Review: Time-Stopper: Interludes in Time by James Young

What if you could stop time to fix every mistake, avoid every inconvenience, and create your perfect life? Would it really make life better, or would you discover that even unlimited time comes with consequences?

Have you ever wished you could stop the clock, even for a few minutes? Maybe to meet an impossible deadline, rethink an awkward conversation, or simply catch your breath before life moves forward again.

In Time-Stopper: Interludes in Time, James Young takes that familiar wish and turns it into an intriguing story about power, perfection, and the choices we make when no one else is watching.

David Preston is a Washington lobbyist with an extraordinary secret. He can freeze time for everyone around him while continuing to move freely. Naturally, he uses this remarkable ability to make his already complicated life run a little more smoothly. But as David pursues his idea of perfection, even seemingly harmless adjustments can have unexpected consequences.

Blending political intrigue, everyday humor, romance, and a touch of fantasy, Time-Stopper offers more than its unusual premise might suggest. I found myself wishing for a little more of the fantastic and a little less Washington maneuvering, but the questions raised by David's choices kept pulling me deeper into the possibilities.

I expected a relatively quick read. Instead, I kept stopping to wonder what I might do with such an extraordinary gift, and whether I'd recognize the moment when using it became abusing it.

Book Details

Time-Stopper: Interludes in Time
By James Young
Published by Mascot Books on June 2026
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Time-Travel
Formats: eBook, Paperback
Pages: 376

The “perfect life” is an impossible dream—or is it?

Aided by an ability to stop time at will, David Preston intends to find out. David is obsessed with making his world perfect: career, love life—everything. Most people settle for less because they know perfection is impossible. But David has a problem: He believes perfection is not just possible but attainable. At least, for someone with his extraordinary gift.

David can stop time at will for everyone but himself. The world freezes around him, giving him “time” to complete tasks on impossible deadlines, compose brilliant answers to sudden questions, and dodge the otherwise unavoidable disasters we can see coming but are powerless to stop.

But life is messier than it appears, and reality is not easily dissuaded—especially when there may be someone else out there, stopping time...

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review. All opinions and thoughts shared here are entirely my own.

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.

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Reader Info at a Glance

Best For	Readers who enjoy political intrigue, imaginative time-manipulation stories, and thought-provoking moral dilemmas
Pacing	Steady, with political discussions and reflective moments
Setting	Washington, D.C., political and professional circles, with an extraordinary twist on everyday life
Themes	Perfection, power, personal choices, unintended consequences, and the temptation to control outcomes
Overall Feel	Clever, grounded, humorous, philosophical, and imaginative
Rating	⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)

So, did David Preston's extraordinary ability make for a perfect reading experience? Not quite, but it certainly gave me plenty to think about!

My Thoughts

I've always enjoyed stories about time travel, so the premise of Time-Stopper: Interludes in Time immediately caught my attention. But James Young takes a slightly different approach. Instead of sending his protagonist backward or forward through history, he gives David Preston the ability to freeze the world around him while he continues moving. What an interesting idea! Imagine having all the time you need to think through a problem, correct a mistake, or prevent something from going wrong.

What surprised me was how ordinary much of David's world actually is. He's a Washington lobbyist navigating work, relationships, political maneuvering, and the everyday complications most of us recognize. The extraordinary element is woven into an otherwise fairly realistic story, creating an interesting contrast between the familiar and the impossible.

I will admit that I would have preferred a little more of the fantastic and a little less political jargon. The lobbying discussions and Washington maneuvering occupy a considerable portion of the story, and there were times when I wanted to get back to exploring David's unusual gift. Readers who enjoy political intrigue may appreciate those details more than I did. For me, the most compelling moments were the ones that explored what David could accomplish by stopping time and what might happen because of his choices.

Fortunately, Young also finds humor in the situation, especially through Frank and Jeff. And yes, it's always Frank and Jeff, never Jeff and Frank! These two are practically a matched set, living vicariously through David's adventures and offering some spectacularly questionable advice. The fun is that neither man realizes David can manipulate time. They have their own ideas about how he manages to accomplish seemingly impossible things, and their misunderstandings add some welcome comic relief.

I also enjoyed the smaller, unexpected complications of David's ability. Take a forgotten dinner reservation, for example. You might think stopping time would make fixing that little oversight ridiculously easy. But there's a catch: computerized systems don't work while everything is frozen. Suddenly, David needs to find a restaurant that still keeps its reservations on paper. I loved that little detail! Even someone who can stop the entire world can be defeated by modern technology.

But what interested me most wasn't necessarily what David did with his gift. It was what I found myself thinking about while reading.

If you could stop time, what would you do? Would you use those extra moments to help someone, prevent an accident, or accomplish something wonderful? Or would you begin using them for increasingly selfish reasons? Would the temptation become almost addictive, until every inconvenience, awkward conversation, or imperfect moment seemed like something you ought to correct?

And where would you draw the line?

David's pursuit of perfection raises another question that I found particularly intriguing. When you have the power to arrange circumstances exactly as you want them, how much consideration do you give to everyone else? Other people have their own wishes, decisions, and ideas about how life should unfold. What happens to their freedom to choose when someone else keeps adjusting the world to suit himself?

Then there are the consequences. Fixing one problem might create another. Correcting a small mistake could change something you never intended to disturb. And if you could make almost everything turn out the way you wanted, would you ever be satisfied? Or would perfection become a constantly moving target?

I expected to read Time-Stopper much faster than I did. Instead, I kept wandering down these little mental rabbit holes, imagining possibilities and considering the consequences. Sometimes the most interesting part of a story isn't simply what's happening on the page, but everything it makes you think about after you've put the book down.

That's where Time-Stopper worked best for me. While the political elements occasionally slowed my enthusiasm, the imaginative premise, touches of humor, and questions about power and personal responsibility gave me plenty to enjoy and even more to ponder.

Final Thoughts

Time-Stopper: Interludes in Time by James Young is an unusual blend of Washington political intrigue, everyday humor, romance, and thought-provoking fantasy. While I occasionally wished the balance leaned a little more toward the fantastic, I appreciated the creativity behind David Preston's extraordinary ability and the questions it raises about human nature.

I especially enjoyed the unexpected humor, the practical complications of stopping time, and the way an otherwise ordinary world becomes a playground for extraordinary possibilities.

Readers who enjoy political maneuvering with a speculative twist will likely find plenty to appreciate here. But even if Washington politics isn't usually your favorite subject, the larger questions about perfection, personal choices, and unintended consequences may give you something to think about.

Ultimately, this is a story that invites you to imagine what you might do with unlimited time, then challenges you to consider whether you'd really want the consequences of getting everything your way.

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars. An imaginative premise, welcome touches of humor, and enough fascinating what-ifs to keep my mind busy long after I finished reading.

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A Conversation with James Young: The Inspiration Behind Time-Stopper

Author Q&A with James Young | Courtesy of iRead Book Tours

What made you write a book about manipulating time?

I love to travel and am drawn to the buildings of the past. Recently, I was in the south of France and came upon a Roman triumphal arch on the outskirts of a town; it was just standing in what was now countryside. I could not help staring and wondering: What was this like 2,000 years ago? There must have been an entire settlement here, with people coming and going, buildings all around, people moving through and around it; now, just the arch remained. When I look at these buildings, I enjoy it, but what I really want to do is go back in time and see what it all looked like then. In sum, time fascinates me: A structure can span thousands of years with little change, yet countless generations and people have passed by the same building: one thing, so much in between. So, it was natural that I would be drawn to it and find a story in it.

There are many books out there about manipulating time. What makes your book different?

As I just mentioned, there is an immediate fascination (at least for me) of going back and forward in time: What did something look like in the past? What will it look like in the future? The more I thought about manipulating time, the more I thought about being able to stop it altogether. It added a new dimension to the manipulation for me. I am not saying it is better or worse, but I found the stopping of time something interesting to explore. What would that be like? We can imagine the past and the present, but what about the present between the two and then, what if that could be extended indefinitely, so that it became both past and present in the same instance? To me, that was really interesting. So, I started to build it out in my head. The more I did, the more fascinating it became to me, and the more the story took shape.

Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

This story's inspiration came from a "what if" conversation with my daughter when she was younger. It was about superpowers. I mentioned manipulating time and then stopping it altogether. It was really a happenstance that I took to a more involved discussion.

Of course, I have other stories. They all come from things that happened in my life. I put in experiences I have had, things I have thought about, things I have seen. There is little bit of the personal in each, beyond just the very personal aspect of writing them. But they all center on things I have experienced; I then weave that into the stories. It is often said that you should "write what you know." I believe that is true, because it connects you and the reader all the more: it is not just an imagined circumstance then, but a shared one-even if the reader does not know it!

Meet the Author: James Young

James Young brings an unusually varied background to his fiction debut, Time-Stopper: Interludes in Time. After more than three decades working in Washington, D.C., politics and policy, he's no stranger to the world of political maneuvering that plays such an important role in his novel.

But his experiences extend far beyond Washington. Young has worked in a steel mill, sailed aboard Great Lakes iron ore boats, tended bar, enjoyed scuba diving, and traveled extensively. He holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Cornell University, and his writing has appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Forbes.

His curiosity about history, travel, and the passage of time helped inspire his first novel. Today, he continues exploring the world, often visiting America's national parks with his family.

Learn more:
Website | Amazon | Goodreads

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