Acquired Book By: I found out about this novel via The Write Reads who was hosting a blog tour for the sequel Chronos Warlock in (2025). I had intended to finish reading and listening to the audiobook for the blog tour – however, the tour was postponed and delayed, and I had things going on in my life at the time which prevented me from finishing my time with Adair Finch. I have the first two novels in print and in audiobook courtesy of the author – and it has been a long journey towards rectifying my time spent in these novels as my heart has been itching to finish them as I love the world within them but personally I’ve been going through a heck of a lot since I first signed on for the blog tour. Including losing my father after a long bout of medical crises and having my Mum facing her own health issues that were difficult to go through as well. This story and the series within it – has been a mainstay of curiosity for me and one that I’m thankful I can finally share with my readers and others who visit me alike. I’m grateful for the patience of The Write Reads and the author for giving me extra time with this novel, too!
I received a complimentary print and audiobook copy of “Time-Marked Warlock” direct from the author Shami Stovall in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Why I wanted dearly to read & listen to this audiobook:
I originally announced the arrival of “Time-Marked Warlock” and “Chronos Warlock” on my #bookstagram feeds in March of (2025). I sort of fell hard for the premise of this series – it felt like the kind of quirky Urban Fantasy & Magical world I wanted to visit and settle inside as those are the kinds of stories which are my cuppa of the last several years. From Jeannie Wycherley’s Wonky Inn and Wonderland Detective Agency to Ms Chris’s Tipsy Fairy Tale Trilogy – you could say, if its quirky, humourous and dearly magical – odds are in good favour I’ll be wanting to devour it! Laughs.
Plus, I’ve had a keen fascination with time and how time can become bent in stories as well – including reading the trifecta of time across Contemporary, Historical and SpecFic realms: time travel, time bent and time shift narratives. Each style being a bit different from each other and carry their own uniqueness to the table of how a story can be told, experienced and explored. To have a series rooted in ‘time’ felt like it was perfect for me.
It isn’t oft I get to read a book in print whilst listening to the audiobook – it is a special treat whenever that is able to be done and in this case, it added to the dimension of the story. Plus, it is wicked to have a ‘cast’ and theatrical performance of the story vs having an individual or duo narrator team performing the story. I enjoy both styles of audiostories but this one in particular was lovingly unique and enjoyable.
Also, it should be noted, I’ve been talking about this novel and series for awhile now – if you take a look at this WWWWeds post of mine and this post via my #bookstagram!
Time-Marked Warlock
by Shami Stovall
Source: Author via The Write Reads
Adair Finch is the most powerful warlock in the world, and one of the best private investigators for hire. He has dealt with corporate vampires, murderous werewolves, and even fae royalty. Everything was perfect until he lost one case—the case where he also lost his brother.
So Finch retired. From magic. From PI work. From everything. Bree Blackstone, a twelve-year-old witch, doesn’t know or care about any of that except Finch’s reputation. In the middle of the night, she bangs on Finch’s door. Her mother has been murdered, and now the assassin is after Bree as well.
Reluctantly, Finch agrees to help, only to discover something sinister has been brewing in town while he ignored the world... He’ll need to dust off all his old skills and magic before it’s too late.
"Fans of the Dresden Files and the Iron Druid Chronicles will definitely enjoy Stovall's creation." - Jason Cordova, national bestselling author
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 978-1957613895
ASIN: B0DCCH3LPM
Published by Soundbooth Theater
on 20th August, 2024
Format: Audiobook | Digital
Length: 9 hours and 38 minutes (unabridged)
Pages: 372
About BBNYA
BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and
score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 (17 in 2025) finalists and one
overall winner. If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official.NOTE: This year, (2026) is my first year as a panelist! Per my announcement!
The Chronos Chronicles series:
Time-Marked Warlock (Book One) *audio
Chronos Warlock (Book Two) *audio
24-Hour Warlock (Book Three) *audio
Time God Warlock (Book Four)
*the first three novels are available in audiobook!
Published by: Soundbooth Theater (@soundbooththeater) via Instagram
About Shami Stovall
Shami Stovall is a multi-award-winning author of fantasy and science fiction. Before that, she taught history and criminal law at the college level and loved every second. When she’s not reading fascinating articles and books about ancient China or the Byzantine Empire, Stovall can be found playing way too many video games, especially RPGs and tactics simulators.
My review of Time-Marked Warlock:
My goodness! There is a beautiful quirkiness to Stovall’s writing style and one that I have appreciated for a while now. As I’ve spent time in this novel off and on for the last year. Each time I’ve returnt to finish reading the story, I’ve had to start over and then, as such fall back in love with her humour and storycrafting. The humour is both subtle and brilliant – it comes at moments you’re not expecting to laugh and always well-placed in the storyline. Her character, of Adair Finch is one of the more unique characters I’ve come across as he’s not just self-defeating but he’s a man whose given up on life and living his best potential due to tragic loss as his brother died. I can understand the loss, but we all have to find ways to carry on afterwards as otherwise, we dishonour our loved ones who’ve gone into the next life. Adair is not the most warm and fuzzy bloke either – nor is he good with children in distress but there is something redeemable about him. He can’t help but care when he finds out someone was attacked without notice, especially if that person was someone he already knew!
When it came to investigating Vera’s death, Adair was quite adapt at navigating the local PD and their protocols – especially as we found out that he works with them on occasion to solve crimes. He even has a special badge! Laughs. I found that interesting considering he’s the least likely person who would step outside of his apartment to do anything these days. I think a part of him died with is brother and the grief he’s not yet dealt with in full is holding him back. Or at least that is how it was appearing to play out in the beginning of the story. Bree gave Adair purpose and for that, I felt he was thankful to her finding him when she did.
I was wicked intrigued when Adair first started to use his magical gift of timewinding – as his gift was time itself. He could manipulate time and in so doing, he could gain information and unobstructed surveillance for his investigation. It wasn’t that he could just snap his fingers and bend time to his will – it was how he could shift time and what would happen after it shifted that made it ever more intriguing! It also reminded me of certain episodes of Doctor Who when Peter Calpadi was the Doctor and how he used time to his advantage as well. It was in those moments of this story where we see a different side of Adair and Bree – as together, they are two people still finding their hearts marked by grief and a soul willing to move forward but without a way to see the path forward yet. They needed each other and you could see how their time together had a healing effect on them had both even if they weren’t able to realise it themselves.
Stovall made you hungry to know the finer details of the story – to hunt out the truth but also, to better understand how Adair could use his gifts and abilities. The fact he could trade pacts with magical creatures and gain their abilities to his own use was an interesting thread of the series, too. It gave way to a method of gain and consequence – of what you were willing to let go of in order to gain an advantage. I was most curious what him and his brother had to give Chronos for the bending of time as that seemed to be something that would cost a high price. Until that was known, I sat back and just enjoyed the journey alongside Adair and Bree.
This entire concept of ‘time-marking’ from Adair’s perspective was quite the adventure! I loved how Stovall gave out just ‘so many details’ but left most of the magic behind what Adair did to our imagination. He’s very upfront about how it works but evenso, I felt he was holding back some of the more pertinent details of how he can mark time and then wind it to his will. I had a feeling it had to do with how he acquired the gift. This is one aspect of Stovall’s novel I’m familiar with having read other Urban Fantasy novels – wherein, there are pacts (or accords, deals even!) with certain magical and non-magical creatures and persons in these stories. Each one is unique to the giver and receiver and of course, the cost of them is quite high indeed and far more dangerous for the receiver as they draw the short straw every time! And this is not an exception for Adair – as he causally explained to Bree. It made you wonder why risk it at all?
This is also part amateur detective novel – as Adair is a private investigator but he approaches it more like an amateur who just has a certain level of skills which gets him further into an investigation than the ordinary bloke! He has a good intuition about how to deduce out the facts from his keen observations but it’s how he chooses to investigate which hooked me into the narrative itself. His methodology is singular and unique in that way – as he uses time as one of his key assets. In those instances, you see different parts of his personality and of his own philosophies on life and the purpose he feels he has to live his own.
What I enjoyed the most is that this wasn’t an open and shut case nor was it easy to unravel the clues and tuck ourselves closer to the solution to the crime. It was a gutting story from that angle as you keep hoping for good news to alight on the path Adair and Bree were choosing to walk but every so many chapters, the realities of how deadly this cat and mouse chase of theirs was becoming the more concerned you were to see if they both would survive the investigation! Whilst at the same time, Stovall kept us on our toes – trying to guess what was truly going on and giving us a lot to chew on as a result.
On the writing styling of Shami Stovall:
Stovall has written a tightly wrought Cosy Crime novel which has you asking questions before the revelations can be sought after in her quick-paced “Time-Marked Warlock”. I appreciated how it built the scene a bit slower in the beginning – giving us a chance to walk in the shoes of Bree and seeing everything from her perspective before Adair took-on the case for himself. It gave us a grounding of this world but also, rooted us into Bree’s shoes – what she was feeling as a grieving daughter and of a girl who was afraid for her own life, as well. Whilst at the same time, it was a nice juxtaposition to Adair who felt like a bloke who wasn’t quite sure what to do with his life anymore. He was fractured in his own rights, caught between the present and the past. Somehow, I think this case Bree brought to him to solve was a way forward for Adair or at least, a path he could attempt to take to find out where he needed to be next as currently, he was merely existing but without any real direction.
The humour is what anchours you into the storyline – Stovall has a way of giving us a very emotional read but with the joyfulness of humour etched into the background to where it’s not all dreary and hard-hitting. She also pens out an innocent approach to the whole story – where you feel that it is as much as a shock to Bree as it is to Adair how some events are playing out in the storyline. For instance, Adair is older and hardened due to his life experiences but even he is happily taken off-guard or surprised by certain events that are happening ever since he started to keep company with Bree. And, for Bree’s sake it’s all new territory for her as she was mostly kept away from the magical bits of the world. She led a bit more of a sheltered life than Adair overall. It was that balance Stovall found with both characters that made it such an engaging read. You truly want to walk alongside them and see how they are going to ferret out the truth!
#FuellYourSciFi elements:
→ Subtle Magic
The kind that you can see happening in front of you, but it has a lightness to it and a subtle touch of otherness that makes it unique. I love when magic is used in this way where it’s not always a big show or a large announcement.
→ Dwarves and other creatures of interest
The dwarf who lived in the tree was a personal favourite – however, it was clever how the magical came alive in the background of the story. They (ie. Bree and Adair) would interact with the magical as they investigated the disappearance of Bree’s father and the death of her mother. Thereby, you never knew who or what you would discover along that journey!
→ Timebending or Timewinding
This is the best kind of magic as it was also one of the gifts Hermoine had in Harry Potter. To use time in such a way as to affect how it is occurring and what happens after it starts, stops or rewinds/resets is one of the more fascinating elements of Science Fiction for me.
Content Warnings:
Despite the brutal death of Bree’s Mum, the scene itself was only partially described and not overly detailed which was nice as sometimes these kinds of scenes are vividly graphic. I was thankful it was omitted. As we were given just ‘enough’ to understand what happened but without other details that would have felt ‘too much’ to be included. Which is why for me this read like a Cosy Crime novel merged into an Urban Fantasy world.
→ Death of cats
(At first) It was kept off-scene and only mentioned in the course of the investigation but if someone is sensitive to animals and what can befall them, I wanted to mention this on my review. I would have had issues too if it was more than a side mention as I don’t tolerate cruelty to animals in fiction and being a cat lover, it just wouldn’t sit well with me. However, as it wasn’t readily mentioned what happened to the cats themselves and was discovered over the course of Adair’s investigation, it was more of an off-scene mention than anything else.
(Except it became a bit more in the forefront) As I reached Chapter Nine and it was more on-scene than a side mention but only just present long enough to acknowledge they had died. I admit, at that point it was a bit more disturbing to me as a reader. As I’m quite sensitive to death of animals or any kind of cruelty to animals – it is a bookish turn off for me. I also understood why the cats were being erhm, without spoiling anything – used in the way in which they were but still. It was a hard pill to swallow for me.
→ Some strong language
It wasn’t overly used and it was cheekily added at best. This story is light-hearted in most places, harder hitting at some junctions and only a few sprinkles of harder language here or there. I was okay with it and I’m not one who likes vulgarity in literature at all. I mean, in some of the instances I was smirking or laughing, so you could say Stovall well-placed the words she used and chose the best times to use them, too.
In regards to the audiobook, directly:
I am appreciative of Ms Jess (of The Audiobookworm, now Audiobook Empire) providing a cursory outline of how best to articulate my listening hours on behalf of this audiobook and the others I shall be blogging about or reviewing in future. I’ve modified the suggestions to what I felt were pertinent to respond too on my own behalf as well as keeping to the questions I felt were relevant to share.
Number of Times I’ve heard the Narrator(s):
This is the first time I’ve listened the narration stylings of Annie Ellicott, Jeff Hays and Justin Thomas James.
Regards to the Narrator’s Individual Character performances:
Main Characters:
Adair Finch: His demeanor is gruff round the edges, but he has a caring heart all the same. Adair had a lot of strength within him but he rarely realised just how strong he was as he knew he was powerful but strength and power are sometimes two very separate things. His presence in the story was the true guiding compass – he was the magnetic force behind seeking out the truth, no matter where it would lead. He had a long shadow hanging over him since his brother died and I felt this case was bringing him back out of his shell and back into his own destiny.
Bree Blackstone: In the beginning, she has a quiet voice as she’s just gone through a lot of trauma whilst at the same time, she wanted to prove to herself and to Adair especially that she was a witch in her own right. She just hasn’t had the chance to come into her own abilities and understand what she was magically gifted to do with her life either. The way in which she was performed was absolutely brilliant! Very attune to the age and character of Bree whilst giving such a grounding of realism to the age of a teen who’s just trying to sort out her life out of tragedy.
Supporting &/or Minor Characters:
Detective Jenner: His personality matches Adair’s but equally so, takes his job dearly personally. I gathered that Jenner was a bit of a hardball when it came to dealing with magical persons like Adair. He might respect them on one level but he would never admit it out loud either. He was a hard nut to crack and I wasn’t entirely sure where he stood on Adair or anything else that would be considered ‘magical’ either.
Kull: Her personality just sparkled in the story. She has such a cunning mind and character to boot. I loved her entrances in the story but also, how she was portrayed. Of course, part of me had to keep reminding myself she had nefarious intentions and was quite a bit more darker in the magical creature category but evenso, it was how she was performed that won me over!
How the story sounded to me as it was being Read: (theatrical or narrative)
This audiobook has a full cast – wherein, each of the characters (especially the mains) have their own featured voice and there is a narrator reading the story overall as well. That would be Ellicott herself – as it is interesting to have a narrator of the story whilst having insertions of characters come in and out of the narration. It is a style that is quite unique and different and one that I appreciated hearing. Definitely theatrical as you felt as if you were living through an audio play rather than listening to a book being spoken aloud.
Regards to Articulation & Performance of the story:
It was a true delight of an audiobook to listen too based on the individual performances of the narrators as well as how each voice of character (from mains to supporting to minor) was interpreted and performed. I loved the style of this cast recording but also how the tone, vibe and articulation of the story was conveyed. It was quite the experience for the ears!
Preference after listening to re-Listen or pick up the book in Print?
I would have to say – reading this in tandem with the print copy in hand was my top preference and would be again on a re-reading of the series. You can definitely listen to this without the book in your hands as much as you can read it without the audiobook. However, the two together are a magical experience in their own right and one that I readily enjoyed experiencing!
Any issues in listening to the audiobook? (ie. Sound Quality)
The sound quality was fantastic actually! Very well produced and executed.
In closing, would I seek out another Annie Ellicott, Jeff Hays and Justin Thomas James audiobook?
I definitely would. Luckily for me, they return in books two and three as the first three novels of this series were produced in audio by Soundbooth Theater! I’m not sure if the fourth has gone into production yet or not, but it would be keen to have them continue to produce the series. I love when series can have the continuation of narrators – it doesn’t always work out that way, but when it does its wicked brilliant.
This book review is courtesy of the blog tour by The Write Reads:
Be sure to follow this lovely blog tour socially and in the book blogosphere!
You will find posts on different platforms –
including the ones I’m active on myself which are #bookstagram and BlueSky.
DUE NOTE: This review was pushed forward to the end of the tour this month due to a back injury I’m still recovering from as I’ve been dealing with it for a few weeks now. I alternate from having better days and harder days. It’s the first time I’ve had an injury like this where it takes a lot longer to recover from and get ‘back’ to where you were prior to it being injured. Whilst at the same time, I can’t take time off from work so it’s a bit of a test of wills most days and having said that, I can’t always sit for longer moments of time to read, etc. which is why I asked for a small extension to finish my review and share my reactions on the blog tour.
{SOURCES: Cover art of “Time-Marked Warlock”, book synopsis, author biography and photo as well the blog tour banner and BBNYA Award Finalist badge were provided by The Write Reads and are used with permission. Post dividers and My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Audiobook Review banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2026.
I’m a social reader | I share my readerly life on #bookstagram and BlueSky
I shared this blog tour post via BlueSky and Instagram.
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