Just One Damned Thing After Another

St. Mary's Institute of Historical Research is not your average research facility. Which is all right, because Dr. Madeleine Maxwell thrives on the unusual, especially if it's ancient history. Madeleine knows it's her kind of place. She is thrilled when she learns that the institute studies "historical events in contemporary time." In other words, it has time machines. Styled as innocuous stone huts, the time travel pods come complete with a kettle for afternoon tea, without which apparently historians can't function. Going back in time is fraught with hazards, from rampaging T. rexes to rioting medieval peasants, not to mention nefarious humans. The heroine finds herself in impossible situations almost from the minute she steps out the door in the morning. Teens will love the protagonist's irreverence toward authority, quick wit, and penchant for trouble. She meets day-to-day and historical challenges with riotous aplomb. Though one of only a few women at the institute, Madeleine more than holds her own. And when she is exiled, her circumstances and despair are so well portrayed that readers practically experience them along with her, hoping against hope that all is not lost.