The Best Reader + TIME

Now and Then — Jacqueline Sheehan

Again, I'd like to welcome Sharon from Sharon's Garden of Book Reviews as this week's Guest Reviewer.
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Now and Then — Jacquelin Sheehan

From Amazon.com...

"Former lawyer Anna O'Shea becomes a time-traveling ex-wife when she returns from a vacation in Ireland and is enlisted to pick up her brother Patrick's son from jail in Newark after Patrick is severely injured in a car accident. Anna retrieves troublesome 16-year-old Joe and sets him up at her home, then wakes in the middle of the night to find him rummaging through her luggage. Joe's intrigued by a mysterious swath of cloth Anna picked up at a tourist trap, and when she tries to take it from him, the two are zapped back 164 years to pre–potato famine Ireland. Sheehan vividly depicts Irish-British conflicts as Anna becomes involved with an Irish smuggler's group and falls for a rebel cartographer."

With the overwhelming popularity of books with other-worldly themes, such as vampires, werewolves, shape-shifters, etc., it's not too farfetched to find a novel about a contemporary heroine getting caught up in time travel. In Jacqueline Sheehan's latest novel, "Now and Then," she hones this quirky subject to a finer edge with a brilliant tale that will captures reader's imaginations.

Anna O'Shea was at a point in her life where things had to get better, because they couldn't get much worse. A recent divorcee, Anna had just returned from a harrowing flight from Ireland when she learned her only brother had been in a horrendous accident resulting in massive head injuries, and her 16-year old nephew, Joseph, needs to be picked up from jail.

After checking on her brother and retrieving her errant nephew, Anna hopes to be able to squeeze in a few hours of sleep before hitting other family crises head on. But her plans go awry when she wakes up to find Joseph going through her suitcases. As Anna and Joseph tussle over a partially opened package, the two suddenly find themselves hurtling through time and space to wake up separated in 19th century pre-potato famine Ireland.

Anna is found injured along the coastline, and is taken in by the local blacksmith, Tom, and his wife Glennis. As she struggles to recover from her injuries and confusion, Anna is desperate to find out what happened to Joseph, who seems to have disappeared during their "journey."

Joseph ended up miles away from Anna, and was discovered by an wealthy Englishman's servant and brought to the manor house for recovery. The wily teenager leads the household into believing he is a highly educated young man, and they treat him with the highest honor and respect. Quite the change from his reality back home where he was at the bottom of the high school pecking order

As Anna and Joseph adjust and adapt to their new situations, they both soon discover new strengths and qualities about themselves that had long been buried. But as fate and circumstances work to pull the two visitors from another era together, both find that it will be hard to return to their lives in the 21st century, if they can get back at all.

Jacqueline Sheehan has taken the subject of time travel, and combining it with an indepth look at Irish/British history to deliver a novel that is thoughtful, passionate and fascinating. There is an element of romance, as Anna and Joseph both find love in the most unlikely place, but bear in mind — this is no flighty romance. "Now and Then" is an amazing work of literary fiction to be savored and enjoyed.

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Thanks again to Sharon from Sharon's Garden of Book Reviews. I have never heard of this book so I am extremely glad that this is the review you decided to send in. The cover is absolutely amazing! I'll definitely have to add this to my TBR List. If you're interested in becoming a Guest Reviewer — please find out how.

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Now and Then — Jacqueline Sheehan + TIME