Just One Damned Thing After Another: The Chronicles of St. Mary's series

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Also from the description of the book I expected there to be a lot of detailed, historical content and there just wasn't - not enough to satisfy any history buffs anyway and that disappointed me. This epigram was reprinted in the column Shifting Slugs, in the Daily Arizona Silver Belt (Globe, Arizona) of Sunday 14 th March 1909.)

The story started intriguingly enough, I really liked the set-up, but it soon turned into boredom and confusion. I felt detached and irritated. Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary's, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don't do 'time-travel' - they 'investigate major historical events in contemporary time'. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power - especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet. Hold on," said Chief Farrell. "I'm duty officer this week and I want to see if the fire alarms go off." That said, not everything is light and fluffy either; every now and then a grim pall will settle over some of the plot’s events. There’s violence, there’s death, and there’s lots and lots of dismemberment. It can be jarring sometimes, especially when there’s a tendency for all this gruesomeness to come on suddenly. Same goes for the sex, and the random emotional displays that seem to drop in and explode out of nowhere. I certainly don’t mind the darkness and brutal themes, but as with all good things, timing is everything. Maybe this book just needed some extra editing, or maybe it was just a consequence of the author’s personal unique style. Whatever it was, I found it somewhat distracting.The title of this book feels very apt as this really is a roller coaster of a ride – not only through history, but through a whole host of different plot twists and turns. Our heroine is Madeleine Maxwell (Max), who is saved from an unhappy childhood through encouragement to get out of her bad situation through education. When she is invited to an interview at St Mary’s she finds that it is a research institution like no other. Indeed, the historians at St Mary’s can return to any historical event and witness it. This is observation and documentation only – history will not permit anything, or anyone, to change events and will not hesitate to eliminate any historians who try to do so. Max, Doctor B. and Chief Farrell are three of the good and hilariously funny guys in the crew! Most of the story is told from her, Max's point of view and we get to follow her training, her friendships, her frenemies, and her propensity for disaster which obviously follows her around as a faithful puppy. I liked that the way the author let us acquaint ourselves with the main players was through their actions and banter, rather than being spoon fed descriptions and assurances about their characters. The writing stile was a bit different, but very pleasant overall and had a wonderful undertone of humor, without making the seriousness of curtain parts of the story fall flat. There were moments I was surprised by the starkness and bleakness of the mood, since I had expected just a humorous and fantastical tale of not much debt or substance. Here is for low expectations being topped!:):):) As I said: endearing. Not all the characters (there are quite a lot) are equally memorable but that didn't concern me. With such a cast it was bound to happen. Also because some are MCs, some have supporting roles and some are "just" in the same picture. The premise: fascinating. Especially the part about history fighting to preserve itself, like a living entity.

Bob has a motto on his wall which says ‘ Life is just one damned thing after another!’” said Jimmie. A lot happens in this book and it seemed really too much to handle carefully in one book. We are introduced to the main character, her life, her introduction to St. Mary's her first mission, second, etc, on through 5 or so years of her adventures before we even get to what might be the big adventure. But because of our fast paced introduction, we never really get to know most of the supporting characters particularly well. Things happen, then we're suddenly rushed past the results and the unsatisfactory explanation and we're racing on to the next event.

ˌone (damned/damn) thing after aˈnother

Honestly, I wasn't expecting anything spectacular, but at least a fun romp through various periods of history. I gave up on about chapter 7 (I think? The main character is about to go see some dinosaurs). I'm going to give my reasons why, so beware that there are spoilers ahead: After school, she moved to Yorkshire with her husband and began working at the County Hall in the County Secretary’s department, and next she went to work at the County library service in the position of Facilities Manager. Altogether, she remained there for almost 20 years, following which she moved to Turkey where her brother lives. A lady automobile tourist who had met with two accidents in one day, remarked that she had seen a post card inscribed, “ This world is just one damned thing after another.” And she was almost persuaded to believe it. Well where to begin ? The book really grabbed my interest at first, and I thought the premise of the story was good.