Synopsis
Six years after emerging from a fountain of youth, siblings Bill, Paul, and Annie Carpenter, time travelers from 2022, make their way in 1911.
In New York, Bill and wife Cassie finish a year as educators and struggle to start a family, while Annie tries her hand as a society reporter. In Arizona, Paul and Andy Lee, sergeants and brothers-in-law, attempt to keep the Mexican Revolution from spilling across the border.
For all, life marches on. Then the soldiers receive new orders, Paul and Annie meet alluring strangers, and the family’s fortunes take dramatic turns.
In ANNIE’S APPLE, the sweeping sequel to THE FOUNTAIN, five young adults find love, danger, and adventure in the age of factory fires, high society, and the sinking of the Titanic.
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Review
This is one of my favorite authors who writes time travel novels. The details are well researched when it comes to actual events, and it feels like you might be there with the characters.
This is the second in this series, and it primarily focuses on Annie’s life. There is a lot with Paul as well, but it is really Annie’s turn to shine. She is 20 but quite a pistol. This shouldn’t be very surprising since she is really much older and is living her life over. However, she has found a position that is something she is familiar with, journalism. Granted, back then, it was more about writing the society column, but it immerses her in a world that she may have never considered before.
In the early 1900s, women didn’t wait long to get married and start a family, and Annie’s desire was no different. Her problem? Her crush was more interested in the military than starting a life with her. I can see both sides of this issue. Annie is ready to move forward with Andy, but he has a strong desire to see more action in the military. Considering WWI is not far off, he could get more than he bargained for, but only time will tell. Andy isn’t the only one interested in Annie; there is also Charlie Rusk. Charlie is from a society family and meets Annie by chance. But it isn’t a moment he would change for the world, but will Annie come round, or will her love for Andy hold her back?
Paul is a major character but a minor one at the same time. He meets a young woman who catches his eye, but there is more to her story than meets the eye. If you read the book, you will most likely figure out what it is, but I won’t spoil it for you. Will this young woman help him move past his love for Pauline? Maybe!
I have always appreciated the historical detail in Heldt’s novels. In this novel, we have the incident with the Titanic and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. I wasn’t as familiar with the second as the first, but I appreciated the details that made me feel like I was there. There was a comment in the book from Bill about how the Titanic incident created new regulations for cruise ships. The same happened with the fire, but it wasn’t as detailed in the book.
The book, while primarily positive, does have some issues that arise for the characters to add some depth to the story. Sadly, I can’t tell you about them because it would give away some of the story. So just pick up the book and read it!
This book did seem to move at a slower pace than other books by this author. This is not a bad thing, but it took me longer to read than normal. I still enjoyed the book and following along. I can’t wait for the last book in this trilogy to see what happens to this family.
We give this book 4 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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