The Clockmaker's Apprentice

Twelve-year-old Ellie Finch keeps her father's workshop like a ship's deck-tidy, reverent, and always ready for surprises. On a golden autumn afternoon in the seaside town of Oakhaven, a floorboard lifts and a secret breathes up: a clock wrapped in oiled cloth, silver inlay stitched with moons and stars, and a hum that feels like a tuning fork pressed against the heart.

This is the Timekeeper, a hinge between times. Touch it-and dust hangs still, gull cries pause mid-air, and doors open onto moments you cannot reach by walking.

But the Order of the Shattered Hourglass is hunting the Timekeeper, intent on "correcting" history with devices called Shears that can cut whole days from memory. Guided by Ariadne Thistledown, a healer of clocks and keeper of tides, Ellie must:

• Mend a sabotaged Gatewheel tooth
• Tune seven chronal anchors hidden beneath Oakhaven
• Face the Order in a cliffside workshop, a whispering tide-cave, and an underground city of rattling gears
• Choose patience over force, and care over control-because the Timekeeper doesn't obey; it listens

With lyrical prose, warm humor, and a heroine whose courage is both steady and kind, The Clockmaker's Apprentice explores grief and grit, found family, and the small choices that shape big futures. Perfect for readers of Kelly Barnhill, Naomi Novik's softer wonders, and classic, time-touched adventures.