Harper Wells: Renegade Timeline Officer by Bethany Loveridge
Harper Wells finally gets a room of her own, away from her annoying big brother. But on the first night in her brand-new bed, she wakes up in the past and meets a young girl named Edie. Has what Harper said to her changed the course of Australia’s history?
And who does her strange time-travelling bed really belong to? Harper is thrown into a world of time-travelling spies and puts her life in danger as she tries to find a missing girl before time runs out.
Children’s author and illustrator Bethany Loveridge is well-known in the kidlit community for her support of children’s authors and illustrators through the #loveozmg hashtag on instagram. She has also recently partnered with Rochelle Stephens at Wombat Books, to launch Perentie Press, a graphic novel publishing house.
Bethany’s debut middle-grade novel, Harper Wells – Renegade Timeline Officer, is the first in a series of three books about Harper, a girl who finds herself thrown into the strange world of Timeline Officers, who must keep abreast of important events in Australia’s timeline.
Harper’s mum has disappeared, walking out one day and never coming back. Her dad is understandably obsessed with trying to find her, her older brother Morris is incredibly annoying, and Harper is finally getting her own room, and her own bed. But it’s no ordinary bed. Built from wood and discovered in a dusty op-shop, this bed has the ability to transport Harper across time.
In her first experience of this, on her first night in the bed, she meets a young girl called Edie in some sort of boarding school for girls. Each night she sleeps in the bed she is taken back and forth from her real time and place to other places along the timeline, under the care and direction of the intriguing Maximilian Durand, a timeline officer who allows her to take the place of Jennifer Carruthers (Officer 42) – the real owner of the bed.
Harper must follow the script for Edie’s life – who turns out to be Edith Cowan, an Australian social reformer and politician, best known for being the first woman elected to an Australian parliament. It is Harper’s responsibilty to make sure Edie’s life goes as it should, even though, as Maximilian reminds her often, she is not a real timeline officer. Harper knows she is just a temporary part of this world she has fallen into, but the more she is immersed in the mysteries, the more she begins to enjoy the challenge.
As she makes her way back and forth across time, Harper begins to unravel secrets and politics, as she meets Edie in various stages of her life, and some other interesting figures. But what has happened to Officer 42? And what have the WOTO – the World Office of Timeline Officials – got in store for Harper?
When she starts to get closer to discovering what happened to Officer 42, Harper finds herself entwined in a world that is confusing and dark and filled with people who seem to want to help her. But are they trustworthy and why are more children in her own timeline disappearing?
Harper will have to learn who to trust, as well as trusting her own instincts, in a race against time.
The sensory descriptions in the story are rich and evocative. Harper’s voice is immediately strong and engaging, as we are taken on her adventures and entwined in her worries and thoughts. Told in first person POV, there are many layers to this complex story and Bethany has done an excellent job in worldbuilding, developing the threads, as well as carefully crafting the real history of Edith Cowan’s life into the narrative. It is a clever way of presenting history to young readers, that will draw them into the mystery.
The thread of Harper’s missing mum is also peppered throughout, and as we reach the closing chapters, there are clues dropped that lead us towards the next book. I am sure that young readers will be on the edge of their seats waiting for book two! There is mention of First Nations’ history, as well as some of the social reform work carried out by Edith Cowan that would make excellent teaching points. As well, there are themes of loss, grief and family relationships.
I love a good timeslip and with the underpinning of the timeline officer concept in this series, there is the potential to take us to all sorts of times, places and lives.
Highly recommended for ages 9+
Thank you to Wombat Books for an advance reading copy. Release Date: 3 September 2025
Helen