The Steady Running of the Hour by Justin Go

from goodreads

3.5 stars

Have you ever wanted to read a book but you couldn't remember the title, you could only remember what the cover looked like. That's what happened to me with this book except, this isn't actually the book I wanted to read, the covers just look really similar. Luckily it worked out and I got to read a fairly interesting story.

That can also happen with book titles, you think you are getting one book but then it ends up not being the book you are thinking. When my book club was doing Between Shades of Gray there was quite a hold list on it. Then I realized that others probably thought it was part of the Fifty Shades of Grey series, which it most definitely is not. I guess it always pays to double check your titles, authors, and covers. You never know what craziness might happen.

Synopsis

This is a story with two timelines. The modern day timeline deals with a young man named Tristan. He just found out that he might possibly be a direct descendant of a woman named Imogen Soames-Andersson who has a large fortune owing to her. He is to fly to Europe to search for clues to see if there is any evidence that he is directly related to her or not.

The early 20th century time line is about mountain climber Ashley Walsingham and Imogen Soames-Andersson and their love story.

This book has locations from California to Sweden to Mount Everest. It deals with love, deception and secrets.

My Thoughts

This is a book that I have mixed thoughts about. In some ways I loved it and thought it was so riveting. In others I found it hard to read, annoying and something I was simply plowing through to get to my reading goal on goodreads.

I loved the modern day story line. I liked the characters, I liked the different places Tristan went to and his thoughts on things. I like his struggle between wanting to know what happened and come up with a conclusion, but not wanting to focus on the possibility of lots of money at the end. I also liked how he was struggling with what he wanted from his life. He had just graduated from school and was trying to figure out how he fit into the world.

Go's descriptions were wonderful, the relationships intense. He has made me want to go and visit these places in Europe, especially Iceland. He created this believable character that you wanted to root for.

I did not like the earlier timeline. It started off okay but then the Imogen character got so annoying that it made it hard to read. I only did because I wanted to get back to the modern day stuff. I found Imogen to be absurdly self-centred, crazy, flighty, and a pain. I could not figure out what Ashley found remarkable about her. She seemed so shallow and immature I just wanted to swat her on the head and say "get a clue you crazy girl". I guess that could be what girls in her social station and at that time might have been like, but good grief, it was ridiculous. And Ashley should have just cut his losses with her and moved on. I really couldn't stand it.

One thing that was interesting about the earlier timeline was how he described the trenches in WWI and how he described the mountain climbing and early expeditions to Mount Everest. Since people climb Mount Everest every year with relative ease we sometimes forget that the first people trying to do it did not have the same kind of conditions or knowledge. Does it make me want to climb Mount Everest. Nope. But I have a new found respect for the early climbers who tried.

This is truly a book that I would call an all-rounder, as it has something that almost anyone could enjoy. It has travel, mystery, romance, war, mountains, adventure, trains, plane, and automobiles. It has an easy to navigate dual timeline thing happening. Some of these things are better than others. There are a few plot holes or areas that could have been fleshed out a bit better but on the whole, I'm glad I read it and I am looking forward to reading more by this author.