RATING: OKAY
First Published: 2018
SPOILERS!!!
I love this author's books, but even though this novel had an original plot, I found myself struggling to finish it.
The novel starts when Carly, who is a physiotherapist in a hospital, meets Hunter, who is recovering after falling from a roof. He is suspected to have jumped, but when Carly talks to him, he denies. Then when the radio announces the new single of the Beatles, he starts singing it, and Carly is surprised that he can know the words. Carly thinks that Hunter might get on well with her sister, Patty, and she intends to introduce them.
A few years later in 1971 Patti and Hunter are married and have a son, John Paul. Carly is going through a terrible time as her husband, Joe, has died in the Vietnam war. Carly is pregnant but the doctor tells her that her baby, a girl, has a heart problem and will die shortly after her birth. Cary is devastated and then Hunter tells her that they need to talk. He has a secret. He was born in the 1990s and he travelled in time, and when he met Patti, he decided to stay in 1971. The reason why he is telling her is because in 2001 there is fetal surgery and her baby can be helped. What he suggests is for Carly to travel to 2001. At first Carly doesn't believe him, but he finally proves to her that he is telling the truth.
Carly travels to 2001 and she contacts Hunter's mother, who is the person who discovered time travel. Myra is not too pleased but is happy to learn that her son is happy in 1971. Carly is admitted to have surgery and the procedure is a success. The plan is for her to have the baby, and then travel back home. Yet, when Joanna is born, she still has health issues, and she can't make it to the portals that will take her home. When she is ready to return in the last portal, Joanna gets sick and has to be readmitted in hospital. Her option is to travel back home, and then return for her baby.
At home Patti is relieved to see her sister and she doesn't want her to return, but Carly insists she has todo it for her Joanna. Hunter makes the calculations, and a few days later Carly is ready. Yet, the day she is supposed to land in 2001, it is on the day the Twin Towers were attacked in New York, so that this circumstance tampers with his calculations, and Carly arrives in New York in 2013, twelve years later. The baby is not in hospital, and she manages to explain her absence by saying that she was injured during the twin towers attack. What Carly learns is that her baby was adopted.
Carly goes to find Myra, who is surprised to find her. After Carly explains, Myra says that she needs to return to 1971, but Carly wants to find out where her daughter is. Myra has contacts and manages to discover where Joanna is. Carly breaks her promise to Myra, and travels to the town where Joanna lives with her parents. There she finds a job in the guest house where she is staying as a cleaner, and she gets to walk the owner's dog, and it is thanks to the dog that she gets to meet Joanna and her parents. Little by little Carly becomes friendly with the family, and she has mixed feelings. She wants to tell Joanna who she is but she is pleased that Joanna is happy.
While she is living there, she meets a Vietnam veteran, who tells her that those who died in the war had their names carved in a memorial in Washington. So Carly goes there, and when she can't find Joe's name, she discovers that Joe didn't die but was kept a prisoner and he went home in 1973. Then Carly decides to go home and wait for him. Myra tells him that she needs to return that night and she is to leave from Joanna's tree house. When she is about to leave, Joanna finds her there and Carly tells her everything, which scares the girl because she thinks that Joanna is crazy. Then Carly jumps and returns home.
In 2018 Carly is an old woman. She and Joe had a life when he returned home, and they had children. Then Carly sees a woman approach. It is Joanna, who tells her that she is in the area and wanted to see her and confirm that what Carly told her in 2013 was true.
The concept of this novel was original and interesting, but I found some parts too repetitive and a bit too far-fetched.
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