About the Book:

“An incredibly original, intelligent novel-a love story set against New York City at the dawn of the mechanical age, featuring Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and J. P. Morgan.

After discovering an old photograph, an elderly antiques dealer living in present-day Los Angeles is forced to revisit the history he has struggled to deny. The photograph depicts a man and a woman. The man is Peter Force, a young frontier adventurer who comes to New York City in 1901 and quickly lands a job digging the first subway tunnels beneath the metropolis. The woman is Cheri- Anne Toledo, a beautiful mathematical prodigy whose memories appear to come from another world. They meet seemingly by chance, and initially Peter dismisses her as crazy. But as they are drawn into a tangle of overlapping intrigues, Peter must reexamine Cheri-Anne’s fantastic story. Could it be that she is telling the truth and that she has stumbled onto the most dangerous secret imaginable: the key to traveling through time?

Set against the mazelike streets of New York at the dawn of the mechanical age, Peter and Cheri-Anne find themselves wrestling with the nature of history, technology, and the unfolding of time itself.”

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

This is a book that I picked up primarily because the title and the cover caught my eye.  In fact, I didn’t even read the back to see what the book was about.  (So unlike me.)  It was just one of those last minute impulse grabs on the way out of the library.  And it is one of the better ones that I have come across through this method.

It should come as no surprise that what I enjoyed most about this book was the historical presentation of New York — since my favorite types of reads are historical fiction.  But this one is particularly well done.  Set at the beginnings of the industrial age, this book gives us a great feel for the dramatic changes that took place in this rapidly developing city.  As modernization sets in, and people became more accustomed to faster paced lives, and rapidly developing technology — we begin to see the world we know today, taking shape in Flaming’s writing.  Add to this, the plot twist of one of the greatest technological battles that ever occurred, between Tesla and Edison, in the race for the development of electricity — and the story becomes enthralling.  This story encompasses the development of electrical technology, the amazing feat of the digging of the New York Subway — and all the other growth spurts that would eventually make New York the city of life that it has become.  Flaming’s writings brings this city to life in a very real way, and gives the reader the chance to step back in time, and come to know a New York that was vastly different, but also growing at an exponential rate.

The love story, with the science fiction twist of time travel was just enough to set this book apart from other stories I have read about time travel, while at the same time maintaining the authentic feel of the time period that the book is set in.  Peter and Cheri-Ann are both sympathetic characters, but in a very idiosyncratic way.  Peter, one of the millions that flooded into New York for a chance to find themselves, and rewrite the course of their lives, is the typical immigrant found throughout the early years of New York.  This hub for immigration was never a stranger to new arrivals in this country.  And Peter helps us to actually view the city through the eyes of a newcomer.  Cheri-Ann, however, is the character that makes this story.  She is quirky, and the reader is always aware that there is something going on with her, from the very beginning of the story.  You just have to keep reading, if only for the chance to figure out what is really up with her.

Tags: America, Clean Reads, Fantasy, Friendship, Historical Fiction, Love, New York, Romance, Young Adult

Category: Fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult Fiction