Time to Choose

by Jan Turk Petrie

Choosing can be hard, even for a superbeing.In ‘Time to Choose’, the fourth volume of Jan Turk Petrie’s much praised time-slip series, we leap forward to 2036.
About to leave school, Ollie Brookes has to decide on his future, while his younger sister, Vega, is drawn towards the past. Both must keep their supernatural abilities hidden from friends and teachers while facing all their adolescent angst and uncertainty.
Meanwhile, single dad Tom Brookes is working as a consulting detective specialising in finding lost pets by hopping back in time. When distraught mother, Sarah Baynton, asks him to discover what’s happened to her missing son, Tom is conflicted – more so when his preliminary investigations into the young city dealer’s disappearance get him into a whole load of trouble.
As an already volatile situation takes a more sinister turn, both Tom’s children are reluctantly drawn into the Baynton mystery and face choices no kids should ever have to make.

This highly anticipated addition to Petrie’s popular Cotswolds Time Slip series is a must for fans of Diana Gabaldon, Jason Apsley and Audrey Niffenegger.

Genres: Time Travel

331 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2023

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its 2036, Ollie and Vega are precocious teenagers. Tom is scratching a living making sculptures and finding lost objects/pets as a side line, and Beth is back in the 1980s becoming a successful actress, with a few years of amnesia.

Tom is approached by a mother, her adult son, a City trader, has gone missing. The police suspect he fell into the Thames whilst drunk/committed suicide, but she is convinced that even if he was drunk he was a strong swimmer and could have swum to safety. She ridicules the idea of suicide, he had just been given a large bonus and had been celebrating with his colleagues all night. Tom fully intends to refuse the assignment, it's too dangerous and could expose his abilities to the wider world, but surely it wouldn't hurt to travel back a few days and see what really happened ... would it?

I'll be honest, this was my least favourite of the four books. Vega was a brat (although most thirteen-year old girls are), no-one seemed to recognise what a nice guy Ollie was, and Tom seemed to have become completely ineffectual; I get that his children far surpass him in abilities but to make him such a blundering fool was unkind. Overall, this book raised more questions that answers, there seemed to be too many storylines, and I didn't feel the love for the characters like I did in the previous books.

Read on my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

[Mr · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice wrap up for the whole series

Great series of 4 books- thoroughly enjoyable without too many characters and a solid but unguessable storyline.
Still plenty of room for a 5th book!!

[Miss M Stanbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love time travel novels

Another gripping episode in the lives of the time travelling family. This fourth story just as good as previous ones. Time to read the next instalment!

[Pam Keevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was sad ending the book and knowing I won't meet these delightful characters again. From Tom, desperately trying to be a competent single father of two very unique teenagers, to Ollie and Vega, showing all the traits of their uniqueness blended with the awkwardness of adolescence to Matt, Tom's father, aging into wisdom and increasing sense of responsibility; all are beautifully and believably portrayed.

So when Tom is asked to help locate a missing person, he is drawn into a shady world of finance and fraud. Ollie uses his powers to help while Vega is involved in travelling back in time to see her mother. With the worldly Cerys, upsetting Ollie's adolescent hormones, the whole family become embroiled once again with the guardians. But all is not what is seems and the plot twists and turns ensure an enthralling read.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

For all those people who loved the first three books in this series like I did, you may be advised to just leave it there, as this book is as much a struggle to read as the author mentions it was to write. The first three had momentum and I read them back to back, unable to put them down but this * was a bit of a slog and meandered, somewhat aimlessly, through the lives of Tom and his children.

* to be fair, maybe it is just there has been too long a gap between me finishing the trilogy and starting this, as it's not a bad read but just lacking somewhat

[Dana Garcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not so much a time travel romance.

I'm sorry I thought it would be but, alas it's not. My fault. I'm not into books that go into the future but this one wasn't bad. The books did keep me intrigued. Just wished Beth and Tom would have had a future or past. However you want to look at it.

[David Atkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

threes a charm

Or maybe not. I loved the previous books. I just liked this one. Sometimes a story or cast of characters can’t sustain a series and I think that’s true here. It feels like a natural end. It’s a good read and entertaining but the magic left with Beth I feel. Goodbye Beth.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading the 4th book in Turk Petrie’s time travel series and if anything they just keep getting better. Life with time-travelling teenagers is proving a challenge for poor Tom. Highly recommended!