Genre: Urban Fantasy
LGBTQ+ Category: Gay
Reviewer: Linda, Paranormal Romance Guild
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About The Book
Simeon Bell just hasn’t been himself.
Although he has spent a happy year as a roustabout with the Carnival of Mysteries—accompanied by his beloved, Crow Rapp—lately something has felt off. Maybe he hasn’t been himself because he doesn’t fully know who he is. Abandoned in a foundling home as an infant, he has never known anything about his family and has never met another of his kind.
A tiny box found on the carnival midway leads Simeon and Crow on a quest to Simeon’s childhood home in the Victorian slums of London, where he discovers the ability to move through time. With Crow’s steadfast love as his anchor, Simeon searches across the decades for answers about his identity. The more he travels, the more he learns about his history… and the more he faces the danger of losing himself entirely.
Rook’s Time is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries Series and a sequel to Crow’s Fate. Each book includes at least one visit to Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, a magical, multiverse traveling show full of unusual acts, games, and rides. The Carnival changes to suit the world it’s on, so each visit is unique and special. This book contains an East End orphan and Illinois farm boy, both of whom are far more than they seem; occasional help from three mysterious women; and a lot of rooks, crows, and their kin.
The Review
This is the sequel to Crow’s Fate, and if you haven’t read it, you are missing out on a wonderful story. Each book in the series is standalone – Crow’s Fate is the beginning of Crow and Simeon’s relationship and Crow’s discovery of what he is. Now it’s time to discover Simeon’s tale, and it is quite a story indeed.
Simeon is a rook (a bird) who grew up in a foundling home in London with no knowledge of where he came from and why he was abandoned as an infant. Now Simeon and Crow are roustabouts working together at a carnival owned by Mr. Ames, and are always traveling to different places and different times.
The carnival is now in London in 1883, Simeon’s time. As anxious as Simeon is to discover where he came from and who he really is, he is afraid to walk out of the exit for fear of the unknown. Crow has no hesitation in following Simeon to wherever he goes. It will take a woman leaving a box for Simeon to discover and want to return to finally push him to finally leave the safety of the carnival.
With a bag full of cash given to Simeon and Crow as salary, they embark on an adventure filled with secrets and danger. Simeon recalls being taken from the foundling home by a couple asking him questions. Having no answers and not knowing who they were or what they wanted from him, he escaped. Now he revisits them, wanting answers of his own.
Simeon is shocked to discover that the couple are his cousins, and they know his history. His parents and the town realized that he had the ability to time travel, and a prophecy revealed that he would be the one to destroy all the rooks. Then he discovers he had a brother, so there was hopefully still some family alive.
The town was in fear of the prophecy and decided that the boys had to die, but their grandfather hid them away, unable to kill them. A fire destroyed their home and his parents died. Now Simeon wants to find his brother, and to figure out why the box was left in his care. The search begins, but the results will not be what Simeon expects.
Like Crow’s story, Simeon’s is filled with sadness and danger, but love will hopefully see them through. The story is filled with lies, betrayals, surprises, secrets, love and sex, and a visit to London at a time when poverty was rampant. As a young man, Simeon lived on the streets as a thief and sold his body, when necessary.
Once again, the carnival appears when Simeon needs it, and he hopes all his questions will be answered.
This book is part of the multi-author Carnival of Mysteries series, a carnival that changes to suit the world it is in. If you are unfamiliar with the books in this series, I can’t recommend highly enough to start.
Another wonderful tale from Kim Fielding. Five stars.
The Reviewer
I am an avid reader the mother of 3 sons and grandmother to seven grandchildren. Since retiring I have been doing more reading while volunteering as a CASA worker. CASA is an organization that works with the family court system to ensure that children are in the best living situation. There are way too many children that get overlooked in the foster care system and I visit homes and make visits to the parents. I was born and raised in New York and my husband of 50 years and I live in Upstate New York.
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