Because life has a tendency to go full chaos these days, I wasn’t able to review A Swift and Sudden Exit as soon as it was released, which was my plan. My focus has been all over the place for a while and it makes reading some sort of luxury. But I did finally manage to read this book, and it was everything I hoped it would be. I mean, time travelling sapphics? How could I not be interested?

The present is set in 2058. Eighteen years earlier, a storm changed the world from the one we know today to a barren landscape and humans living in bunkers. Zera gets enrolled in a time travelling program that aims to explore ways to counteract the effects of the storm. On her first trip to 2040, she meets Katherine who has barely mentioned previous storms and asked whether this is their first meeting when a bullet hits her.

A Swift and Sudden Exit is a debut, and as most debuts, it has first novel flaws. One of the MCs’ motivations weren’t always clear to me, for example. None of it bothered me much, however, and I only mention it so readers don’t have unfair expectations of perfection.

Time travel is one of my favourite tropes, and I loved how Nico Vincenty wrote it in this book. The travel itself, the impact on the traveller’s body, the way Zera experiences each time period, all of it worked very well for me. I also enjoyed seeing the relationship between her and Katherine develop, how Katherine’s feelings towards Zera grew from annoyance and mistrust to respect and eventually to love. How she changed over the years, not physically but in her attitude, towards herself and towards Zera.

I like Zera very much as well. She’s stubborn, she’s irreverent, she’s loyal and confused and brave. The banter between her and Katherine is delicious, and I also got a kick out of the interactions with her best friend, Kissi.

Because she and Katherine only get to meet for short periods of time on each of Zera’s trips to the past, the romance is a slow burn. Once things start to heat up, however, they’re about as scorching as 2058 Earth. All this while hunting and being hunted by an immortal killer (let me know if you guessed the twist).

A Swift and Sudden Exit is the second instance of a cover by Jenifer Prince leading to one more book on my TBR. I’m not going to keep counting them, but I feel like I should thank her for this. I’ve loved both books—this one and Dear Sylvia, Love Jane by Erin Hall—very much and I don’t know if I would have found them without her covers.

Experience A Swift and Sudden Exit:

Bookshop.org (paperback)

Amazon (paperback – ebook)

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