Saturday, January 17, 2015

All the Butterflies in the World / Rodney Jones


Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Fantasy/ Time Travel/ YA/ Romance

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Rodney Jones resides in Richmond, Indiana, where he spends his days pecking at a laptop. “His life-long ambition was to become an artist until he discovered a latent affinity for writing… In writing, the words are creating images, the images are telling a story, and the story evokes feelings…” His other interests include science, politics, travel, gardening, music, whiskey and chocolate.

Description:

“With her senior year looming, Tess McKinnon has two goals: hanging out with her best friend, Liz, and avoiding her judgmental, alcoholic mother. Then yummy John Bartley arrives—to tell Mrs. McKinnon that her daughter is dead. Distinctly still alive, Tess is baffled by John’s tales of 1800s time travel, rewritten lives, and love. She knows she’s never seen him before, but her feelings refuse to be denied.

When Tess and John discover an aged newspaper clipping that indicates John’s uncle was hanged for Tess’s murder in 1875, John decides to return to his time to save his uncle’s life. Not really sure she even believes in this time travel stuff, Tess checks the article after John leaves. The words have changed, and she is horrified to find that John has been hanged instead.

Armed with determination and modern ingenuity, Tess must abandon her past and risk her future for a chance to catch her own killer and find her first love for the second time.”  

Appraisal:

After the devastating turn of events in 1875 Greendale, John is beside himself with joy to find Tess alive and well in Wallingford during her own time, around 2009. Their re-introduction happens the same day and plays out practically the same way it did in The Sun, the Moon, and Maybe the Trains. John has his full memory of the time they spent together, Tess has no memory of knowing John or the events that unfolded when she was in 1875.

Unfortunately, John has to convince Tess he is not crazy and begin to reestablish his relationship with her. The chapters alternate between John’s point-of-view and Tess’s so we get a clear view of what they are thinking and feeling. We also get a good picture of Tess’s mother and Tess’s best friend, Liz, who ends up being her confidant. When John goes back to his time, in 1875, to rescue his uncle, he is not prepared for the danger this puts him in. In the meantime, Tess is busy contacting a coin collector to sell John’s old coins he earned working at the Grist Mill for his uncle. He also had in his possession his favorite book, Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, which happened to be a first edition.

This story is the result of the Butterfly Effect that happens when events in the past are altered. It’s an interesting phenomenon to explore in fiction. Tess is a smart young girl with a lot of savvy. Taking steps into the past she is up for the challenge to change history. The turn of events at the end of this book caught me off-guard. It’s not very often that happens. Kudos to Rodney Jones for a wonderful adventure into the past.

FYI:

All the Butterflies in the World is the sequel to The Sun, the Moon, and Maybe the Trains. I would highly recommend reading book one first.

Format/Typo Issues:

Even though I read an advanced reader copy, I found no significant proofing or formatting issues.

Rating: ***** Five stars

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2 comments:

Mary Preston said...

This does look very interesting.

?wazithinkin said...

Thanks for dropping in and commenting, Mary Preston.