When I see a Time-fiction book, I immediately read the synopsis to see if the book looks like “my type of Time-fiction.” This book seemed to fit, but the dialogue, the demeanor, the self-centeredness of Wendy and Claire just became more and more of an annoyance. I found myself skimming through the pages when confronted with Wendy or Claire’s antics. I recognize that books and our evaluation of them are very subjective, and are influenced by so many things. When sitting to review the book, I found myself divided: I liked some things about this book and at the same time found some things that were not compelling, enjoyable, or edifying.
Things I liked:
• I like the creativeness of Time-travel fiction and the premise of this book seemed to hold promise.
• I like history and the virtual-reality vibe of mixing history with contemporary characters - promising.
• I like the idea of bringing fresh-eyes to an historic, debated, & fought for issue, which our heroine Stella is confronted with during her time-sailing, even as she had seemingly suppressed dealing with the issue in the present.
• I enjoy learning more about my newly adopted state of Missouri. I plan to visit The Arabia Steamboat Museum in KC.
• I’m passionate about antiques and have enjoyed decades of antique collecting, and because of that, I found I liked the use of historical artifacts throughout the story; clever. The juxtaposition of the elevator and the mailbox to facilitate time-sailing was great.
• Hanks used the “snags in the Missouri River” experienced by the steamboat as plot devices to jump time forward, a few minutes to a period of weeks. This also helped build suspense, as Stella is informed that the Arabia is going to sink at a propitious point in time, which could be critical to Stella’s survival.
• I also appreciated that Stella isn’t just on a vacation time-trip, but cannot/will not return to her time, unless she can complete the mission, she was pulled into another time to accomplish. She doesn’t know what that mission is and we do not know what that mission is, but nevertheless, she must accomplish the mission. Nice touch to add to the genre of time-travel fiction.
• The Dr. Duncan who appears in the contemporary time-line and the Dr. Duncan who appears to Stella on the steamboat is intriguing. Just like Wendy & Claire wonder about him and his “knowledge” of time-travel, and Stella has questions about her Dr. Duncan, I was pulled into the story and the mystery around the Drs. Duncan.
Conversely, the following things were Frustrating or Annoying:
• The conversations, thoughts, and fixations of Wendy & Claire, both together and as they interacted with others or ruminated, fixated on their personal wants and needs had me ending my reading sessions numerous times. They were so self-focused and absolutely nauseating.
• I enjoy time-fiction that doesn’t jump back and forth between the current time and the “jumped-to-time.” When the reader is anchoring in the traveled-to-time, they can become enmeshed into the feel and experience of being in a different time, which helps me, the reader to identify with character who jumped into a different time and all they experience. Sadly, as soon as I was invested in Stella’s story, I was yanked out of it, just to hear the inane babblings of Wendy or Claire.
• Both Wendy and Claire had issues that plagued them, they fought themselves, they fought with others, and their issues hurt their abilities to make good choices (job, boyfriend, and even their relationship with the Lord).
• Added to my trouble in investing in the story was that it seemed odd that the girls (Stella, Wendy, & Claire) went off on a cruise, when shortly, Stella would be getting married and the girls (Wendy & Claire) were the besties who would be involved in all the festivities. I question how they could take time for a cruise when they each seemed to have struggles with time loss, money issues, job security, and interpersonal challenges, it just didn’t make sense.
• The last item I struggled with was the awkward relationship the three main characters had with their faith; it just didn’t seem credible. At times, especially Wendy and Claire seemed to treat faith and their relationship with the Lord like a rabbit’s foot that is used when the character got into a jam.
My Conclusions: This book was my first encounter with Sarah Hanks and I have to say she is talented. I didn’t notice any sloppiness as to editing and there were many creative elements. Kudos that the book focused on history and time-travel, but I could have wished that more time was spent in the past and not in the present. I felt this was a solid read, although I couldn’t rate the book higher, because for me the actions, demeanor, and dialogue of Wendy and Claire seemed limited. It was as if the story was geared to a young adult audience and would be more appreciated by those dealing with the angst of young adulthood then more established adults. But even so, I would read another book by Sarah Hanks as she is very talented and a worthy author.