Elyse Douglas – Time Stranger – Reviewed 2/18/20
How do you return when you cannot believe you left?
1944 - Anne Billings is going to meet the man that she loves, Lieutenant Kenneth Cassidy Taylor, and introduce him to her son. The day started great, the sun was out, and she was happy. Then she hears that horrible sound, the whine of the air raid sirens and the sound of the German bombers approaching from the east. She is seized with fear, fear of not getting to the safety of the air-raid shelter. She and every person in the city of London know this fear. She grabs Tommy’s hand so tight that he tells her that it hurts him. She looks upward and sees the barrage balloons floating in the sky, they were designed to discourage low-level attacks. Only this time they were not low level, they were high in the sky, above 10 thousand feet. She knew that this would be a bad one. Gripping Tommy’s hand, she tells him that they need to hurry and get to the shelter, Quick! He looks up and you can see the fear on his little face, he says, “Are those airplanes going to drop bombs, Mummy?”
She thinks to herself, I was so close, they would have met, and kissed, and he would love Tommy. The bombs are falling all around them, she lost sight of the shelter, then a flash almost blinded her. But then, everything seemed to be in slow motion, and Tommy was ripped from her hand.
2008 – Anne felt like she was swimming, everything was so hazy, she felt pain, terror, screams, and like her eyes were glued together! She strained to open them, but then the bright light crashed in and she squeezed them shut again. She heard people’s voices, noises, the sound of the bombs, the terrible pain, and then she slowly opened her eyes a crack and saw tubes connected to her arm, beeping sounds, and what were those monitors?
And the story begins…
What did I like? This book was so different, in most of the other books that Elyse and Doug have written that I have read, the time travel is backward, not forward. I really like this though. My reaction was also different, because of the emotional shock that Anne felt. The unbelievable thing that had happened to her, the disparity of finding her way to “her home”. She is so disoriented and feels this incredible loss, without knowing how to deal with it. How could this happen, and how was she going to fix it? The best part is the help that she is given by Constance. Constance, the wonderful angel that is there for Anne, giving so much, yet you can also feel her own loss, her need to fill the hole in her heart from that dreadful act that took her daughter from her!
What will you like? Intrigue, mystery, disparity, anger, emotional distress, and loss! Elyse and Doug have this wonderful way of using their words to build this fictional world that has all these feelings just floating there, then they share those emotions with us. I cried, and laughed, and cried again. The descriptions will fill your mind’s eye with the horror of the war and what it did to that magnificent town of London. You will be able to hear the bombs dropping, the sirens screaming, and the world exploding. When you listen really hard you will hear the beautiful swing music of the ’40s. The music will sweep across the pages right into your tapping feet, making you want to jitterbug to the wonderful sounds. Then through those same descriptions, you will feel Anne and Constance’s loss and despair. All this will lead you to this absolutely wonderful ending that will have you shouting, Hurray! Truly remarkable read, that you just cannot miss adding to your expanding Library!!! This will be available on March 3, 2021… mark your calendar!
• File Size: 1099 KB
• Print Length: 261 pages
• Publication Date: 3/3/2021
• ASIN: B08TT8F9G2
• Genre: Time Travel Romance, Time Travel Fiction, Time Travel Science Fiction