The Grimm Legacy #2: The Wells Bequest by Polly Shulman

My name is Leo, and I got a message from myself in the future. I guess I'm going to use a time machine along with some girl named Jaya, and there's something I'm supposed to stop. I told myself to read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. It was all really weird, but I’ve now met the girl Jaya at a wonderful New York repository. Jaya is beautiful and awesome! The repository has artifacts from all across history and literature, and I think I may have figured out how to get the time machine. Jaya and I will need to travel to London, but we'll need to be sneaky. Their repository wants the artifact too, so we can't let them know why we're there. Unfortunately, Simon is in London and is obsessed with Jaya. I didn't know the limits to his craziness until he said he'd destroy New York using Tesla's death ray!

The concept of the book was creative and unique. The premise was that everything was possible even if those things weren't real in our world. Ideas in fictional books became possible in some dimension or reality. Paradoxes were addressed by presenting multiple time machines that could deal with potential changes to history. Anything could happen with Leo's machine, as multiple versions of the same characters could appear. This made it a powerful device and created some head-shaking scenes. I really wasn't sure what to think about this plot as I started to get into it. It was interesting, but I wasn't sure where it was going. The whole time machine issue was important, but Leo didn't spend much time investigating it. It was like he took a side street instead of heading directly toward the issue. I haven't used the word "problem", because it was unclear until I reached the middle of the book. I wasn't sure of the conflict, since Leo didn't even know what he was supposed to do or why he was doing it. Everything became much more focused and entertaining once Leo seriously started searching for the time machine. His goal became clear, and a conflict was created. I didn't read the first book in the series, but I've already started the second.