Blurb:

The star-crossed temporal romance of THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR meets the vintage setting and yearning of DIVINE RIVALS in AS BORN TO RULE THE STORM.

Cadet Charlotte Amsel will trade her life to win a war- but not all at once. As part of an elite group of experimental soldiers, she can move through time, with each jump taking months from her own fated lifespan as she struggles to prevent the cold war from boiling over into an apocalypse. With her own side just as untrustworthy as the enemy, the only thing she cares about is keeping her best friend and fellow soldier (and in some timelines, lover) safe. But each time loop adds violent complications, and saving anyone before she runs out of life to give may prove impossible.

Review:

Reviewer’s Note: I read this for the SFINCS competition as a judge for Team Secret Scribes. 

Where to begin with this review? This book was beautifully written, and I would read several more novellas or full length novels set in this world. I’d not read anything by Cate Baumer before this, but now I know I’ll have to. 

We’re brought into a sci-fi situation in a world that has some 1950s vibes, where our three main characters, Lottie, Stephen, and Min, work for their government as experimental soldiers (they all have abilities of some sort that make them much more than a normal combatant) as the nation sits on the brink of war with the neighboring nation, which hates the experimental soldiers and considers them unnatural.  

Lottie’s ability? She can see the different threads that could happen in the future based on choices made. 

And so the novella focuses not on the events of the present day, but within the different possible futures. Lottie lives them, finding out each time if and when she, her friends, and her possible lover, will die. 

It’s mind-bending in all the best possible ways, and written with such a lyrical verve that I devoured the entire novella in two sittings within a day. 

All three main characters develop throughout the novella, and the world-building is solid, but this is a story about Lottie and Stephen. I was entranced watching all of their different possibilities and heartbroken several times over. Within only one hundred pages, I was completely invested in these characters and in Baumer’s prose. 

I mentioned solid world-building. I enjoyed the way the opposing nation, while depicted as a bit of a theocracy of sorts who hates the enhanced soldiers, but also as possibly the lesser evil in some ways. There are a lot of gray areas, which I like. It’s not just good nation vs bad nation. And Lottie, Stephen, and Min aren’t heroic characters saving the day. They just want to stay alive. 

In conclusion, this is an excellent novella and a story that I suggest everyone reads. Seriously, get your hands on it now! 

Note: These are my personal opinions and not the decision of Team Secret Scribes regarding advancement in the competition. We will be announcing the semi-finalists at a later date.