I really wanted to love this book because it was a time travel novel. However, the characters seemed very distant, and I could not connect with them. Also, the writing was very simplistic. Still, it is rich in detail and is meticulously researched. I recommend this for fans of Into the Dim!

I had no idea who Sasha Alsberg was when I had the chance to join the blog tour for Breaking Time. I didn’t know she was a Booktuber/Instagrammer/content creator. The book just sounded like a dandy read. I do enjoy a good time travel story, after all, and my goodness, that gorgeous cover would draw anyone in. So my thoughts on the book aren’t affected by Ms. Alsberg’s internet presence or reputation.

It reminds me of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. The name similarity – Claire and Klara – caught my attention right off the bat. But thankfully, Breaking Time is not an Outlander clone. Clearly very heavily inspired by Outlander, but not a carbon copy.

Klara has returned to Scotland following her mother’s death, where she is helping her father run an inn. When a man appears unexpectedly in the road ahead of her, her immediate concern is whether she hit him. But it soon turns out she’s got bigger worries. The man, Callum, has traveled forward in time from the 1580s, and Klara is in danger.

Callum feels like he failed his friend Thomas in his own time when he couldn’t save Thomas from a killer. Now he thinks it’s his job to protect Klara, who is being pursued by the same dark entity. Klara is the last remaining Pillar of Time, and if her pursuer is able to take her out, it means a whole lot of bad things for life as we know it.

Things I enjoyed about the book: Time travel is always fun to play with. It’s interesting to see how Alsberg set hers up as compared to how other authors design it. Here, “thin places” in the world allow for time travel. Not stones, as in the Outlander series, but historical points of interest. Klara is a likeable young woman, and I appreciated the way that Alsberg presented and dealt with her neurodiversity in the form of dyslexia. And I really liked her grandmother! I wish we’d seen more of her character in the book.

Things I didn’t like: Having Callum’s Scottish accent written out was distracting. Knowing where he was from, I could have imagined it for myself just fine. The fact that he sometimes fell out of his accent didn’t help. He also seemed to generally accept his sudden time shift fairly easily, without a tremendous amount of confusion or suspicion about modern conveniences.

I don’t entirely understand WHY it was that he came to be transported into Klara’s time. Was it just happenstance, in the wrong place at the right time, and he just happens to have knowledge of events with Thomas that give him some insight into Klara’s situation? If that’s the case, that’s a lot of coincidence, that he’d end up in proximity to not one but two Pillars of Time (which I reckon aren’t all that common). And for the love of goodness, would a major library not have some security for its special collection books?! Pretty sure it would, but this one, apparently, did not.

And unless I’m missing something, Arianrhod is from Welsh mythology. The story takes place in Scotland. Scotland is not Wales. I’m not an avid student of Celtic mythology, and I get that country boundaries are not always firmly fixed. But it seems odd to use a goddess from the Welsh pantheon to give Klara, in Scotland, her special powers. Likewise, it seems odd that another Welsh figure, Llaw, would be made the Big Bad in Scotland. Maybe the Pillars of Time are worldwide, and so the forces involved don’t all have to be associated with the same location. I just wasn’t really expecting Welsh names in a book with a Scottish setting.

Klara’s maturity level is about what you’d expect from someone of an age to be considering college. It’s billed as YA, so that makes sense. The writing style was easy to read, and I didn’t have to focus deeply to follow the story.

Best book I’ve ever read? No, but it also isn’t the worst. It’s fair to middling, three stars. There’s clearly a setup for a sequel, but I haven’t decided yet if I’m interested enough in the outcome to keep reading. It’s a fun bit of brain candy, if you’re looking for a light, easy read for the summer.

Loved the cover, loved the premise, but if I wanted to watch Outlander thats what I would've done. I was very disappointed by this book.

I was immediately drawn in by the cover and synopsis, but the writing just did not click with me on any level. I think Alsberg has a bright future ahead of her, but this story did not connect with me as a reader and I was not able to be drawn into the plot.

I wanted to love this book, but I really just couldn't get into it. I am going to grab the published version and see if some of the things that were tripping me up in the e-arc were changed before publication!

Looking forward to more books by Sasha.

This book was received as an ARC from Inkyard Press through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I love time traveling love stories, but this one had a twist of a lifetime. What would you do if you found out, you possess the powers of a goddess, and your body is the ultimate hiding pace for these powers? That was the case for Klara, but all she kept focusing on is making sure she didn't hit Callum, a time traveling scotsman with her car. Now Klara is in a much bigger bind than she can ever imagine, but the good news is Callum has been sent to protect her at all costs. They learn that the only protection they need is from eachother falling in love with one another. This story was so complex in the best way possible. Sasha Alsberg did a remarkable job constructing this story into an exciting fantasy, romantic plot that readers will be begging for more. Incorporating the dark forces is something we all struggle with in fiction and reality, and it was pleasant to see how Alsberg interwoven those elements into the story making it relatable.

A pillar of time traveling love that will leave reader's shocked with amazement. This book deserves 5 stars.

This was a great time-traveling fantasy read. It was interesting to see how every adapted and adjusted and I can't wait for the next title in this series!

This is a cute YA fantasy. I would recommend for fans of Maggie Stiefvaters, The Scorpio Races or anyone who loves a good romantasy setting. The romance delivers and the plot serves to make it sweeping and epic.

A time-warping fantasy romance geared perfectly at young adult readers. Well-paced and with only a handful of characters. References to Celtic and Scottish lore abound as does simile and metaphor. Ms Alsberg paints sweeping landscapes and paints colorful characters that sets up for a fascinating series in the making. I can't wait to read the next in the series!

Time traveling novels set in Scottland are hard not to compare to the Outlander series. Unfortunately, with that comparison in my mind I just couldn't get into this story as I hoped I would. While this book certainly had some different twists with Callum traveling to our time period and the addition of Pillars and goddess magic, it left me wanting more. Part of my enjoyment of reading books with time travel is that you are taken away to another time or place along with the character. However, with Callum traveling to our time period, I felt that the story lost a bit of that magic of discovering another world. Instead, I found myself constantly wondering how quickly someone would come to terms with what our world looks like with technology and other advancements, and it took me out of the story too much to really enjoy it.

Interesting take on time travel, not sure how well it would do in our community but we have recommended it to folks we ting would appreciate it.

I was excited to read this, as I have followed the author for many years. Unfortunately, this story was hard for me to get into. With that being said, I can see how others (especially fans of Outlander) would really enjoy it! The atmosphere and timeline aspect felt very reminiscent of that book series/TV show.

This felt too similar to a certain Starz TV phenomenon and bestselling book series. There was not enough here to differentiate Sasha's writing from other time traveling romance novels.

This sounded so interesting to me because it was marketed as a "YA version of Outlander". And I can see why they pushed it as such... but that didn't make it good. Klara was annoying, the insta-love was annoying (ONE OF THE BEST PARTS OF OUTLANDER IS THE SLOW BURN BETWEEN JAMIE AND CLAIRE), and I could not stand Callum's inner monologue of "I need to save Klara. I've known her 4 days and already know I never want to be without her". It was all just so cringey and nothing was really laid out well... I just did not care for this AT ALL.

I had to give up about a third into the book. The characters fell flat, the plot didn't add up, and I was just getting bored. It really breaks my heart though because Alsberg is a booktuber that I watched for many years and liked! I also was excited about this being an Outlander fan fiction, but I was hoping for more!

2.5 stars. This had potential, but fell flat. Way too much going on- mixing mythologies/ belief systems, gods, etc. Callum raised catholic, but there’s Irish, Welsh and Scottish beliefs mixed in. Even the narrator was mixed up. Klara is raised in NYC but the narrator reads her with a Scottish/ Irish accent (I don’t think she could make up her mind which accent to stick to). I thought this was a standalone so a bit disappointed with the ending.

I had high hopes for this book because it sounds like something I would love but unfortunately I got bored. It just took me forever to read it and I did force myself.

I do not recommend

I was excited to read this book, with it taking place in Scotland and time travel it had me very intrigued. Sadly it did not live up to my expectations. The writing was very juvenile, even for a YA book. The characters weren't well developed and the relationship between the main characters felt forced and awkward. The plot (what little there was) didn’t make much sense and felt all over the place. Unfortunately this wasn't a book for me.

This is the first book I've read by Sasha Alsberg and it was so fun! Such a cool and intriguing premise I look forward to reading more from her in the future!
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

I enjoyed this story very much, the plot was captivating and interesting. Im looking forward to reading more from this author.