Found-family warmth amid eclipses, supernovae, and eight hundred-plus timelines.
Time’s heist halts ageing and natural death for those in their prime, and the Universe starts calling its pieces home. Tobias—anchored to a canal narrowboat and to Stuart, an A&E doctor—is recruited by Time and Death to attempt a risky alignment that could restore Earth’s rhythm without sacrificing Daisy or the future they’re building.
When Time breaks its own laws—freezing ageing and natural death for those in their prime—the Universe starts calling its pieces home. Tobias, a Birmingham professor moored to a canal narrowboat and to the man he loves, hears that call clearest.
Recruited by Time and Death, Tobias steps from quiet water and crowded wards into an underground garden built for endings. Daisy learns to hold starlight. Music’s golden threads tug from a Phuket nightclub to an Andean summit. The rules are literal, impatient, and powerful.
As eclipses, supernovae, and eight hundred-plus timelines converge, Tobias must find a risky alignment that restores Earth’s rhythm without surrendering himself, Daisy, or the future he and Stuart are building. Can he keep the Universe at bay long enough to bring the world home?
Behind the Pages
Over the years, I’ve had more story ideas than I can count—some passing through quickly, others lingering for tea. A few even came with dramatic entrances and impossible demands. But none of them ever made it onto paper. Not even a line. Not even a note on the back of a napkin.
Until Tobias & Stuart.
I’ve always been drawn to MM romance and speculative fantasy, and since this was my first novel, I thought I’d start with something I knew well—academic life. It’s a world full of eccentric characters, strange rituals, and an endless supply of questions without clear answers. In its own way, academia already feels a bit fantastical. My challenge was to combine all three into one story.
Tobias & Stuart became the kind of book I wanted to read myself: an MM romance that doesn’t just flutter hearts but nudges the mind awake. At its centre is Tobias, an academic who’s built a perfectly sensible life for himself… until he hasn’t. His journey is one of confronting emptiness, finding courage in vulnerability, and slowly becoming the truest version of himself—all while the world threatens to unravel around him.
It’s a story about love, friendship, and the delightful absurdity of being human. Those small, stubborn things that—when you really think about it—might just be what saves the world.
I hope you’ll come along for the journey with Tobias and Stuart, and of course with Music, Death, and Time, who have a way of turning everything upside down just when you think you’ve figured it out.
Jern Tonkoi
Reader praise
“A dazzling, tender cosmic love story that makes the universe feel both vast and heartbreakingly intimate.
The Curse of Time is one of those rare speculative romances that manages to be clever, lyrical, and deeply human all at once. ”
