Book Review: I'll Find You Where the Timeline Ends by Kylie Lee Baker

My thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Feiwel & Friends and Kylie Lee Baker for an eARC of this book in exchange for a review. 

I have quite the number of books by Kylie Lee Baker but life has gotten in the way and I have not read a single one of them until now. I liked this book and I feel bad saying that because I didn't really really like it or even love it. From what I understand, this is a little more light-hearted compared to Baker's other books so I'm going to chalk this one up as a it's me, not you, and try to explain the why's of it all.

So, I'll Find You Where the Time Ends follows Mina, a descendant of a dragon god who can time travel as a result of her ancestry. She is in training to work for the Descendants, an organization that works to keep the timeline safe. There are rogue agents who apparently take it upon themselves to change things in time and the Descendants go back and try to correct things in unobtrusive ways to best preserve the timeline. They have to make sure that no one notices them or what they do in order for their work to be what it is supposed to end up as. Mina is on track to become an agent, her goal being to find a sister that no one else remembers except her. While trying to finish her last requirements, Mina meets a rogue agent who claims if she doesn't help him, the world will end sometime in the future. Mina has to figure out if she wants to help the rogue agent or focus on finding the truth about her sister, and how both missions involve the organization Mina and her family have loyally followed for so long.

Okay, first of all, one star off for the development of the world which seemed a little lacking in some parts. The whole idea of the Descendants seemed interesting but I had no idea how they really worked to keep the timeline safe. There were instances every now and then to explain why this one thing, like a bug, changed things for the worst, but it didn't seem to have much bearing on the story. Mina was tasked with finding the bug, I remember that, but I don't remember why it was important. It was just something she was tasked with doing to get points to become an agent. I wanted to see more about this organization. I feel like little reports added between chapters, something explaining a task and how changing it worked in fixing the timeline, could have helped with developing the Descendants organization. The way it's presented in the book, I know there is the big boss, there is Mina's mentor, Hyebin, and there are Mina's parents who also work for the Descendants. And that's all I can tell you about an organization tasked with keeping the timeline safe. That's why it feels lacking. There could have been mentions about a big event they keep safe, how they have to run scenarios constantly to curb tampering with the timeline on that scale. I know that Mina was tasked with getting a boy to kiss her, and somehow doing this proved she could be an agent, which made no sense because I thought they weren't supposed to be noticed when they traveled in time? Ow, I think my head is spinning after that sentence.

Next, a second star off for the way the story wrapped up. For most of the book, readers are told by Mina that as a descendant, she seemed more human than the others and how this detracted from her overall self. She was supposed to be smarter, better adept at picking up languages, things like that because of her heritage. Instead, she was struggling with Calculus so she needed tutoring, and she was messing up on her assignments in the past which resulted in her mentor having to redo the missions without her. It all could have led to some interesting development if it had been a gradual reveal that Mina's self-assessment was wrong, but the ending just turns into a whirlspin and boo, that wasn't what I expected. I don't want to veer too much into spoiler territory but I think it goes without saying that a story about a girl who doesn't think she measures up to her peers would eventually find out they are more than what they appear to be. I just wanted it to feel more organic to the story. Also, if the ending was going to be that, why didn't something give earlier? Why wasn't there a system in place to recognize signs of corruption in the Descendants? It all seems like loose ends that were tied off too quickly and it makes me feel a little disgruntled about the resolution to the story.

After all is said and done, I thought this book was a sweet story about a girl who gains the power and confidence to stand up for herself and what she wants. She gets most of what she wants and is ready to move on with her life. So, okay, good for Mina.

Rating on my scale: 5.5 Stars. I wanted to like this so much more than I did and that makes me so sad. BUT, I have so many other books by Baker, and I can see that the talent is there, so I'm going to try reading everything else I have until I find a book I love. So see? There's hope for me yet.