Imagine being able to jump back in time and do it all over again.
Going back to live with everything you’ve learned, and knowing everything that’s happened in the world during your lifetime. That’s exactly what happens to Connor Grace, a middle-aged divorced school teacher, who is hit by a car in downtown Charleston and wakes up as a teenager again in the late 1980’s.
Young again, he seeks out the woman who he knows will eventually become his first love, and sets out to right the wrongs of the past. As he tries to make sense of the tumultuous times he had already lived through once before, he discovers that he isn’t the only one who has come back.
In Finding Lorena, organized crime, southern charm, Israeli martial arts, time travel, and self-discovery coalesce in an action-adventure love story for the ages…well, maybe a few different ages.
Connor Grace is a middle-aged divorced school teacher who is hit by a car in downtown Charleston in 2018. When he wakes up, he finds he is now back in his teenage body, and it is 1987. Young again, he seeks out Lorena, his first love, and tries to change events from his past. Eventually he finds out he’s not the only one who has come back from 2018. Connor begins to gain interest from others. His knowledge of the future is a hot commodity, and there are shadowy figures willing to do anything to gain that knowledge.
This is an interesting time travel novel, set mostly in 2018 and 1987. As always in time travel fiction, the means of travel is extremely important. The method of time travel used here is unique and compelling, and leans more towards the scientific than the fantastical.
The first 20 percent of the book moved slowly for me, and I did not connect with Connor right away. I was a little surprised by his violent reaction to finding himself in 1987. Anyone would be stunned, but his reaction is bloody and over the top. His father also has inexplicable, exaggerated violent reactions at the hospital in the first part of the book. I personally did not find Connor all that likable at first, as he gets involved in more unnecessary rude and/or violent behavior that would have been more believable for a teenager, but not a middle aged man in a teenager's body. I also felt his reaction to seeing his dead mother alive again was more muted than it should have been. However, the book begins to pick up steam at the 20 percent mark, and the remaining 80 percent is highly enjoyable.
After Connor gets to Berkeley, the book becomes much more interesting and cohesive. While there is still violence after that, the reason for it is believable. The remainder of the story flows much better and is much more interesting.
There are also some scenes from other years in his life that changed his life forever, and those scenes are done well. Connor's relationship with Lorena is touching and honest. His quest to find justice for her is believable.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in crime/thriller novels with a unique time travel twist.
I received a free copy of this book via Reedsy Discovery. My review is voluntary.
This book does not have the attention that it deserves! It was a more of a mystery/thriller than a romance novel, and the story line was absolutely unique and enthralling. It was one of those books where you can’t wait to finish it and at the same time, you don’t want it to end. I received a free digital review copy of it, and before I had even finished it, I ordered a hard copy of it, along with a copy of the author’s other fictional novel. I love that the author is a psychiatrist in real-life, and I feel like this helped him create such rich characters. I cannot express how much I recommend this read.
I thought this was a pretty good book. As a fan of time travel and romance, I thought this book was right down my alley. I had some problems with it, but mostly found it to be an enjoyable ride.
I thought Connor and Lorena were both incredibly strong characters, especially Connor, who had some shades of grey and took matters in his own hands, which was refreshing for sure. The story was entertaining and a blast to read. I really enjoyed the theories on time travel and spirituality laid out in the book's pages.
But some parts were confusing and I wondered what they had to do with the plot and the story until the very end when it was all revealed. The beginning was a little hard to get into as well, and I found myself not really liking Connor in the beginning, until he went back in time to be his 17 year old self again.
All in all, this was a surprising read, which I really enjoyed. I loved the action in it as well as the romance, and the surprises along the way. I'm glad I read it, and was entertained and enjoyed it the whole way through. Made me think about my own life and the choices I've made, good and bad. And that is a sign of a good book.
This is definitely an author to watch out for, and I'm glad I accidentally stumbled upon this great story.
Well written, a struggle thru time travel with adjustments to each pass of time with lots of adventures in between. I loved this story. I highly recommend it. I am hoping there will a " the rest of the story for Conner and Lorena.
Connor Grace is 48 years old, divorced, a school teacher by day, musician by night and seemingly just going through the motions to get by in life. After getting hit by a car late one night he is transported back to his 17 year old self in 1987.
We meet Lorena Silver in the beginning of the story as her trip abroad in Israel is coming to an end and we see scenes with her lover and her friend. We see she is fierce and knows martial arts and later learn that she taught with Connor Grace in 1993 and now has a 4 year old child.
The story continues along with 17 year old Connor in 1987 providing backgrounds to various relationships, mainly Lorena and Connor’s, and then explores how Connor goes about to change the destiny that kept so many things out of reach for him. Things get even more interesting when others within this new time jump reality seem to have a familiarity with people they meet in the future and when it seems there are a few others with the same conditions Connor has.
I thought the overall plot of this book was really interesting. Parts of the book were slow for me at times and the story seemed less about rekindling with a lost love and more about finding out what happened and how/why with a little twists sprinkled in. I also think that a huge point in the plot seemed a little out of character for Connor but it still led to interesting developments and complications.
Overall this book was a great read and I enjoyed seeing how everything played out!
*I received a free copy of this book for an honest review*
What a beautiful, moving book. I will admit I do love time travel but this is the second only novel I have read, my first by Michael Bartos. It was the title and the cover that drew me to the book. Upon reading the blur I knew this was the story, the book I wanted to read and I couldn't put it down. I wanted to know more, I needed to know more which is unusual for me to read a book thats nearly fully in a man's POV.
Anyway this is the story of Connor 'Connie' Grace who lives is pretty rubbish life at the beginning. He's made a few mistakes in life. One night, heartbroken, his life changes as he's transported through time and space to his seventeen year old. Problem mentally he is stil his forty-year plus self and has retained all of his memories.
Michael tells a tale beautifully set in POV's of not just Connor but that of Lorena in the shape of diaries as well as one off POV's of other characters. He waves us a story, a journey about Connor finding a man in California who helps in: in many ways becomes his mentor, a second father figure and protector. He's there when Connor needs help. It's also back in 1987 that he discovers he is not the one person to have fallen through what seems like a trapdoor triggered by certain things. Its there he meets Maggie who is the same as him.
Now I don't want to give the story away, but I promise you this is a story that are wanting to read. Its full of romance, helping people even if it is indirectly. Be prepared to be have be sent between two years but its not a lot. Michael writes it so well you really don't notice.
Connor was a struggling, underpaid high school math teacher stuck with alimony payments. An accident, one night, sends him to the hospital, where he wakes up as his teenage self from 1987. Whoa!
The narrative summarizes Connor’s old life in a rural community. We get info on the town and its people. Some of it was not that interesting and it took too much time. It was rather slow with some choppy sentences.
About 14% in, Connor mentions Lorena, but we still don’t know what the connection is. Lorena was a teacher that he met in 1993. There was an instant attraction and they dated. Just before their wedding, Lorena, along with Connor’s best friend, was murdered by a white cop. Back to 1987—6 years before he was to meet Lorena—Connor goes in search for Lorena beforehand. When he finally finds her, the two feel like they already know each other. Was this his chance to change the course of coming events? Could he catch his mother’s breast cancer? Could he stop his dad from drinking? Could he stop the boy that would later kill his girlfriend and best friend?
I thought this had an interesting premise, but, as mentioned, the whole thing’s quite slow. A lot of narrative is wasted on scenery and history. It gets way too scientific and philosophical once Connor meets up with the professor. From then on, it tapers off and it’s not as interesting as it started off. This was a decent time-travel story, but I expected more.
Bartos has weaved an intriguing tale that defies convention and genre. If you are looking for a boiler plate romance, or a standard time-travel story, this is not it. It is, though, a book with some flaws. Bartos gives significant space to attempting a plausible explanation of how time travel works in his universe, waffling between quantum physics and different spiritual systems. In the end, he fails and his attempts hinder the reader’s ability to suspend disbelief. His characters are flat and the titular romance is really a subplot. The ending did not deliver the impact I would have liked, but I look back on the read as an enjoyable one. Having said that, I read through the book, constantly wanting to know what would happen to the characters. The plot twists and turns, and kept surprising me, leaving the right questions open to draw me in. As a bonus, I really enjoyed the portrayal of North Carolina and Northern California. I got a feel for the settings that defied what I thought I knew about them from movies and TV. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a light read that will keep them entertained and guessing.
What a beautiful, moving book. I will admit I do love time travel but this is the second only novel I have read, my first by Michael Bartos. It was the title and the cover that drew me to the book. Upon reading the blur I knew this was the story, the book I wanted to read and I couldn't put it down. I wanted to know more, I needed to know more which is unusual for me to read a book thats nearly fully in a man's POV.
Anyway this is the story of Connor 'Connie' Grace who lives is pretty rubbish life at the beginning. He's made a few mistakes in life. One night, heartbroken, his life changes as he's transported through time and space to his seventeen year old. Problem mentally he is stil his forty-year plus self and has retained all of his memories.
Michael tells a tale beautifully set in POV's of not just Connor but that of Lorena in the shape of diaries as well as one off POV's of other characters. He waves us a story, a journey about Connor finding a man in California who helps in: in many ways becomes his mentor, a second father figure and protector. He's there when Connor needs help. It's also back in 1987 that he discovers he is not the one person to have fallen through what seems like a trapdoor triggered by certain things. Its there he meets Maggie who is the same as him.
Now I don't want to give the story away, but I promise you this is a story that are wanting to read. Its full of romance, helping people even if it is indirectly. Be prepared to be have be sent between two years but its not a lot. Michael writes it so well you really don't notice.
This was a great time travel read from Michael Bartos. As a 48 year old, Connor travels back roughly 30 years to find that he is 17 again. It's an interesting thought - what would you change if you could when you have a good amount of life experience under your belt and have figured out what are the things that you find fundamentally important to you. For Connor that is wanting to preserve and repair important family ties, as well as being able to start and build a different relationship with his girlfriend Lorena. Though by preserving some ties he could lose the possibility of others that were important to him. Just how much could you really change things? Once I got into this one I kept wanting to find out what would happen next and found it a really entertaining read. There are twists and turns that I wasn't expecting. I liked the other characters around Connor, especially Maggie. I would have liked a little more of her story. I received a free copy from Voracious Readers Only in exchange for an honest review.
Overall I thought it was a decent premise for a book. It started out pretty good and then about 1/4 of the way through just fell flat.
So..you fiance & best friend were killed. Your mom died of cancer and you have been given a miracle of going back in time to see those people still alive. And then within months of being back, with no idea why you went back in time or when/if you will go back to 2018, you leave those people to move halfway across the US to go to a college to try and find out the "why"? Anybody else think that makes nosense? Why the heck wouldn't you stay in your hometown, make decent money and do whatever you can get marry the woman you love?
It was a OK read but by the end of it, I didn't really care what happened to Connor.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Interesting concept but the main character and the writing bordered on straight ephebophilia, which was incredibly uncomfortable to read. A grown adult male who goes back in time, still mentally a middle aged male, uses his knowledge to seduce a teenager *who is mentally and physically a teenager.* It's predatory and frankly a little disturbing.
Nothing about this was romantic. It came across more as wish fulfillment/fantasy fanfiction. A person who regrets their life now and daydreams about going back in time and "fixing" all their choices in life.
The writing itself isn't anything particularly notable.
Lastly, if I had to read "A Grace man" one more time...
The book was good. Had a lot of different view points and perspectives of time travel from many intellectual and spiritual genres. The inbetween readings of the love story were more of Connor's story and coming of age literally speaking. Lorena I read was like a catalyst character meant to boost the romantic notion of a character being a connection to Connor from his past. But her character real significant role is her being in itself lead the storylines into some great scenes for reading in Connor's adventure's with family and new and old friends as the story progress's.
The book has an interesting premise. Through unknown circumstances, 48 year old Connor is transported back into his 17 year old body - from 2018 to 1987. He retains all his memories and sets out on a different life journey to the one that made him who he was in 2018. This includes meeting Lorena, the love of his life earlier, to change what happened before.
The book is well written and 4 stars is well deserved. The author can tell stories. For 5 stars, I miss some smoothness that connects the whole story. Overall, I can recommend the book.
This story had an interesting premise which drew me to reading it. Basically if you could go back knowing what you know now what would you do differently? But with the memory of your life already lived. It was interesting to read on to see if things were altered and by how much - or does fate play the same cards regardless? The ending was very abrupt but wrapped up in the epilogue. Interesting read which left me with questions. Received a complimentary copy of the book from Voracious Readers Only
What a lovely story! Truly enjoyed reading this book. The plot flowed easily and never found a dull moment. I found the descriptions very visual and really liked the character descriptions. The author definitely knows how to narrate captivating stories. Could not put this book down and would definitely recommend! A really great read! I received a free copy of this book through the website Voracious readers.
The book held promise but left me feeling disappointed. Connor Grace is a middle aged man who made some poor life choices when the novel begins. But he’s then in an accident and by some fluke awakens as his 17-year-old self in 1987. From there, the reader follows him as he tries to amend some things that happened in his previous life so there’s a better outcome. However, along the way he learns that things aren’t that easy and no matter, people still make poor choices and the butterfly effect is real. The book ends rather abruptly even though the author tried to tie it up with a neat little bow.
A slow start, I found the beginning a little disjointed. Interesting plot whereby Connor Grace, a middle aged school teacher, involvled in an accident in 2018, regains consciousness in 1987. With all his memories he looks for his first love, Lorena. Becoming somewhat of an interesting study for intellectuals life takes some interesting and dangerous turns. An entertaining read once you find the rhythm
Finding Lorena is advertised as a time travel story and after an accident the main character, Conner, does wake up in the past. Author, Michael Barton tells multiple stories in different time periods…all are interesting, but there’s a revelation at the book’s end that is quite surprising as to what actually has been going on. I voluntarily reviewed an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. Highly recommend.
I really enjoyed this second novel by Mike! Excellent character development and complexity of the plot was really well done. The little mysterious effects and the fabulous ending of this mystery love story worked great. I’d definitely recommend this book and have already shared my copy with a friend. I’m looking forward to the next novel by this author!
A different take on time travel from the usual scenarios that I have read. I enjoyed the story and could certainly appreciate the opportunity to do some things differently if one went back in time. Certainly were some interesting twists and turns in the plot that kept the story flowing. I enjoyed it. Thanks Michael Bartos.
I received a complimentary copy of the book from the author via Voracious. Readers Only. I loved this book. This author is going to be huge! Fantastically written, Finding Lorena was a page turner that I simply couldn't put down. I can't wait to see what he writes next!
Usually, I can get on board to read a world of time traveling. However, this was a hard read for me. The blurb had me excited and a few chapters in the story was flowing. However, the story had so many info-dumping that it fell flat by midpoint.
This was a good read. It kept me engaged throughout the whole book. I enjoyed following the storyline through all its twists and turns. It makes me wonder what I would do if I went back in time.
Side note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review
What if you went back in time to when you were a senior in high school, would you try to do things differently or the same? What if you had no control over your age or where you ended up? It’s not the Twilight Zone.
The characters were very different and interesting. It was exciting to follow the ups and downs Conner lives through. The idea of a soulmate that never dies is intense.
What can I say but I loved this book from start to finish. It's one that you will read again and again. The characters were genuinely a wonderful mix. The friendships were so strong you just felt them Bravo on a great story.
What would you do if you time traveled to your past, would you change it? This was a well written book. I very much enjoyed it. Love, time travel adventure and consequences of your actions.
A very ingageing book, bouncing back and forth, in time, a love story, a thriller , and just all around riveting read .could not put it down until I finished.