Title: Tales & Time (Lost Time Academy #1)
Author: G. Bailey
Genre: Fiction/ Romance/ YA/ Fairytales/ Fantasy
Source: Kindle Recommendation
Rating: 3/5

Favourite Quote: ‘“You made all of this?” I turn and ask him, and he grins as he holds his hand out. Out of nowhere, a flower slowly grows from a seed in his palm, stretching into a pretty pink rose.’

‘Two hundred years since the last descendant rose, and a beauty that only sleeps is found. For sleep makes beauty possible, and sleep is needed to break the curse. Only her heart can save us from the curse. Only a Sleeping Beauty descendant can stop what is to come.’

Madilynn had no idea what was happening when her parents gave her an ancient looking book for her 17th birthday, especially when the book spoke to her and literally branded her as the descendant of Sleeping Beauty. A frigging fairytale. It was only when her parents sat her down and explained that she came to realise it was all true; fairytales exist, brought into the world by the power of a goddess to fight against her sister’s dark magic. On top of the revelation that magic is real, Madi finds herself forced into a new school with no chance to say goodbye to her best friend/ boyfriend Quinn in order to keep him safe and to learn about her new magical life. The last thing she expected was to find herself standing in front of the four boys she grew up with who all left one day without a word. Expect everyone at her new school know them as the Tale brothers, the leaders of the Lost Time Academy she now finds herself in. 

‘The doors are blasted open, off the hinges, and a man goes flying through the air then slides across the floor. I cover my face with my hands as dust from the broken door flies at us, and then when the dust clears, I see three men walking through the doorway. Each one of them is stood next to each other, their faces so familiar that it hurts when their shocked gazes meet mine. They are the very last people I expected to see here. When I pull my gaze away to the man on top of the door on the floor, his familiar brown eyes meet mine. 
“Madilynn, is that you?”‘ 

I wasn’t sure what to make of this trilogy. Yes I say trilogy because I don’t plan on writing a review for each separate book. Don’t worry, I won’t give too much away! Honestly, I thought the books was pretty good, I enjoyed the storyline, the idea that fairytales could be real, humans given magic to fight off the dark ones set on destroying the earth, powers given by a goddess each with special abilities that manifested into the fairytale stories we have today. It’s a lovely premise and I found myself getting lost in the magic abilities surrounding each character which brought an interesting story to each of them. I just wish the author focused more on the magic, the individual books themselves aren’t very long and I felt they could have put more depth into the powers they have because there is so much potential. I felt like a lot of the build up of the story is lost in the romance surrounding the four boys, and even then, it didn’t do much for me.

‘”We had a pact, you know that?” Knox informs me, but I didn’t have a clue. 
“No. What was the pact?” I enquire. 
“That we don’t touch you. None of us.” Noah explains to me. 
“Quin broke that pact then,” I whispered. 
“It means there are no rules anymore. Does that scare you, Madi?” Sin asks. His voice is teasing, but I know Sin well enough to know he isn’t joking one bit. They are all silent, watching me closely for the answer, because even if Sin is the brave one to ask first, they all want to know.’

I do have to say, that was the one thing I couldn’t stand in this trilogy – the romance. The whole ‘there aren’t enough females so you’ll potentially have four or five fiancés instead’ crap that was just accepted without any issue. I mean, seriously? Most books I can honestly say I tend to stick to for the romance alone, but this was just a bit over the top ridiculous. I guess I’m just a sole believer in monogamy. I started to get frustrated with our main protagonist for this reason alone.
Madi started off okay, could have felt a bit more emotion surrounding the whole ‘you’re essentially sleeping beauty, magic exists, you can’t see your boyfriend anymore because we’re moving you to a new school as of today so you can learn about the darkness that you’ll have to fight against to save the world, but don’t worry because this whole thing is awesome‘ issue, but that’s just me. The instant she found her lost guy friends, her old life just got swept under the rug and suddenly she realised she was in love with them all this whole time and has accepted them all as some kind of future open relationship deal without question. It’s insane! She’s apparently one of the most powerful students yet we haven’t seen her do much overall and it makes her appear weak and hard to like. She has access to a talking magical book with a sense of humor from her family descendants and you barely saw her use it to it’s potential. It was sorely lacking.

I’m not sure how I felt about the guys overall; Noah, Knox, Tobias and Oisin. Yeah she grew up with them so she knows them well and vice versa, besides their previous fiancé that died they aren’t seen looking at any girl besides Madi who has suddenly become their obsession. They’ve clearly already discussed their intention to share her between them which is just wrong on so many levels, but I guess that’s the way it is and it’s just to be accepted. I just can’t think of it any differently. I loved their abilities and their magical background though! I was curious to know more about their power considering their place of power under the masters but we didn’t get much of a glimpse of it in the first book. Noah with his power from the sun, Tobias with his power from the moon, Knox with his ability to create a new dimension which is just epic as well as control over the 6 elements, Oisin also with powers over the 6 elements as well as enchantment abilities. Their bad boy attitude was a bit lacking but you got the impression they had some control which added to their strong personality. They could have had a bit more distinction to break them apart more, a bit of individual temperament besides Knox’s lack of sleep and Tobias’s drug addiction. They just need something else besides their obvious good looks. It isn’t enough for a story that’s clearly pushing the romance factor above all else. I thought the brief flashbacks were a good means to help build their characters, a few more would have been ideal.

Overall I enjoyed the potential to the storyline but there was quite a lot of things that rubbed me up the wrong way with Tales & Time so I was on the 2/3 mark for this rating.

Goodreads Review:
What if all the fairy tales are real?
What if you were one of them?
When Madilynn turned seventeen, her parents dropped a big, ancient-looking book in her lap and said to open it by herself. Madilynn almost wishes she hadn’t, when it reveals she is a descendant of a fairy tale, and her parents tell her it’s time for her to attend Lost Time Academy…
Being thrown into a world that is literally full of fairy tales, the last thing she expects is to see the four guys she grew up with!
Four guys who have grown from boys to now geeky, dark, passionate men who rule the Academy… and they never forgot Madilynn…
Time makes all tales come true, including the dark ones…