I picked this up because my thesis was staring at me and I needed something that would let me procrastinate guilt-free. Time travel? Twins yanked 400 years into a dystopian future? A mission to destroy the very machine that caused all the problems? That's basically a D&D campaign premise and I am HERE for it.
Echo in Time is the sequel to Erasing Time, and while I hadn't listened to the first one, I jumped in anyway. (My D&D group would be proud of my chaotic energy.) The premise is solid sci-fi YA fare—Taylor and her twin Sheridan are trying to survive in Traventon after being ripped from their timeline, and now Taylor's gotta team up with Joseph to take down the Time Strainer before it causes more damage. The romance is there, the action moves fast, and C.J. Hill knows how to keep pages turning. Or, well, audio flowing.
The British Bloke Reading American Teens
Here's the thing about Alexander Doddy's narration—he's British. The characters are American. And yeah, for the first thirty minutes or so, my brain kept going "wait, why does this Georgia girl sound like she's from Manchester?" It's a little jarring initially. Like hearing someone do a Southern accent in a Shakespeare play. Your brain needs a minute.
But here's what won me over: Doddy actually does different voices for each character. Distinct ones. You can tell who's talking without the "he said, she said" tags, which is narrator table stakes but you'd be surprised how many people can't pull it off. His pacing matches the rapid-fire plot perfectly—when things get intense, he doesn't slow down to be dramatic, he just... goes. And honestly? His emotional delivery during the romantic beats hit way harder than I expected from a casual first impression.
The American accent he puts on for non-British characters is pretty solid too. Not perfect, but solid. Steven Pacey this is not, but Doddy's doing good work here.
Time Travel Logic That'll Keep You Up at 2 AM
This isn't a magic system in the Sanderson sense, but the time travel mechanics here are interesting enough that I found myself thinking about them while making ramen at 2 AM. (Thesis? What thesis?) The whole "actions before destroying the machine have consequences" angle sets up some genuinely tense moments. You're never quite sure if what Taylor and Joseph are doing is going to fix things or make everything worse.
The world-building isn't super deep—this is YA, not a 1200-page Stormlight installment—but it's efficient. You get enough of Traventon to understand the stakes without getting buried in info-dumps. (And look, I love info-dumps, but I can appreciate when an author knows their audience.) The pacing is tight, almost too tight in places. There were a couple moments where I wanted the story to breathe a little, let me sit with the emotional weight of what just happened. But then something else exploded or someone got captured and we were off again.
Roll for Initiative (Or Skip This One)
If you're into Maze Runner or Matched vibes—fast-paced dystopian YA with romance woven through—this is gonna scratch that itch. It's not reinventing the genre, but it's executing the formula really well. Beck takes a similar approach—solid execution over genre innovation—though it leans harder into the romance side of things. The progression is satisfying, the stakes escalate nicely, and the relationship between Taylor and Joseph has actual chemistry instead of just "these two are hot and near each other."
The audiobook specifically works great for commutes or workouts. It's 8 hours and change, which is a perfect length—not a commitment like some of these 40-hour fantasy epics (though yes, those are worth it too, fight me). The production is clean, no weird audio artifacts or background noise.
Who should skip: If you're sensitive to accent inconsistencies, maybe give the sample a listen first. Some people in the reviews really couldn't get past the British-narrator-American-characters thing. Personally, I adapted after chapter one and forgot about it. Your mileage may vary.
Campaign Complete, No Regrets
Would my D&D group love this? Honestly, probably. It's got the time-heist energy, the romantic subplot one of them would definitely try to derail, and enough sci-fi technobabble to satisfy the rules lawyers. I listened to this instead of writing my thesis, and I regret nothing.
Well. I regret a little. Dr. Patel's emails are getting more frequent.
