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If it hadn’t been for the wrinkle in time on a Paddington to Cheltenham train, Tom Brookes and Beth Sawyer would never have met.

Now, in Turn Back Time, the 3rd volume of Turk Petrie’s much praised time-slip story, we find the couple struggling with life in a sleepy village, while raising two young children whose supernatural abilities are viewed as a potential threat by the mysterious, all-powerful Guardians.

When an act of bravery exposes Tom and his family to the attention of the media, a stranger tries to draw him into the search for her missing husband. What follows will divide Tom’s loyalty and, in a dramatic and unexpected twist, confront him with his greatest test.

283 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 10, 2023

18 people are currently reading
6 people want to read

About the author

Jan Turk Petrie

14 books25 followers
Jan Turk Petrie is an award winning writer who lives in the Cotswolds area of England (UK).

She is the author of twelve novels including:

The fast paced, Nordic thriller series: the Eldísvík Trilogy,

'Running Behind Time' and the three other volumes of her bestselling Cotswolds Time-slip Series

'Too Many Heroes' - a noir thriller set in London England in 1952.

'Towards the Vanishing Point' - a tense, domestic drama mainly set in the 1950s

'The Truth in a Lie' - Jan's first contemporary novel dealing with family dramas and relationships.

''Still Life with a Vengeance' - a contemporary story of a woman whose rock star husband is accused of rape.

Jan's latest novel - 'Falling Apart' a dystopian triller full of twists and intrigue.

A former English teacher with an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Gloucestershire, Jan has also penned numerous, prize-winning short stories.

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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Profile Image for Alison.
3,699 reviews146 followers
January 3, 2024
Tom and Beth now have two small children. Tom is the landlord of a pub in a small Cotswold village. The two of them are trying to cope with two gifted children who can time-travel at will, although at least Ollie can translate what his little sister wants/needs.

Things are stressful, but they are flying under the radar and pacifying the Guardians, then Tom uses his powers to save a drowning child in full view of a crowded pub. The repercussions are enormous, but also lead to a woman contacting him to find her husband, an MP who mysteriously vanished into thin air. She believes that he somehow travelled back in time to 1919 because she has seen a photograph of a procession in which a man looks remarkably like her husband is in the crowd. Moreover, it looks very much like Tom standing behind him.

Can Tom deflect the media interest and appease the Guardians? Can he find this woman's husband?

I think this was my favourite of the four books, Ollie and Vega are cuteness personified. Tom wrestles with the very real dilemma of whether he should rescue someone and it ends with a shocking decision.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.
6 reviews
January 30, 2025
I enjoyed this book as I have the previous two. I have one niggle though but I stress that I liked the story. The story continues from the second book and has enough twists and turns to keep you interested. I like this series as, for me, it's a different take on a time travel story.

Too many times when reading this book, I got the feeling that the author is trying to educate me or help me win a trivia quiz. I suspect the author has spent too much time on Wikipedia to inject 'factoids' into the book. For me, it took the edge of the main character as there was no explanation (unless I missed it) for his encyclopaedic knowledge. I found this tripped up the flow of the book as these unlikely pieces of information grabbed my attention because they were unrealistic and stuck out as I read.

Examples:
Tom comments that a quote on Pinterest is from Galsworthy - Outstanding humanitarian and author who won a Nobel prize in the thirties.

Tom explains - off the cuff - that salmon and trout are from the same taxonomic family. He then explains the classification (Salmonidae) and gives examples of other fish that are part of that family.

There are many more examples and, for me, they break out of Tom's character. People don't talk like that and only experts in their field would be able to recall specific information about very specialised subjects.

Now I've got that off my chest, I reiterate, I liked the books. I have to admit that I'm slightly put off reading the fourth one though because of the Wikipedia content!
Profile Image for Pam Keevil.
Author 10 books5 followers
March 17, 2023
This must be my favorite of the series so far. The others are excellent but this left me wanting to re read it! We've met the main characters before; Tom who meets Beth through a time slip, his mother and father, a Guardian who has the same powers as Tom, their son Ollie and now the baby, Vega. The setting of a small Cotswold village where Tom works in a local pub is beautifully crafted with all the characters well rounded and completely credible. Although warned by The Guardians, a group of people with time travelling powers who police the crevices in the time/space continuum, not to interfere in a missing persons case, Tom cannot resist, particularly as his father may be in danger. The time slip passage is edge of the seat stuff and Tom is only successful with the help of his young son. I will not divulge the denouement as it is both poignant and tragic and deserves to be discovered by each individual reader.
78 reviews
July 17, 2023
Wow, loved this book

This book is awesome, I didn’t guess the ending which was fantastic. Hot tubs, car crashes, drowning, victorian asylums, missing guardians, money and trouble all around.
Profile Image for Melissa.
1,102 reviews5 followers
October 25, 2023
Turn Back Time (The Cotswold time-slip series Book3)

As unbelievable as can be a man and his children have powers to move time and to read minds. The wife Beth has no powers. She disappears but soon the family grieves.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews

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