Every Hour until Then book review

Kathryn crosses time between Victorian London and pre-WWII London. In this story, she’s both an Englishwoman and an American woman, respectively. Since Every Hour until Then (affiliate link) is book five in Gabrielle Meyer’s Timeless series, the family tree is growing, even while it’s overlapping. (Check out Timeless’s family tree on Gabrielle’s website!) Kathryn is Grace’s daughter (Grace from For a Lifetime [affiliate link]).

I think what intrigued me most from the back cover copy of this tale was the close link between the character’s paths. In the previous stories, the characters had very differing lives, especially in the last book. Yet, in this one, Kathryn is tracking the same murderer across both her paths, and they’re close enough that some of the characters are still alive in both. Gabrielle Meyer has quite a way of taking the “same” story structure and turning it into a new story every time she writes. In this twisting tale, Kathryn tracks the notorious murderer, Jack the Ripper, and it’s a personal journey because she learns in WWII life that her sister in her Victorian life is the last victim of the heinous killer. Kathryn finds that all the murders are connected to her own history, and in one path she’s engaged as a historian and curator for the first museum exhibit of these murders. In her other path, she races to save her dear sister from Jack. As usual, Gabrielle Meyer always throws in every unexpected angle. Even if you think you know where the twist will occur, she pulls off something new.

While in some of the previous novels, characters considered changing history (and one tried to change it), this is the first novel where the main character sets out from the beginning of the book with every intention of changing the past. Yet, everything Kathryn thinks she’s doing also leads her into her enemy’s grasp. More than she knows is at stake, and she’s faced with losing even more than her sister. Perhaps my favorite part of reading Gabrielle Meyer’s Timeless novels is the unexpected twists and turns. There are so many layers.

I love how this author weaves Christian themes through the narrative. In this newest novel, Kathryn’s decisions are intertwined with a desire to save the people she loves. She must decide how far she’ll go, and at first, she wrestles with what the Lord even wants her to do. As the story progresses, she sees God’s fingerprints on everything, and she finally places herself and all her family in His hands. It’s not an easy thing to relinquish our dearest ones into His hands, but what we rarely want to accept is that we never had their futures in our own hands anyway. Despite not being a fan of dual timeline stories, I’m so glad that I chose to read When the Day Comes (affiliate link), book one of the series. Now, I anxiously await each installment of these tantalizing historical novels.

What genre is Every Hour until Then?

Every Hour until Then is a historical dual period novel. There’s also an element of fantasy with the time-crossing characters–not your usual sci-fi time-travel. This book in the series is packed with mystery, romance, and even murder.

Was there inappropriate content in Every Hour until Then?

While the romantic theme is central to Gabrielle Meyer’s Timeless novels, this book also centers greatly around the murders in the Whitechapel district of London during 1888. There are descriptions of the murders, but thankfully they were kept to a minimum. Since these particular murders were quite horrendous, even minor details about them could affect some readers. I didn’t struggle with the images because Gabrielle Meyer didn’t harp on any vivid descriptions. She tried to be as descreet as she could with the material and still pass along a compelling story. This is still something to consider when reading Every Hour until Then.

Check out all the novels in the Timeless series!