Alec's review:

Did you enjoy the book? Why?

I did enjoy the book. It was very fun, and they managed the dialouge and action well. They managed to keep a good balance, having humor without it not being too in your face. They also managed to make it historically correct, or atleast as much as they could. As well as that, the story builds up well, something that I enjoy in most books instead of mostly humor or action. As well as that, I like how the character 'Dinu Balan' went from being this 'bully', to being a good character. It was seen that he saw the main character as a friend, and I like how they managed the transition. Over all, it was a very good book.

Which of the characters did you find most interesting and why?

There was 2 characters. The first was Dinu, which I have already stated the reasons why in the previous segment. The other was Plecta. When we first find Plecta, we see that she's just a slave, and is abused by Lollia when she goes out of bounds. As we go further in, we can see that she was from a family that had a plague settle on them, and that she had to escape. We learn more and more, and by the end of it she became a better character then Lollia in my opinion. This is why I think Dinu Balan and Plecta were very interesting characters.

Which characters (if any) didn't you like and why?

I didn't really have any characters that I hated.

Did you learn anything new about the past from the book?

I mainly learned about places and phrases in Latin, nothing else more. As an example, London in the Roman times was Londinium.

What made the history or the time it was set in interesting?

It was set in the Romans. What made it exciting is knowing that they could be sent to the colloseum to fight, or become slaves at any moment. In fact, they could even get killed on the streets. This is because in some areas, Ancient Rome was very vicous and isn't all the marble as seen as the movies, and said by the assisstant that 'went in'. As well as that, witches would get executed during that time, and since Lollia used 'magic', it made it very likely they would get executed with her.

Was the plot exciting, thought-provoking, serious, or light hearted?

It was mostly a mix between exciting, serious and light hearted. There were many jokes thrown around, which were well made of course. They also managed to keep the plot well dispersed, and still serious and exciting. An example of how it managed the serious tone is Alex having to rush and find Dinu to escape from the Roman era. We find out that he was a gladiator and that he was going to have to stay there and fight. Due to this, Alex had to think of a way to get him out. Meanwhile, the exciting parts are when Alex has to escape from the Temple of Mithras, being chased by multiple people. He then had to go past a river, where Dinu was lost, as he was yet again getting chased. Overall, I think they manage the tone very well.

What most stands out from the book?

The thing that stands out the most is the Time Travelling, of course. Besides that, the hunt for the Girl with the Ivory Knife, who we later find out is Lollia is very interesting, as well as where Dinu was once he was split from Alex.

Would you recommend it to other pupils?

I would, as it is a very fun book with twists and turns. It manages a good story as well as giving out good jokes when needed. Personally, I think that it is a must read.

Did you learn any new words or facts?

I didn't learn many facts, more so words in Latin. As an example, the word 'Ita' is yes in Latin.

Nikhil's review:

The book that I read was "The Time Travel Diaries." After reading it, I thought that it was a good book. In the beginning of the book, I thought that it was slow and the story did not make sense but as I read more and more, I became very interested and everything started making sense. The book ended with many unanswered questions but I think that they will be answered in upcoming books in the series.

The character that I found the most interesting was Dinu. I thought that his story was interesting. I think that Alex had a very interesting story as well but I liked Dinu's story better and I think he seemed more like a real person than Alex. My least favorite character was Solomon Daisy. There were so many unanswered questions about him and it didn't seem normal.

If I were to rate the book out of ten, ten being amazing and one being terrible, I would rate the book a 7.5/10.

Owen's review:

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Time Travel Diaries and thought the plot line was very unpredictable. I liked the character Dinu especially when he tells Alex that he wasn’t trying to bully him, and he thought that Alex was very kind bringing him crisps every day. I think the sci-fi part of it made it more believable because unlike magic you have limits and rules. The way Roman London was portrayed in the book made me think of how hard it was back then and how much life has changed in London.

To make it even better, I think it needs a sequel as the ending felt a bit rushed and left unanswered questions such as how Llolia died and how Solomon Daisy saw visions of her. Alex and Dinu would have to travel to a different time period to find more information and it could be a great addition to the already amazing book.

After all of this I think the book is great and I would rate it 9/10.