Reaching Through Time

July 1, 2011

A distinctly romantic sensibility links three novellas exploring different forms of time travel.

Teenage Sarah awakens in the mansion of ever-so-handsome, but disturbingly otherworldly Heath de Charon. She remembers nothing, but sometimes in quiet moments she can hear the voice of another young man calling her and pleading for her return. The foreseeable conclusion detracts from the ethereal creepiness of the tale. In the second story, 16-year-old Drake, mildly disabled by cerebral palsy, takes a job in the isolated mountaintop home of a professor, where he falls in love with the man's lovely, but unusual daughter. She won't leave the grounds of the house, and time has an odd way of standing almost still while Drake is there. His lack of suspicion in the face of the supernatural evidence will surprise readers. The final and strongest tale portrays an edgy teen from the future, Maura, who has stolen a time machine and randomly traveled to the present, where Dylan, a teen haunted by a girl from his past, befriends her. As Maura evades the time police, she gains an understanding of Dylan's true, though predictable, problem. Keeping the tales brief makes them relatively focused, and the varied looks at time travel are mildly thought-provoking.

McDaniel's fans won't be disappointed by this varied presentation, although there is little here to surprise readers of the genre. (Paranormal romance. 11 & up)

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January 1, 2012

Gr 7-10-The three novellas in this collection have a common thread; they're all stories about protagonists who must face situations that require them to deal with a time anomaly or outright time travel. In "What's Happened to Me?" Sarah wakes up in a strange place unable to remember who she is and what has happened to her. She's helped by a handsome, otherworldly stranger in his remote yet ominous estate, and bit by bit she realizes that all is not as it seems. "When the Clock Chimes" is set in a remote location with only basic electricity and no cell-phone coverage. There, a young man with cystic fibrosis arranges for a summer position where time seems to be controlled by an ancient clock. "The Mysteries of Chance" deals with 15-year-old Maura, a time traveler, who is seen by Dylan, a modern teenager, appearing out of nowhere, a no-no in time-traveling rules. She learns enough about his past to cause her to break the rules again to save his life. Each story has romantic elements that fans of the author will enjoy.-Betsy Fraser, Calgary Public Library, Alberta, Canada

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