Using Time Travel As a Healing Device
One of my first experiences with time travel was the 1980 movie Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Christopher Reeve is a young man who travels in time to meet a famous actress who he eventually falls in love with. With that movie as my introduction to time travel, I was hooked. I’ve never been so much interested in the mechanics of time travel as I am the lessons that come from the traveling.
Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan is basically an Irish version of Somewhere in Time. Well, not exactly, but close enough for me to be reminded of the movie. Now & Then is about a thirty-something woman, Anna, who is recovering from a divorce. If divorce is not enough, she is also dealing with a brother in the hospital, an absentee father, and a nephew who is in jail. To help out her brother, Anna picks up her nephew, Joseph, from prison and takes care of him while her brother is healing. While together, Anna and Joseph are spun back into time where they must try and heal from their twenty-first century wounds in nineteenth century Ireland.
For me, the character of Anna was the best part of this book. I loved how desperately she tried to hold her family together and how, even though her childhood haunted her, she kept trying to make it right. However, only in the past can she find out what she had been missing and why she could never heal the pain of her family. I found the character of her nephew, Joseph, a little less interesting. Sixteen year old boys who love wresting are harder for me to relate to; however, Sheehan successfully captures the actions and emotions of a teenage boy. The story of Anna is what compelled me to keep reading.
Finally, my favorite part of the book was Donal, Anna’s love interest. Donal was completely unexpected and he is far from a typical romantic hero. Donal and Anna are pretty much dirty and hungry throughout most of the story, but I liked that Sheehan didn’t make her characters smell good so that they met with modern day ideas of romance. Donal smelled and Anna smelled, and they loved each other anyway. Wouldn’t anyone want that?
Now & Then is a wonderfully, entertaining story about time travel to help heal old wounds. The characters were intriguing and the intricate details of living in 1844 Ireland were fascinating. The ending left me with some questions, but with the way the book was told, I knew that the author was not going to give me all the answers. That’s okay, I like to fill in the gaps myself sometimes.
Do you have a favorite book or movie about time travel?
Book Source: TLC Book Tours
TLC Book Tours is a virtual book tour site. Virtual book tours are a promotional tool for authors to connect with readers via well-read book blogs and specialty blogs. [Description from TLC Book Tours Site]
Other Blogs on the Tour:
Monday, November 2nd: The Bluestocking Guide
Thursday, November 5th: Life in the Thumb
Monday, November 9th: Eclectic Book Lover
Thursday, November 12th: I’m Booking It
Monday, November 16th: The Tome Traveller
Tuesday, November 17th: The Brain Lair
Wednesday, November 18th: Bloggin’ ’bout Books
Monday, November 23rd: Stephanie’s Written Word
Monday, November 30th: Jenn’s Bookshelves
What a great review, Tracie! I agree that it’s really neat to see the lessons that time travel teaches.
Thanks for being on this tour!
I really enjoyed this book and loved the whole premise. I wondered how she was going to tie it all together but it worked wonderfully!!
No problem, Trish. Thanks for having me
Hi Staci – I, too, wondered how it was going to tie all together. I realized as I got closer to the end that I wasn’t going to get all the answers. This became one of those books where I imagined what happened instead of the author telling me.