Review – The Winding Road by John Heldt
Synopsis
Southeast Pennsylvania, November 1777.
For Noah and Jake Maclean, the saga gets real. One year after the brothers entered a time portal and traded the computer age for the colonial age, they rush headlong into the American Revolution.
Noah, 23, rides off to war. Against the wishes of his fiancée, Abigail Ward, he joins the Continental Army as it retreats to Valley Forge. To improve his odds of surviving the war, he brings knowledge and pistols, weapons that soon draw the attention of the enemy.
Jake, 16, stays behind. He helps furniture maker Samuel Ward and his family resettle in the countryside after the British seize Philadelphia. As he supports his newfound kin, he strengthens his relationship with Rachel Ward, Sam’s mischievous younger daughter.
The time travelers chart new courses in an era filled with violence, disease, and disruption. In doing so, they leave a mess for relatives tasked with reporting their disappearance.
As Douglas and Donna Maclean confront investigators and reporters in 2024, they do their best to carry out an elaborate ruse, protect an ancient family secret, and use the resources of the present to protect their nephews from the perils of the past.
In THE WINDING ROAD, the second book in the Stone Shed trilogy, two brothers find romance, danger, and adventure as they make their way in a world they were never meant to see.
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Review
This is the second book in the series, and it is chock-full of history and information. The author does a wonderful job researching the events in this book, but this isn’t a surprise, as he has done so for every book I have read by him.
Time travel raises the question: if you could change the past, would you? While Noah and Jake never had the intention of changing past events, it is bound to happen, especially when you decide to stay in that time period. Life goes on, and people have an impact on the world around them, even in a small way.
The book should not be read on its own; you will miss some of the backstory of Noah, Jake, Abby, Rachel, and Douglas. There are other characters that help round out this story that are also in the first book.
The book is long, and I do think it could have been edited down some. However, much of the book ties into the story, giving us a sense of what is happening as the USA fights for its independence from the British. Whenever I read one of his books, I learn so much about history, most of which I have forgotten.
I can’t wait to see how this trilogy ends, so stay tuned for a review of the last book.
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.
