Oh no! Pru is now a sympathetic character?! Will wonders never cease? This novella was so much better than the previous one ([b:Time's Echo|22009372|Time's Echo (The Chronos Files, #1.5)|Rysa Walker|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398370326s/22009372.jpg|41321705]), mostly because Pru is a much more interesting character than Kiernan. I'm torn that a significant issue brought up (Did Pru ever find out that Saul was the bomber, not Katherine?) was not resolved within this novella - I can only assume that it'll be addressed in the final book.

I also liked that the YA Romance angle was only a minimal part of the story. ( )

So monumental when you take in how it affected the entire series ( )

I like this series, but I just could not enjoy this novelette. I found Prudence and most of the other characters to be too unlikable. I even tried skipping around (which usually helps me with tough books--somewhere in there I usually can find a place that catches my attention, and then I go back to finish reading what I missed), but it didn't help. My attention was caught by a pet-related tragedy (being vague to avoid spoilers) but then Pru complained, "Why didn't she warn me?" when "she" DID actually warn her, Pru was just too dumb to notice.

Perhaps I'll go back to this book after I've read the other books in the series. So far, I've read #1 and #2 and this book. I know there are a few more short stories and one more novel. ( )

This is a longer novella, which offers and ads to the CHRONOS-storyline from Pru's POV.
And that is also my problem with the book, while it makes me understand the very well written characters, Pru is not one of the brightest, and gets more than once lied to (ok, not her fault) and does suspect it, but still does not really think with her own mind. Maybe the situations are just to bad, but she also shows no real interest in things that could help her.
As it is, I strongly recommend to read this book for the background and the different POV, with the caveat that this is a dumb girl, too young and if you have read the other books, her mind gets muddled by too many time-jumps, and that certainly does not help liking her, wether it is her fault or not.
We get a lot of her thinking about things, and that is mostly non-tech, more romance, and very single-minded, even when she tries to correct mistakes with time-jumps, she always thinks of herself first, not seeing the bigger picture.
If she had had a normal life, it would have been a boring one, housewife, pop out 2.3 kids and raising a family - not my kind of gal nor heroine.
Currently I cannot say, how I will rate it - it is adding the whole series, and with Pru being deliberately written this way, and there being such women in the world (although I know none and would not befriend one), it is interesting.

So even though it is a novella, I took a break to start [b:The Martian|18007564|The Martian|Andy Weir|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1413706054s/18007564.jpg|21825181].
OK, that was a downer, dumbed down, overhyped Bestseller, snarky, but not really good - see my NSFW-Review here:
see my NSFW-Review. Usually I post the same review at Amazon.com, but this time they declined "obscenity", I had to revise the wording...

So, enough OT, back to this book, although I took my time reading it, that was mostly for not liking Pru (and Simon, and Saul).
But still a must-read for completing the background to some scenes and the series.
So, 5 stars it is.
And for a Novella I paid for, I think it was rather long and for once, worth the money - often I think they are too expensive and should only be given away for free, like they did back in the old days, as a teaser for the next book.

It will not really work as a standalone, you should have already read both the first and second book in the series, otherwise it will be very confusing, it is complicated enough with all the time-jumping. ( )