thepublishingtimes.comEditorial

The Publishing Times

All the News That’s Fit to Publish

Sponsored · industry

A Wound in Time: A YA Steampunk Adventure About an Apprentice Who Can't Keep Time

A Wound in Time by C. V. Wooster is a YA steampunk alternative-history novel for readers 13 to 17. A clockmaker's apprentice in a city ruled by clocks is pulled into a realm where time has broken. Now on Kindle.

The Publishing Times Editorial Desk · September 26, 2026 · 3 min read

A Wound in Time: A YA Steampunk Adventure About an Apprentice Who Can't Keep Time

Sponsored content.

Cover of A Wound in Time by C. V. Wooster: a girl in brass goggles and a leather coat looks out over a spired city at sunset, with a giant clock gear behind her

A Wound in Time is a young adult steampunk novel by C. V. Wooster, set in an alternative history where a whole city runs on clockwork. It came out on Kindle on August 27, 2026. It runs 216 pages and is written for readers ages 13 to 17.

See A Wound in Time on Amazon →

The story

The book's Amazon description opens with a question: "What if the wound that broke the world runs straight through you?"

In the city of Horologium, every second is accounted for. Every gear, pendulum and citizen keeps perfect rhythm, and being even one second late feels like a crime. Wren is apprentice to the city's gruff, guarded Clockmaker, and her job is to help keep the city on schedule. The trouble is that her own mind won't keep pace. She drifts, loses track and always seems to land a beat behind everyone else.

Then the tower's ancient pendulum starts skipping beats no clock should skip, and Wren is thrown into the in-between. It is a fractured realm where frozen cities never thaw, broken timelines echo with voices trapped mid-second, and an ancient gear hums with a secret someone tried hard to bury. Someone has shattered time itself, and the wound they left behind is unraveling.

To save Horologium, Wren has to face a version of the Clockmaker she never knew: a man carrying grief older than the city itself. Along the way she must survive a city built entirely of machines, confront a sharper mirror of herself and outlast a Saboteur who stopped being human a long time ago. And she has to decide what protecting time really means. According to the description, it isn't conquering time but keeping faith with the people counting on her, even when her own rhythm never quite matches theirs.

Who it's for

The Amazon listing pitches the book to readers who love:

  • Steampunk worlds full of gears, portals and impossible machines
  • Time-bending, multiverse-hopping adventure
  • Young heroines whose "flaws" turn out to be exactly what the world needs
  • Grief, legacy and the courage to keep going, even when the clock says you're already late

The listing signs off: "Mind the gears. Horologium is waiting."

On Amazon

  • Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon (64 ratings, as of September 26, 2026)
  • Earned Amazon's Top New Release badge in Teen & Young Adult Alternative History after its August 2026 launch
  • Reached #1 on Amazon in Teen & Young Adult Alternative History, Teen & Young Adult Steampunk, and Teen & Young Adult Steampunk eBooks.

Book details

  • Title: A Wound in Time
  • Author: C. V. Wooster
  • Format: Kindle eBook
  • Published: August 27, 2026
  • Length: 216 pages
  • Genre: YA steampunk, alternative history
  • Reading age: 13 to 17
  • ASIN: B0FNTJSYJ1

Get A Wound in Time on Amazon →

As an Amazon Associate, The Publishing Times earns from qualifying purchases.

Image: A Wound in Time cover, from its Amazon listing.