHRONOS Files books so much, but the first CHRONOS Origins book had me HOOKED. I enjoyed the 2nd book just a little bit less than that (see my review on it for reasons why) and now, here we are, at the end of this trilogy as well.

While I again did not love it as much as the first book in the trilogy, I still enjoyed the characters so much. There was both heartbreaking and heartfelt moments, and I've been with them long enough that I felt all of those emotions. In the spirit of honesty, though, this book and the previous one made me feel like that meme of the person with all the mathematical equations flying over their head as they try to figure out what's going on. The timeline was just so CONFUSING. And I think it's supposed to be, but I honestly hit a point where I stopped trying to get events straight and I just kept reading to find out what was going to happen next. I honestly still don't think I could tell you what prompted a lot of the events of this book, just because I was so confused through a lot of it.

Time travel is confusing though, so I don't think it truly impacted my enjoyment of the story, and I loved the ending of this. Seeing characters from the CHRONOS Files books was a nice little bonus, too. I gave this a four out of five stars and I'm looking forward to more of the books that this author hopefully will write about this world.

It's just as well this is the last in the series, because it's started to lose me. (Don't start here, by the way. It continues straight on from the previous book without any recap or orientation for the reader. I read the previous book about a year ago, and didn't remember it well enough to avoid being disoriented at times.)

The genetic science has always been nonsense, and the different first-person narrators still all sound identical, so I frequently have to flip back to the start of the chapter to remind myself who the current "I" is. I've mentioned both of those things in reviews of earlier books. But in this one, the always-obviously-hokey manufactured religion - neither as well-organized as Scientology nor as thoroughly constructed as Mormonism - is far more successful than either, gaining what you might call market dominance in a theocratic USA. I found it implausible on multiple levels that, even with a secret Book of Prophecy capable of enriching people via stock tips and sports betting advice from a time traveler, this jumbled mishmash of bits cribbed from existing religions, vague self-help philosophy, and Ayn Rand-style Objectivist selfishness would take over so thoroughly. Not only is the secular impulse in the US extremely strong, despite the continued strength of civil religion there, but people with an existing religious tradition - Catholics, say, or Mormons - often have that as a powerful part of their identity, so it isn't just a religion but more like an ethnicity, and they'd be unlikely to give it up for something as nonsensical as the Cyrist religion. (Nor have I ever found it plausible that Cyrism could arise in the Middle Ages without being suppressed; this is something that's only ever touched on lightly, no doubt because to write the Cyrist scripture in authentic medieval language is something beyond the ability of either the fictional founder or the actual author.)

The whole thing reads to me as the work of someone who doesn't actually understand religion, or religious people, very well at all, writing for other people who don't understand religion either and using it as a bogeyman. Even when civil religion was a lot stronger than it currently is, a truly theocratic USA was never realistically on the cards; the whole structure of the government is set up to prevent it, and as we've recently seen, is surprisingly successful at preventing dictatorship and the complete dominance of any one viewpoint.

Even setting all of that aside, the way the timeline changes worked was deeply confusing and, I suspect, not entirely consistent. For example, <spoiler>killing an older version of the antagonist and removing his time-travel device flipped back all the changes that he had made prior to that, which didn't seem to happen with other people and hadn't been adequately foreshadowed as a likely outcome</spoiler>. Earlier books have been complex, but I've followed them fairly easily; this one feels a lot more jumbled and confusing.

I'll close by mentioning the things that did work for me. As previously, the text is well edited, and even in the pre-publication version I had from Netgalley I only noticed a couple of small errors. (Probably because it's had a great many eyes over it, judging from the acknowledgements.) Also as in previous books, the history is well researched without beating the reader over the head with the research bat. It is pretty obvious which characters are real historical characters and which are fictional; the real characters are mostly seen at a distance, whereas the fictional ones get closeups and dialog. But there is an authentic sense of history, of the difference between historical periods, and that's a definite strength of this series and this author overall.

Disappointing, then, that there were a couple of things that didn't work so well for me, and (combined with the weaknesses I've been noting all along) dragged my rating down to three stars.

I am such a fan of this whole universe. The details are amazingly, intricate but never confusing. The characters are lovely and dialogue is always so good. I wonderful wrap up with nothing left hanging. I would say you minimally need to read the origin series in order, but really, best read from start to finish. All 9 books in the order written to get the best out of it.