32. The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

listened on Libby

320 pgs. (10:08)

Beautifully narrated by Brittany Pressley

2023
Adult Fantasy 
Finished 7/11/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.13
My rating: 5
Setting: Jasper, North Carolina (an author-created town in the mountains of West NC) in 2022 and 1950.

My comments: This was such a compelling book!  A beautifully written story that could have been incredibly complicated, but it was woven so well that it wasn't at all. (This sort of story usually has me confused, but not this one!)  June Farrow's life....and plight....and mysteries swallowed me up completely. I look forward to seeing if there are other books by Adrienne Young that I've missed out on.  Highly recommended.

Goodreads synopsis:  In the small mountain town of Jasper, North Carolina, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm—and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors.

It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. Faint wind chimes, a voice calling her name, and a mysterious door appearing out of nowhere—the signs of what June always knew was coming. But June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own.

After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for? The next time it appears, June realizes she can touch it and walk past the threshold. And when she does, she embarks on a journey that will not only change both the past and the future, but also uncover the lingering mysteries of her small town and entangle her heart in an epic star-crossed love.  

With The Unmaking of June Farrow, Adrienne Young delivers a brilliant novel of romance, mystery, and a touch of the impossible—a story you will never forget.

33. Sea of Tranquility - Emily St. John Mandel

listened on Libby, borrowed from library.

2022
225 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished 4/20/22
Goodreads rating: 
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Although it keeps going back to Vancouver Island, it takes place all over the world

My comments: What a fascinating story.  I bet I'll be thinking about this one for awhile.  Time travel, interesting characters, and pondering about what "anomaly" means.  Excellent science fiction.  The only thing I would've changed were some of the readers, although they read excellently, for some of them their voices were disconcertingly older that I felt they should be.

Goodreads synopsis:  The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon three hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's bestselling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

70. Runes of Destiny by Christina Courtenay

listened on Chirp

narrated by Eilidh Beaton

Unabridged audio (12:24)
2020
352 pgs.
Adult Time Travel/Historical Fiction
Finished  6/27/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.23 - 342 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary and 9th century Sweden

First line/s: "Kneeling in a muddy trench in the middle of an archaeological dig might be considered a dirty and boring job by some, but it was just what Linnea Berger needed right now."

My comments: Ninth Century Vikings!  This is the story of a six-month expedition from Sweden through the rivers of eastern Europe to current-day Istanbul on two Viking ships/long boats in the late 800s.  Linnea, fluent in ancient Norse (how convenient!), after being transported to the past, is found by Hrafn and claimed as his slave/thrall.  HEA and fun  read with all the usual guaranteed fixtures in a romance - complete with antagonist and huge misunderstanding near the end, lol.  Quite clean, just one place not-quite-so.

Goodreads synopsis:   From the author of Echoes of the Runes comes a thrilling new timeslip novel, filled with adventure and romance, perfect for fans of Barbara Erskine, Diana Gabaldon and Vikings.
        Separated by time. Brought together by fate.
        Indulging her fascination for the Viking language and losing herself in an archaeological dig is just what Linnea Berger needs after her recent trauma. Uncovering an exquisite brooch, she blacks out reading the runic inscription, only to come to, surrounded by men in Viking costume, who seem to take re-enactment very seriously.
        Lost and confused, Linnea finds herself in the power of Hrafn, a Viking warrior who claims her as his thrall and takes her on a treacherous journey across the seas to sell her for profit. Setting sail, she confronts the unthinkable: she has travelled back to the ninth century.
        Linnea is determined to find a way back to her own time, but there's a connection forming with Hrafn that she can't shake. Underneath his hard exterior, he is brave, clever and caring―not to mention attractive. Can she resist the call of the runes and accept her destiny lies here with Hrafn?

65. The Planters by Victor Zugg

#2 A Ripple in Time

read on Kindle

2020
371 pgs.
Adult Time Travel
Finished 6/21/21
Goodreads rating: 4.30 - 624 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: 1720 South Carolina coastline

First line/s: "Nathan Sims eyed the sword's sharp point, hovering inches from his throat."

My comments: Most of this episode taes place on the open sea as Mason, Charlie, Jeremy, and Nathan travel back-and-forth between the plantation and the Spanish fort in Saint Augustine where they sell the rice so that they can pay the first installment that they owe Mrs. Stevens in New York for the purchase of the plantation.  At the end, the rotten Nthan has died and Karen is nearing the end of her pregnancy.  

Goodreads synopsis:  A continuing struggle for survival in a time long past.

        Former Federal Air Marshall Stephen Mason has again done the impossible. He has passed back through an unexplainable time portal and reunited with the three people he cares about most.
        It’s 1720, Charles Town, Carolina Colony, a time and place fraught with hardships and hazards. Carving out a life here will be challenging, especially for these modern-day transplants. There are few people they can trust, none in whom they can confide. But they have each other. And they have a rice plantation.
        With no apparent way home, the plan is simple: grow, harvest, sell, and make life as comfortable as possible, without getting too far ahead of history. But with a million ways things can go wrong, the execution may prove considerably more complicated.
        New to a new world, can Mason, Karen, Jeremy, and Lisa navigate the hard realities they are only beginning to understand?

36. Highland Shifter by Catherine Bybee

#4 MacCoinnich Time Travels

listened on Audible freebie

narrated by David Monteath

Unabridged audio (9:17)
2012
296 pgs.
Adult time travel
Finished 4/10/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.25 - 1616 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary America/medieval Scotland

First line/s: "Energy buzzed down Helen's spine until she shivered with the electrical current her gift created."

My comments: Two years have gone by in contemporary America, yet 15 or 16 years have gone by in medieval Scotland.  Simon is now 30 and each set of married couples has three or four kids to add the the melee.  And then Helen arrives from contemporary California because of a necklace that whe wears, purchased at an antique shop years before.  She works as an antiques appraiser, and travels to contemporary Scotland where we ends up time traveling and landing in Simon's path.  Of course it's practically instalove.  I like the story of this episode, but I never really became enamored with Helen for some reason.  She was kind and interesting, but I weirdly never connected with her character, so that was disappointing.  The physical attraction between Simon and Helen worked - she had grown up on the streets and had a bit of non-virginal background and was much more real than two of the three previous virginal female protagonists.  There's one more in the series to go, but I've read the reviews and I find that she has left that fifth book with a huge cliffhanger, and that was eight years ago....and she's not even hinted at a sequel.  I've also read a few spoilers that show Ms. Bybee has gone in a different direction, with a different feel, than the previous four books.  I think I will just leave it for now and not ready number five, at least at this time.

Goodreads synopsis:  A mysterious Druid book and Helen’s sixth sense send her to Scotland in search of a missing boy. After being attacked by strange men dressed in medieval garb, a handsome, desirable hero answering to the boy’s name rescues her. No one is more surprised than she to find herself in sixteenth century Scotland. Unable to deny the reality of time travel, Helen discovers smoldering passion with a man destined to leave her.
          Simon has lived his Druid life in two very different worlds, two vastly different times, and when Helen practically lands in his lap, he knows his life is about to change forever. There are enemies in California lying in wait for her, and an army in Scotland closing in on his family. Simon is the only person who can protect her. But when she learns his most guarded secret, will she still want him? Can Helen love a Highland Shifter?

35. Redeeming Vows by Catherine Bybee

#3 MacCoinnich Time Travels

listened on Kindle Unlimited Audio/Audible

narrated by David Monteath

Unabridged audio (9:42)
2010
314 pgs.
Adult Time Travel/Romance
Finished 4/9/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.25 - 1781 ratings
My rating: 3.5/4
Setting: Contemporary LA and 16th century Scotland

First line/s: "Liz snapped out of her daydream with Simon's voice ringing in her ears."

My comments: Most of my review was erased!!!  all that was left was: "they were able to return with the help of a modern-day druid and a lunar eclipse...."  This one was about Finn and Lizzie.

Goodreads synopsis:  For her own safety, modern day, single mom, Lizzy McAllister is forced to bow to the medieval men who surround her when she's thrust back in time to the sixteenth century against her will. When Lizzie finds herself trapped in time with Fin, the one man she finds both irresistible and maddening, she agrees to combine forces with him to rid Scotland of the evil witch, Grainna. Finlay MacCoinnich's attraction to Lizzie sizzles the very air they breathe. Tearing down the solid walls the woman has built around her won't be easy, but he's willing to do anything to keep her by his side. When a spell cast by their deadliest foe throws them forward in time, will they manage to find their way back in time to save their family from peril? And will Lizzy willingly stay in his time, or abandon him altogether?

34. Silent Vows by Catherine Bybee

#2 MacCoinnich Time Travels

listened on Kindle Unlimited Audio/Audible

narrated by David Monteath with GREAT accents and voice tones

Unabridged audio (9:35)
2010
302 pgs.
Adult Time Travel/Hist. Fiction
Finished 4/8/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.18 - 1924 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Contemporary LA/1570's Scotland

First line/s:  "My life is over.  Myra MacCoinnich sat astride her horse, marching toward death, death of her life, as she knew it.  Why?"

My comments: The second installment focuses mainly on Myra, the 21-year-old Scottish sister of Duncan and Todd Blakely, the young, fit cop that she meets when she is sent back to the 21st century.  Tara and Duncan are still on the scene, but background characters.  Lizzie and Finn come to a little more proinence, as do Simon and Kieran and Amber, sibling of Myra, Duncan, and Finn.  Gwen, the bad "witch," ges stronger and stronger and viler and meaner.  HEA.  Book 3 to come will be good.  This romance was steamier than the first, could've done with a little less. I don't know how the narrator keeps all the different accents and tones of voice he uses separate, but he does a great job!

Goodreads synopsis:  Myra, a medieval virgin druidess, flees five hundred years into the future to escape death at the hands of a cursed witch and lands in the arms of a handsome but cynical twenty-first century cop. Officer Todd Blakely knows Myra is hiding something, but can't resist her innocent charms. Destiny throws them both into a world of intrigue and mysticism. Can Todd be the true white knight she needs? Or will magic and the winds of time tear them apart?

33. Binding Vows by Catherine Bybee

#1 MacCoinnich Time Travels

listened on Audible Free

narrated by David Monteath

Unabridged audio (9:18)
2009
292 pgs.
Adult Time Travel Romance
Finished 4/7/2021
Goodreads rating: 3.99 - 2869 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary California/1576 Scotland

First line/s: "They weren't even at the county line and Tara McAllister already regretted getting in the car."

My comments:  Tara McAllister gets dragged to a Renaissance Fair by her best friend, Cassie, for a long weekend.  She doesn't want to, and is pretty miserable at the start.  Hiding in a dark corner to stay out of the way of drunken guys trying to get her to dance, Duncan sits on her without seeing that she's there.  Duncan and his brother, Finn, have traveled there from the late 1500s trying to thwart an evil witch.  Duncan and Finn are are Druids.  The first third of teh book...or maybe half?...takes place in this California Renaissance Fair setting, and then -- Spoiler Alert -- the remainder of the story takes place in 1576 Scotland.  It's a love story with quite a bit of steam in a couple of places.  Lots of fun.  The first in a series of what looks like four books.

     From a review:  "These books blend time travel, history, battles, humor, suspense, magic, and romance (and some sex) in just the right blend."  Perfectly said!

Goodreads synopsis:  Duncan MacCoinnich's task... Travel to the twenty-first century Renaissance Faire, deflower the Druid virgins, and go home. Only his job is not so easily accomplished with the virgin in question, Tara McAllister. Time is running out. The evil is closing in on them both. Tara finds Duncan irresistible after what was supposed to be a mock Hand-fasting binds them. When Duncan whisks her to his home in Scotland she could accept that. But, can she forgive him for taking away her modern life when she finds herself in the sixteenth century? And is it love they feel? Or something else?

22. A Ripple in Time: An Historical Novel of Survival by Victor Zugg

#1 A Ripple in Time

listened on Chirp
narrated by Sean William Doyle
Unabridged audio (7:25)
2019
350 pgs.
Adult Time Travel/Survival
Finished 3/17/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.23 - 1256 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Mostly early 1700's Charleston, SC/coast

First line/s:  "The PA system blared. "Final call for Flight seventy-three with service to Charlotte, boarding at Gate 5.  This is your final call.' "

My comments: An interesting take on time travel!  This one was fun to read because it had a lot of basic information about survival like gear needed and trying to put yourself into the right period of history with only what you have.  Clothing of the period was interesting and the last 10% of the book (spoiler alert!) trying to get back, -- was really fun.  The actual ending made me grin.  There's a sequel, will try to find it on audio.

Goodreads synopsis:    A struggle for survival in a time long past.
          It started as a routine Miami to Charlotte flight for the passengers, crew, and Federal Air Marshal Stephen Mason. But a freak storm over the Atlantic propels the airliner unexplainably back in time to the early 18th century. They find themselves on the sparsely populated coast of the Carolina Colony. Charles Town is the only English settlement of any size in the area. It’s an inhospitable place of vast plantations, slavery, hostile natives, tall ships, and marauding pirates.
          Finding a way back, if that’s even feasible, is the least of their worries. These unintended time travelers quickly find themselves ill-equipped for hardships and dangers not faced for centuries. Perils loom at every turn in this world of loss, anguish, filth, and sweat.
          Foreigners in their own land, can they survive and adapt? Is it even possible for these modern transplants to carve an existence from this foul and odorous place in time?
          Stephen Mason will find a way or die trying.

12. A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong

listened on Audible
narrated by Samantha Brentmoor
Unabridged audio (10:39)
2020
336 pgs.
Adult Time Travel/Romance/Ghost Story
Finished 2/9/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.07 - 2598 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary and 18th century England/American protagonist

First line/s: "Six months ago I inherited a haunted house."

My comments: This time travel/ghost story is written by one of my favorite mystery series writers, so I though I would try it while I wait for number six in the Rockton series to appear.  Wow, is it ever different than the Rockton series!  Bronwyn is able to slip back and forth in time as long as she is in one particular room in the Thorn manor house in England.  One major problem s that this manor house has a number of ghosts - ghosts that had chased her away for 23 years.  In those years she has married, lost her husband, Michael, to a brain tumor, and only returns to the manor when it was bequest to her by her aunt.  And upon her return she is whisked back and forth in time once again. She is reunited with William Thorne, the young man who she had adored as a child....who has missed her and waited for her to return.  And now she has a mystery to solve.  Again very different from the Rockton series, but a fun read nontheless.

Goodreads synopsis:  Thorne Manor has always been haunted...and it has always haunted Bronwyn Dale. As a young girl, Bronwyn could pass through a time slip in her great-aunt’s house, where she visited William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier. After a family tragedy, the house was shuttered and Bronwyn was convinced that William existed only in her imagination.
          Now, twenty years later Bronwyn inherits Thorne Manor. And when she returns, William is waiting.
          William Thorne is no longer the boy she remembers. He’s a difficult and tempestuous man, his own life marred by tragedy and a scandal that had him retreating to self-imposed exile in his beloved moors. He’s also none too pleased with Bronwyn for abandoning him all those years ago.
          As their friendship rekindles and sparks into something more, Bronwyn must also deal with ghosts in the present version of the house. Soon she realizes they are linked to William and the secret scandal that drove him back to Thorne Manor. To build a future, Bronwyn must confront the past.

TV Show - Dark

First ever German language series on Netflix
Dubbed in English
Premiered: 2/1/17
Seasons:  3
Number of Episodes: 24
Length of Episode: about 50 minutes
IMBd: 8.8
RT Critic's Consensus Season 1:   Dark's central mystery unfolds slowly, both tense and terrifying, culminating in a creepy, cinematic triumph of sci-fi noir.
RT Critic's Consensus Season 2:  Dark's sumptuous second season descends deeper into the show's meticulously-crafted mythos and cements the series as one of streaming's strongest and strangest science fiction stories.
RT Critic's Consensus Season 3: Dark's final chapter is as thrilling as it is bewildering, bringing viewers full circle without sacrificing any of the show's narrative complexities.
: RT Audience Score:  94/95
cag: 4
Produced by: Netflix

Characters:  So, so many!  Four families:  Kahnwald, Nielsen, Tiedemann, Doppler (three generations of each).... Check out Wikipedia

My comments:  Loved Season 1, got terribly confused with seasons 2 and 3, even with making a family tree list.  By the time I got to the end of Season 3 I had pretty much figured everyone out.  Adding two worlds to the original world was hard on me, lol!  Satisfying ending. Loved the actors.  Loved that it took place in Germany.

Storyline from IMBd: A family saga with a supernatural twist, set in a German town, where the disappearance of two young children exposes the relationships among four families.

 

 

 

45. Dulci's Legacy by Margaret Pinard

read on my iPhone/purchased Kindle book
2014 Taste Life Twice Publishing
192 pgs.
YA Time Travel, mostly CRF, with a tiny bit of HF
Finished 3/5/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.88 - 8 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting:  Current & 1777 Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

First line/s:  "God, I hope this place is better than junior high, Dulci Oyselle thought as she passed through the tall double doors into Glace Cove High School."

My comments: This book was written and suggested to me by one of my "friends" on Litsy, which is pretty cool.  It's about time traveling, but in just short fits and spurts, and Dulci has to piece all that she's seen together with similar time traveling that her best friend's brother has had for the last four years, making him close to crazy.  I guess you might call them visions instead of time traveling, or a combination of the the two.  A bit of a different premise, though I wish the 1777 story had been a little bit more compelling.  Why would a Sottish immigrant adopt a 10-year-old Micmac girls?  How would something like that come about?  That was just a little bit fanciful for me, or at least I can't seem to understand how something like that would happen, especially so many years ago.  The contemporary part of the story was interesting ... I particularly appreciated being given information about Celtic drumming and rural Canada.  And I learned a bit about the French and Indian Wars, which I don't know a whole lot about.

Goodreads synopsis:  Dulci Oyselle is a modern 13-year-old girl in Cape Breton, who thinks high school is going to be her big new challenge, but then starts seeing visions of things happening that no one else does.
          Snowy hills appear in the music classroom. Dangerous men square off for a fight below her bedroom window. What is she seeing? And why are these visions appearing now?
          It might have to do with the new boy in town, who is really interested in her, despite her shy awkwardness. Or it could have something to do with her best friend's family; Mehron's brother is a recluse with some unexplained mental illness that has suddenly turned violent.
          Dulci will need to figure out what she's seeing, and why. To do so, she'll need to have faith in herself, a strength she's never needed before. Encouraged by her friends and inspired by one particular vision, she just might be able to pierce the mystery.

121. The Phantom Tree by Nicola Cornick

read on my iPhone/Kindle
2016 HQ
384 pgs.
Adult Time Swap between 1557 and present: Historical Fiction/Fantasy
Finished 12/9/2019
Goodreads rating:   4.04 - 2535 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: 1557 and present time, England

First line/s:  "She saw the portrait quite by chance, or so she thought."

My comments: Quite a mesmerizing story of time travel between the 1550s and 2015 or so, the story of the mixed up tapestry of British lords and the ladies that got tossed aside.  The story of cousins living with second cousins and third cousins, retinues of families living on various estates throughout the British countryside.  And two couples, one set firmly in the 21st century and one set mostly-firmly in the 16th century.  A bit mystical, interesting, and thought-provoking.

Goodreads synopsis:  ‘There is much to enjoy in a sumptuous novel that slips between present day and 1557.’ - Sunday Mirror
          “My name is Mary Seymour and I am the daughter of one queen and the niece of another.”
          Browsing antiques shops in Wiltshire, Alison Bannister stumbles across a delicate old portrait – supposedly of Anne Boleyn. Except Alison knows better… The woman is Mary Seymour, the daughter of Katherine Parr who was taken to Wolf Hall in 1557 as an unwanted orphan and presumed dead after going missing as a child. 
          The painting is more than just a beautiful object from Alison’s past – it holds the key to her future, unlocking the mystery surrounding Mary’s disappearance, and the enigma of Alison’s son.
          But Alison’s quest soon takes a dark and foreboding turn, as a meeting place called the Phantom Tree harbours secrets in its shadows…

105. The Time Collector by Gwendolyn Womack

read on my iPhone/ have on Kindle
2019, Picador
352 pgs.
Adult Time Traveling Mystery
Finished 10/27/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.97 - 553 ratings
My rating:  2
Setting:  New Orleans and all over the world

First line/s:  "Roan took off his gloves like a man about to duel."

My comments:  Nope.  Didn't do it for me at all.  Too forced and stilted?  Thought the story sticks with me....

Goodreads synopsis:  Travel through time with the touch of a hand.
          Roan West was born with an extraordinary gift: he can perceive the past of any object he touches. A highly skilled pyschometrist, he uses his talents to find and sell valuable antiques, but his quiet life in New Orleans is about to change. Stuart, a fellow pyschometrist and Roan’s close friend, has used his own abilities to unearth several out-of-place-artifacts or “ooparts”—like a ring that once belonged to the seventeenth-century mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, but was found buried in prehistoric bedrock.
          The relics challenge recorded history, but soon after the discovery, Stuart disappears, making him one of several psychometrists who have recently died or vanished without a trace. When Roan comes across a viral video of a young woman who has discovered a priceless pocket watch just by “sensing” it, he knows he has to warn her—but will Melicent Tilpin listen? And can Roan find Stuart before it’s too late?
           The quest for answers will lead Roan and Melicent around the world—before it brings them closer to each other and a startling truth—in the latest romantic thriller from Gwendolyn Womack, the bestselling, PRISM Award-winning author of The Memory Painter and The Fortune Teller. 

58. Recursion by Blake Crouch

read on Audible
read by Jon Lindstrom and Abby Craden
Unabridged audio (10:47)
2019 Random House
336 pgs.
Adult Fantasy/Sci Fi/Time Travel
Finished  7/1/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.28 - 10,195 ratings
My rating:   4.5
Setting: More-or-less contemporary NYC, Maine, Tucson, and various other places in the world....

First line/s:  "Barry Sutton pulls over into the fire lane at the main entrance of the Poe Building."

My comments:  Whew.  This was one helluva ride. 
What is memory?  How does memory and time and the brain work? Physics?  Biology?  Science fiction?  Blake Crouch has created a story that goes from point A to Point B by traveling through D and L and X and F - all over the place.  Time travel and science and two complex and interesting personalities come together over and over ... and over ... again..  Read it!

Goodreads synopsis: Memory makes reality.
          That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.
          Neuroscientist Helena Smith already understands the power of memory. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent. 
          As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.
          But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

34. Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Passenger #1
read on my iPhone
2016, Disney-Hyperion
498 pgs.
YA Time Travel
Finished 6/20/2017
Goodreads rating: 3.85 - 23,715 ratings
My rating: 2.5
Setting: Contemporary NYC with forays to 1776, ancient middle east, etc.

First line/s:  "As they ascended, retreating farther from the winding trails that marked the way to nearby villages, the world opened to him in its purest form:  silent, ancient, mysterious.  Deadly."

My comments:  2.5  I usually like time travel stories.  I just could not understand how this one worked.  I'm not sure the author did, either....or at least didn't know how to get it across to her audience.  Some of the description was ridiculously long and there was too much inner turmoil about the love-dovey stuff.  And it seemed to start in a weird place.  Other than that, it was okay.  It left it way up in the air about what would happen next - or not happen next - and, to tell the truth, I don't really care what happens.  Ate least at this moment.  Sol maybe a three rating is a little generous?

Goodreads synopsis  
Passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.
          In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.
          Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them—whether she wants to or not.
          Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home... forever.

25. Rewinder by Brett Battles

listened to on Audible
2014 Creative Space Independent Publishing
272 pgs.
Unabridged 7:48)
YA Fantasy/Time Travel
Finished Wednesday, 4/26/16
Goodreads rating: 3.87 - 2737 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Time Travel, but much is contemporary America....sort of.....

From chapter 2:  " I read somewhere that everyone is the hero of his or her own story.  Maybe that's true for most people, but not for me.  Of all the rules we were taught before we were allowed to travel in time, one stands above all:  Don't screw anything up.
     I didn't mean to, but, well...
     Here I am, Denny Younger, destroyer of worlds.
     You wouldn't be here if not for me."

My comments:  I think this one's a five!  Every now and then I come across a book I just can't put down.  This is one of them.  What would've happened if American had always stayed a British colony?  There are really two parts to the book, and both were intense - the steps building up to the climactic changing point and what happened because of it.  I had to think clearly in order to follow all the time traveling that was going on, but I was able to do it.  I was afraid at the end I would be left hanging, but although the ending entices me to want to read the next volume, I was quite satisfied.

Goodreads synopsis:  You will never read Denny Younger’s name in any history book, will never know what he's done. 
          But even if you did, you’d never believe it.
          The world as you know it wouldn't be the same without him. 
          Denny was born into one of the lowest rungs of society, but his bleak fortunes abruptly change when the mysterious Upjohn Institute recruits him to be a Rewinder, a verifier of personal histories. The job at first sounds like it involves researching old books and records, but Denny soon learns it's far from it. 
          A Rewinder's job is to observe history.
          In person.
          Embracing his new duties with enthusiasm, Denny witnesses things he could never even imagine before. But as exciting as the adventures into the past are, there are dangers, too. For even the smallest error can have consequences. 
          Life-altering consequences. 
          Time, after all, is merely a reference point.

TV Show - Timeless

Premiered: 10/3/16
Season: 1
Number of Episodes: 10 + 4 added
Length of Episode: 45 min. hour-long tv programming)
IMBd: 7.6/10
RT Audience Score: 81 (Critics is 84)
RT Consensus:  Sometimes goofy but consistently entertaining, Timeless is a fun throwback action series with a kooky premise that's worth a watch.
cag: 3/liked it okay
Produced by: NBC

Characters: Lucy Preston (Abigail Spencer) history professor
                      Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan (Mat Lanter) US Army Delta Force operative
Rufus Carlin  (Malcolm Barrett) time machine programmer
Garcia Flynn (Goran Visnjic) former SNA assset who steals the original time machine and attempts to alter the past to change the future.

My comments:  Started out excited, but it became a "take it or leave it" kind of watching.  Average.

Storyline from IMBd:  When an experimental time machine is stolen, a history professor, a soldier and an engineer (a very unlikely trio) are tasked with capturing the culprit only to learn that he plans to rewrite American history and that each of them has a connection to his plan.
   

19. Into the Dim - Janet B. Taylor

(Into the Dim #1)
I read the actual book for this one!
2016 HMH Books for Young Readers
432 pgs.
YA Fantasy/TimeTravel/Historical Fiction
Finished 3/25/2016
Goodreads rating: 3.78
My rating: 5
Setting: US/then England/then 1200 London Town....

First line/s: "Everyone in town knew the coffin was empty."

My comments:  From some of the reviews I've read on Goodreads, you either love or hate this book.  I totally and completely enjoyed it.  Sure there were a lot of things that made my adult eyes roll a bit, but it was a blast to read - time travel back to Eleanor of Aquitaine and Becket, family secrets and mysteries, a touch of romance - most of the young adults I work with will LOVE this.  Sure, dropping into London on the day of Eleanor and Henry's coronation and miraculously becoming acquainted with the most famous people of the time is waaaaay hard-to-believe, but who cares?  It sure makes a good story!  And although the book ends with somewhat of a question, I don't even have to wait for the next book  to feel satisfied.  This one did it completely for me.  Great first book, Ms. Taylor!

Goodreads synopsis:  When fragile, sixteen-year-old Hope Walton loses her mom to an earthquake overseas, her secluded world crumbles. Agreeing to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic, but also a member of a secret society of time travelers. Trapped in the twelfth century in the age of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Hope has seventy-two hours to rescue her mother and get back to their own time. Along the way, her path collides with that of a mysterious boy who could be vital to her mission . . . or the key to Hope’s undoing.

55. Sapphire Blue - Kerstin Gier

Book # 2 in the Ruby Red trilogy
read the actual hardcover book!
2012, Henry Hold (originally published in 2009 in German)
362 pgs.
YA Fantasy - time travel
Finished 8/19/2015
Goodreads rating: 4.20
My rating:  4
Setting:  Contemporary London (with forays through time back to the 1950's and 1782)

First line/s: "The streets of Southwark were dark and deserted.  The air smelled of waterweeds, sewage, and dead fish.  He instinctively held her hand more tightly."

My comments:  Throughout this book, the second of three, the aspect of romance seemed a little heavier. I tried to put myself in the place of an 8th or 9th grade girl and that's when I realized that this is so on the mark.  Kids in that age group, kids raised close to family and in a private school, would probably have similar reactions to boys (and drinking) as Gwen.  She's practically swooning over handsome Gabriel....well, I did plenty of practically-swooning when I was that age.  I actually remember when I'm forced to!  So we shouldn't get grown-up, mature thinking and reactions and attitudes, I realized.  I think the Ms. Gier has pretty well hit the mark.  The mystery and tension are still pretty high as well.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how it all works out in book number 3!

Goodreads synopsis:  Gwen’s life has been a rollercoaster since she discovered she was the Ruby, the final member of the secret time-traveling Circle of Twelve. In between searching through history for the other time-travelers and asking for a bit of their blood (gross!), she’s been trying to figure out what all the mysteries and prophecies surrounding the Circle really mean.

          At least Gwen has plenty of help. Her best friend Lesley follows every lead diligently on the Internet. James the ghost teaches Gwen how to fit in at an eighteenth century party. And Xemerius, the gargoyle demon who has been following Gwen since he caught her kissing Gideon in a church, offers advice on everything. Oh, yes. And of course there is Gideon, the Diamond. One minute he’s very warm indeed; the next he’s freezing cold. Gwen’s not sure what’s going on there, but she’s pretty much destined to find out.