Synopsis

Portland, Oregon. In May 2022, the Carpenters are a sad lot. Bill, 81, has just buried his beloved wife. Paul, 75, has terminal lung cancer. Annie, 72, is a paraplegic with broken dreams. Childless and directionless, the siblings face an uncertain future in their childhood home.

Then Bill, a retired folklore professor, learns from a dying man that the legendary Fountain of Youth, his obsession for decades, may be more than a myth. He races to Mexico to find the truth.

Within weeks, the Carpenters, with nothing to lose, enter a mysterious cave and exit in July 1905 as healthy young adults. They begin new lives in Oakland, California, only vaguely aware of a devastating earthquake that will rock the San Francisco Bay Area on April 18, 1906.

In THE FOUNTAIN, the first book in the Second Chance trilogy, three siblings find opportunity, romance, and heartbreak as they make the most of a new lease on life.

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Review

Does the Fountain of Youth exist? If it does, would you utilize its powers to turn back time? What if it threw you back or forward in time? Do you still think you would want to test its powers?

While this book has a little bit of time travel in it, it is more historical. I always enjoy this author’s books, and it is obvious the research that is put into the people and events of the eras he is portraying.

The story is told from several different perspectives – the three siblings and Cassie, the love interest of one of the siblings. Since this is a trilogy, I am assuming that books two and three will focus on Annie and Paul, the other two siblings. This one focuses a lot on Bill, his guardianship of his two siblings, finding employment in a world that is 100+ years before his time, and finding love. There isn’t really a lot of conflict, but not everything is easy, and they do face challenges in this world. It is hard not to use terminology that we would use today without having to go into detail explaining what it means.

While the book focuses on Bill, we learn much about Annie and Paul. I really like Annie and her whip-smart intelligence and attitude. Paul realizes what might have gone wrong in his life in the past and seeks to make changes.

I am looking forward to reading the next two books in this trilogy.

We give this book 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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