The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi #bookreview #TheThirdRuleofTimeTravel #NetGalley

Rule One: Travel can only occur to a point within your lifetime.
Rule Two: You can only travel for ninety seconds.
Rule Three: You can only observe.
The rules cannot be broken.
In this riveting science fiction novel from acclaimed author Philip Fracassi, a scientist has unlocked the mysteries of time travel. This is not the story you think you know. And the rules are only the beginning.
Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She’s built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time—to any point in the traveler’s lifetime—and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it’s not, the traveler has no way to interact with the past. They can only observe.
After Beth’s husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella—their only daughter—and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology.
Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp.
As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future.

💜💜💜💜.5

Hi and welcome to my review of The Third Rule of Time Travel!

I discovered Philip Fracassi as late as last year (I know, and I call myself a horror lover 😬) when his The Boys in the Valley was everywhere and I just had to read it. I found it an atmospheric and intelligent piece of folk horror, so when I stumbled across The Third Rule of Time Travel, there was no doubt in my mind I had to get my mitts on it, ASAP. I felt that if one author (besides Blake Crouch, obviously) could handle time travel in a clever, realistic manner, it would be Philip Fracassi.

Turns out, I was right! The Third Rule of Time Travel was everything it says on the tin, and everything I’d hoped it would be. It has just the right amount of science, and it’s just on the right side of plausible. It’s hard for a story about time travel to avoid being OTT, but The Third Rule of Time Travel pulls it off.

The juxtaposition of the scientific mind and goals of Beth and the greed and entirely different goals of her CEO works really well, and the story builds up at a steady pace until we reach the point where Beth has to fight for her sanity and her daughter.

The Third Rule of Time Travel is a smart and engrossing sci-fi thriller that grabbed me from the get-go and never let me go. I flew through it as I just had to know where I’d end up. I would definitely recommend it, especially to fans of Blake Crouch’s sci-fi thrillers and Heather Child’s The Undoing of Arlo Knott.

The Third Rule of Time Travel is out in paperback and digital formats on 18 March.

Massive thanks to Orbit and NetGalley for the DRC. All opinions are my own.