Best Books of 2024 – Chapter 2

It was my wife who told me about this book.  I had never heard of the author or the title, Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister, but when she told me it was a time travel book, I was all ears.  My wife knows (as you do if you have read my book posts before), that I love time travel books.  When I purchased it, I had no idea what a treat I was in for.

If you read a brief synopsis of the book’s plot, you know I won’t be spoiling anything by telling you how the book opens early on Halloween with Jen, an anxious mom watching through the window of their house as her 18-year-old son coming home after curfew stabs a total stranger.  As you would expect, her son Todd is taken into custody.  Once back home, Jen goes to sleep but then the really interesting part happens.  She wakes up on the morning of the day before.

Thus begins Jen’s journey backward through time to try to stop her son from committing this crime.  Each morning when she wakes up, she finds that she has progressed further back in time.  She spends that day searching for clues as to why the murder occurs and what she can do to try to stop it.  Early on she solicits the help from others but since she wakes up earlier in time each morning, those individuals have no knowledge of that.  Interspersed between her journeys further back in time are details about an undercover cop investigating a crime gang.

In progressive time frames backwards, Jen learns facts that she missed in living that part of her life previously but now seem connected to what happens on that fateful Halloween.  As she continues to journey, betrayals by others become evident and pieces to the puzzle start to fall into place.  Once she has travelled back nearly twenty years, the most intriguing facts become known.  And then the most surprising plot twists I have read are revealed.

All I can say is wow what an incredible story!  If you choose to read this one, you won’t be disappointed.  And afterwards, like me, you will seek other books by this same author.

Whenever I read a really great book by an author I had not previously known, I always go back to see what other books they have written.  Such was the case after reading In Five Years by Rebecca Serle which, as you know made my “best of” post just last week.  I discovered that two years later, she wrote this book, One Italian Summer and when I read the synopsis, I knew I had to buy it.

In this book, Katy, the protagonist, has just witnessed the death of her 60-year-old mother who was everything to her.  Her mom, Carol, over the years had recounted to Katy what a fabulous summer she had spent on the Amalfi coast 30 years ago.  When her mother comes down with cancer, Katy books a trip for them to go together to where she was that summer, Positano, Italy.  Only her mom dies before the planned travel dates.

Katy is so devastated by her mom’s death, who was such a big part of her life, she does not even know if she can stay married to her husband and so she decides to take the trip by herself.

After just a day in this beautiful setting, she meets an attractive man (Adam) who seems most interested in her.  Then the unthinkable happens, she meets her 30-year younger mom.  Over the coming days, she gets closer to this gentleman and her younger mom.  At times, it is all Katy can do to not call Carol “Mom” as she hears her say so many familiar expressions.  And Katy, with her years of observations, wows Carol with knowledge of some of her mom’s likes

Sometimes with Adam and sometimes with Carol, they explored the jewels of this awe-inspiring Italian coast.  While reading, I was so intrigued by the beautiful descriptions of the colorful buildings built into the side of a mountain that I had to GOOGLE some images of it.  It was so incredibly magnificent, that I decided that my wife and I had to go there one day.

One evening while cooking dinner together, Katy has reason to explore the house where Carol is renting.  She suddenly makes a discovery that changes everything.  As with her previous book that I thoroughly enjoyed, telling more would be a spoiler so again you will have to trust me that this book is worthy of your reading.  I loved it and I think you won’t be disappointed.

I know I have said this many times before, but I must once again credit my daily BookBub e-mail with making me aware of this 2016 book, Flight of Dreams by Ariel Lawhon (another author I had never heard of).  I always enjoy a good historical fiction and one about the last flight of the Hindenburg was too intriguing to pass up.  Reading a synopsis and learning it was a love story as well, I did not hesitate a moment before purchasing it.

Over the three-and-a-half-day flight from Frankfort, Germany to its infamous demise in Lakehurst, New Jersey in May 1937 the author helps you to get to know a journalist, a stewardess, a navigator, a cabin boy and a mysterious American, along with a supporting cast of characters.  The chapters alternate between these main characters, and you will learn of the intrigue in each of their lives and how they interact with each other.  On the night of the accident, the story provides short snippets from each of them as the destruction takes place around them in an almost slow-motion replay of the tragedy.

While multiple fictional love stories have been written about the Titanic and the cause of its sinking, the real cause of the destruction of the Hindenburg remains a mystery to this day over eighty years later.  Yet, Lawhon weaves an incredibly plausible tale as to what could have brought it down.  And reading the author’s note at the end of the book, I was pleased to learn that her characters were not made up but were actual people on the airship and through her research, wrote the story to tell of their actual fate.  As is often the case, its reading will cause me to seek out factual books about the tragedy.

     To be continued…