The Journey (Northwest Passage Book 2)
By John Heldt
Publisher: John A. Heldt
Published: Nov. 4, 2012
ASIN: B00A1ID5X0
Amazon Synopsis:
Seattle, 2010. When her entrepreneur
husband dies in an accident, Michelle Preston Richardson, 48, finds herself
childless and directionless. She yearns for the simpler days of her youth,
before she followed her high school sweetheart down a road that led to
limitless riches but little fulfillment, and jumps at a chance to reconnect
with her past at a class reunion. But when Michelle returns to Unionville,
Oregon, and joins three classmates on a spur-of-the-moment tour of an abandoned
mansion, she gets more than she asked for. She enters a mysterious room and is
thrown back to 1979.
Distraught and destitute, Michelle finds a job as a secretary at Unionville High, where she guides her spirited younger self, Shelly Preston, and childhood friends through their tumultuous senior year. Along the way, she meets widowed teacher Robert Land and finds the love and happiness she had always sought. But that happiness is threatened when history intervenes and Michelle must act quickly to save those she loves from deadly fates. Filled with humor and heartbreak, THE JOURNEY gives new meaning to friendship, courage, and commitment as it follows an unfulfilled soul through her second shot at life.
Book Links
My Thoughts:
Recently widowed and
visiting her hometown of Unionville, Oregon, Michelle Preston is stunned when
she exits the small room of the abandoned mansion to discover it is no long
2010, but 1979 and she’s all alone. She decides to make the best of things
since re-entering the room that caused the initial time travel didn’t work
again.
Michelle works at
solving the mystery of other people she has heard about who have disappeared
that have lived at the abandoned mansion. She makes some intriguing discoveries
and decides to help her younger self make some different choices in life.
This story drew me
in right from the first page. I wanted to know how Michelle was going to pass
herself off at 48 as someone from 30 years in the past with no identification,
residence, or work history. In 1979 she had been in high school. She couldn’t
even use her own name. This was a small town. People would’ve known something
very strange was going on.
This was a sweet
story about friendships and mentors, love and companionship. Obviously it is
not something that could happen because one small change in history would change
so many things in the future. However, it is a fascinating thing to think about
“what if I had done this, instead of that? How would my life have turned out?”
I liked the
personality of Michelle. She was very helpful and kind. It was not until
Michelle saw her teenage sweetheart (that she eventually married) interacting
with her teenage self clearly for who he was. There were some fun twists that
even Michelle wasn’t aware of until she became privy to the secrets as
confidant of most of the seniors at the high school.
I loved the way the
author wove real historical events into the story. These events made the story
seem much more realistic.
The twist at the end
of the story was both sad and heartwarming. For some it will cause a few tears
to fall. But there is joy too, so you’ll have to decide where to focus your
attention. Not all stories have a perfect ending, but this one had a great one.
I heartily recommend
this time travel romance novel. It was an excellent escape read. I rated it 5
stars out of 5.
Thank you to the
author for providing a copy of the book in exchange for a fair and honest
review. A positive opinion is not required. All thoughts are my own.
About the Author:
John A. Heldt is the author of the critically
acclaimed Northwest Passage and American Journey series. The former reference
librarian and award-winning sportswriter has loved getting subjects and verbs
to agree since writing book reports on baseball heroes in grade school. A
graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Iowa, Heldt is an
avid fisherman, sports fan, home brewer, and reader of thrillers and historical
fiction. When not sending contemporary characters to the not-so-distant past,
he weighs in on literature and life at johnheldt.blogspot.com.
Author
Links
No comments :
Post a Comment