100 Pages A Day...Stephanie's Book Reviews

In May of 2000, the planets all of the planets aligned for a spectacular astrological event.  The same day of the alignment, Joel Smith, an adventurous college senior decides to take a detour around some road construction in the Montana Hills and finds an abandoned Gold Mine.  Joel can’t help himself to explore and thinks he hits the jackpot when he finds blue glowing stone in the mine.  On his way out, Joel hits his head, and when he wakes up he finds himself in 1941.  Not knowing how he arrived, how to get back or what to do next with no relevant currency, Joel makes his way to his hometown of Seattle to see if he can survive in a time without cell phones or internet.  His first night in town, Joel helps Tom Carter out of a sticky situation and is rewarded with a place to stay and a job with Tom’s family.  Joel bumbles his way through life in 1941, right before the US enters WWII without messing up the future too much.  Joel’s tasks become much harder when he meets some of Tom’s girlfriends, including the enchanting Grace Vandenberg.    

This time-travel romance had all of the right ingredients: realistic characters, a slow-burn romance, and an intriguing historical plot.  Joel is a perfect reluctant time traveler; he is gorgeous, gracious and gentlemanly, determined not to try and change the time line in one of the most trying times in US history.  The women in the 40’s, particularly Ginny and Grace were amazing, strong, intelligent and just knew that something wasn’t right with Joel.  The time period that Joel was transported to, months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor would not be any easy time for anyone with knowledge of the future.  While this knowledge definitely shook Joel, I admired his actions and difficult decisions that showed the type of man he truly was; especially when the friends that he just made were shipped off to war.  Joel and Grace’s romance was realistic and super sweet; I definitely felt all the emotion that went into each character’s actions.  I was also very surprised at the end, it was not was I saw coming, but great for anyone that loves a happily ever after.  This book is the first of a series and I would love to know where the story goes next!

This book was provided for free in return for an honest review.