Synopsis

From the author of the critically acclaimed Time Box series comes the dramatic conclusion of a story that spans a century.

Two years after stealing portable time machines, the Lanes, a family from the present day, stop running and start living. They settle in the seaside town of Coronado, California, in 1963.

For Jordan, Laura, and Jeremy, the oldest children, the respite is a chance to nurture relationships, start families, and explore the country. It is an opportunity to put down roots.

For Ashley, the youngest, it is a chance to thrive. Now fourteen, she is ready to start high school, make friends, and make up for lost time. She finds popularity and more after a classmate nominates her for freshman homecoming princess.

Robert Devereaux could not care less. The deranged billionaire wants his time machines back and is willing to do anything to get them. He sends a hitman to the past, setting into motion a final confrontation between a hunter and his prey.

In CROWN CITY, the suspenseful finale of the Time Box saga, a defiant family finds romance, friendship, and danger as it navigates the final months of the Kennedy presidency.

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Review

I love reading time travel novels and this author knows how to research his material and provide a twisting tale that will engage and enlighten the reader.

This is the fifth and final book in the Time Box Series featuring the Lane family. This series really should be read in order to understand what happened in the past and how they ended up where they are in each novel.

The Lane family starts in the year 2020 in the first book and goes back in time to escape a maniacal boss and to protect the time travel boxes from being used in a devious way to change history. This band of five encounters many historical events and while the desire to change history is strong, they resist and let history play out the way it happened. Each book goes back and forth in time between the present and the current year the Lane’s are inhabiting. In this last book, they are in 1963 and they are hoping this is the last time they will have to jump in time and hope to make a few minor changes to Robert Deveraux’s life as a young boy that might change who he becomes in the present.

Each book that I have read in this series has been educational, as well as entertaining. I became invested in the Lane family and their desire to outrun Robert and the contract killer that was sent to take them out. What that killer didn’t realize is that he was dealing with people from the past with no fear to protect what is theirs, and in this case, he has faced Jessie in several books and lost every time to her gun skills and the ability to recognize that she is only protecting her family.

I also watched the Lane children grow, mature, and fall in love. It was interesting to see how the people they met in the past adapted to the news that they were from the future. I also enjoyed watching Mary slowly “lose” her children to spouses. It has been an intense few years on the run and watching your children find love and want to establish roots has to be hard because that means she will soon be an “empty nester.” Her last daughter, Ashley, is 14 and is definitely hitting those teenage years and wanting to spread her wings. That gives Mary something to focus on to keep her from doing anything she might regret.

The story wraps up this novel but there are a few questions that weren’t answered for me regarding Robert and if some changes to his past affected him in the future. But of course, if it did, the Lane’s wouldn’t have gone on the run and had the experiences that they did in the past. Or would they have had this adventure?

Either way, this is a fantastic series and I highly recommend this series or any other book from this author especially if you like time travel novels. Oh, and I liked the nod to another series with the location mention! We give it 5 paws up.

About the Author

John A. Heldt is a reference librarian and the author of the critically acclaimed Northwest Passage time-travel series. The former award-winning sportswriter and newspaper editor has loved getting subjects and verbs to agree since writing book reports on baseball heroes in grade school. A graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Iowa, he is an avid fisherman, sports fan, home brewer, and reader of thrillers and historical fiction. When not sending contemporary characters to the not-so-distant past, he weighs in on literature and life on his blog.

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