| Title | : | The Show (Northwest Passage, #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 293 |
| Publication | : | First published February 17, 2013 |
The Show (Northwest Passage, #3) Reviews
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**Originally posted on Reveries Reviews**
This was a somewhat disappointing novel, mostly because of Grace’s actions in 1918. I was especially confused by her actions towards the end regarding her parents. I didn’t get how that could be possible until the way time travel works in these books was explained in The Mirror. Now that I understand that, however, I’m able to understand this novel much better.
I must say, I loved Grace’s parents as teens. They were amusing, especially her mother. I had no idea ‘Mrs. Vandenburg’ was such a kick as a kid!
I also found it difficult to believe that Grace got over Joel that quickly. Joel was her everything. Sure, she needed to move on … but she was married to him regardless of differences in time and space. Moving on doesn’t necessarily have to involve another man, okay?
I found the whole idea of the theater interesting. Very cool concept. One of the best things about this story other than seeing Grace and Joel again, hearing Grace’s side of the story, etc.
I’m not going to go on more (because I had rating less than four stars … even though three stars is honestly a decent rating …). I’ll just say that this is a good story, but not quite as good as some of Heldt’s others.
~Kellyn Roth,
Reveries Reviews -
I really wanted this book to be as good and secretly hoped it would be even better than book one, "The Mine." The story's premise had so much going for it with time travel, romance, and impossible odds. I mean, given that description a reader would be under the impression that there would be dynamics and drama throughout, right? Unfortunately, this book was stagnant with zero emotion or crescendo. The third person narrative made it even more so, with it's detached perspective - not to mention the author's lack of using contractions during dialogue. I've had more fun reading textbooks.
On a more positive note, Mr. Heldt's writing has serious potential. He's got fascinating story ideas and I'm sincerely hoping my honesty will encourage him to keep going. In the future, I would advise him to choose a few great beta readers who arent afraid to tell the truth and to also make sure his editor knows as much about good story telling as they clearly know about good grammar. -
Once again, I was captivated by Heldt's unique storytelling in his sequel to The Mine. I really enjoyed that book and was anxiously waiting to find out how Grace handled being in the year 2002 after she tracked Joel down somehow and followed him through the portal. I must admit, the pace of The Show was a little slower and less compelling, but that didn't hinder my enjoyment of the story. Heldt has a way of making the characters come to life, making you fall in love with them and care about what is going to happen to them.
So, basically, Grace became a detective driven by love, followed up on clues Joel had left behind and found her way to the mine that brought him to 1941 to begin with. She ended up in 2002 without a clue what to do and blown away by technology and how much the world had changed since the familiar 40s. I enjoyed her cluelessness about things like hand dryers in the bathrooms to credit cards and modern conveniences. She luckily and unbelievably ended up sitting right next to a distant cousin of hers who took her in until she got in touch with Katie, an old friend from '41, who helped her locate Joel.
Well here's a spoiler, so cover your eyes if you don't want to know. Grace goes to a theatre with Joel to celebrate their anniversary, and an itchy eye moment lands her in the bathroom. When she rinses and opens them up, she's in the same place but it's 1918. She goes nuts. People think she's crazy, and she gets hospitalized. Lo and behold, she runs into her long lost uncle who is a skeptic about the time travel story until he sees the contents of her purse. He welcomes her into their home where she eventually meets her aunt, cousins and her deceased parents who are just teenagers at this time.
This part of the story was touching, because I have wondered so many times what it would be like to go back in time and meet my parents before they became parents. I was actually happy for Grace in that regard. She met a wounded soldier who wooed her, and she gave in thinking she was stuck in 1918. I blame him for being too pushy and her for taking advantage of his feelings for her. She eventually had to say goodbye, and he was left dumbfounded! I was really sad for him.
What I'll do next is give you my good old bad vs. good bullets list. I think this one warrants it.
Things I didn't love about the book:
A bit slow moving and too much romance and mushy feelings across the board for my taste.
Not enough Joel.
Believability was a bit less than in The Mine. But, hey, it was eons more believable than CSI: Miami, and I still watch that all the time, haha.
Grace said, "What would you like to know?" or something to that affect too often to too many people.
I thought the color link to the portal was a tiny bit weak. (Read it, and you'll get what that means.) The mine portal was more powerful and thrilling to imagine.
Thought it was selfish of her to drag her parents back to 2002 with her, and it baffled me that it was even possible since they hadn't planted the seed of "her" yet.
Since Edith hopped over too, does all this trump what occurred in '41 and there after when Aunt Edith died with ill feelings toward Grace for vanishing to chase a love interest?
Things I loved about the book:
Heldt knows how to tell a story and bring the characters to life.
He writes well with no glaring typos or errors, which makes for comfy read.
The balance between likeable and not-so-likeable characters was just right. No one was despicable, but it wasn't ALL gushing with bliss either.
The historical background was awesome, and he did a good job of mixing the characters into the modern world while keeping them in their old-fashioned personalities.
I was never bored, and the story kept me engaged straight through.
It was a very nice sequel and didn't lose me on any of the newly added elements or characters.
I was able to create vivid images of the characters and scenes in my mind as I read it.
I absolutely love time travel stories, and Heldt is good at writing them.
You can sense the writer's passion and creativity throughout the book.
It left me wanting to read more of Heldt's work, which I plan to.
Nothing about it was too over-the-top for an avid sci-fi reader.
The ending didn't piss me off like a lot of books, so that is ALWAYS a plus.
I grant this book my 4-star rating. I highly advise you to read this one! But you might want to read The Mine first or at least the synopsis. -
Once again, author John A. Heldt has completely engulfed me in his time travel tale, The Show!! I read his amazing work, The Mine, 5-starred it, and wondered how he could even come close to matching the creative genius of that book-then I read The Show, its ‘sequel,’ which cleanly and neatly wraps up the story of Joel and Grace, with the spotlight on Grace this time. Imagine you are a strong young woman living in Seattle in 1941, you are in love, but your boyfriend suddenly abandons you, the nation is now going to war and THEN learning that the man you have given your heart to is a time traveler from the twenty-first century! If you are Grace, the answer is simple. Determined to find Joel, Grace risks everything to find a way to travel through time to be with him, leaving behind those she loves and the world she knows. Their reunion is, well, sigh-worthy, tear-worthy and just romantic as heck! (This is where I say AGAIN, who says a man can’t write Chick Lit?) They seem to have found their Happily Ever After, until one night Grace is sucked through time and ends up in the year 1918, but this is no shrinking Violet! Grace makes every attempt to return to Joel, but always something thwarts her plans. Will she ever find him again? Will he remember her? Has history been altered beyond repair?
With fluid writing and a leap into fantasy, John Heldt paints a beautiful tale of love, daring and eras long gone. You will hear the scratch of the Victrola, feel the cold winds blowing on the streets. You will enter an old movie house, see its opulence in your mind as the author generously shares Grace’s journey with you. And, I’m going to guess that the next time you are at a movie, you won’t be able to stop yourself from looking at the restroom signs and thinking, “I wonder…!”
Publish Date: February 16, 2013
Publisher: John A. Heldt
Number of pages: 290
Available at:
Amazon
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The Show (Northwest Passage #3) John A. Heldt
It is 1941 in Seattle, twenty-one year old Grace Vandenberg just learns that her boyfriend is a time traveler from 2000. She learns that he does not plan on coming back. Saddened that he is not coming after her, Grace decides she is going to look for him. Her plan is to find the portal and travel to 2000.
Just when she thinks she has her life set and things are soon going fine, she finds herself in 1918. While there she meets her parents, among other family members and a young handsome Army Captain just back from the war.
She is faced with some life altering decisions, and she alone has the power to make them. A fantastic time travel story by
John A. Heldt.
The Show is the sequel to
The Mine. I highly recommend both books and I look forward to the fourth book
The Fire -
Sorry if this review is a little all over the place, I've had a migraine this weekend and my head is still a little fuzzy.
The Show is the third book in the Northwest Passage series. It continues where the first book in the series, The Mine, left off. I have not read the second book in the series, The Journey, but it follows a different storyline so it isn't needed (in fact I'm not really sure why Heldt put a random non-joining story in the middle). You could probably even read The Show as an independent story, but I would recommend reading The Mine first.
When I first got the e-mail about a sequel to The Mine I was interested to see what happened with Grace and Joel next, and to see how Grace settled into modern life. However when I read the synopsis I was a little less sure. It seemed that Heldt was trying, unnecessarily to stretch the sci-fi element by making Grace time travel again. In a sense this was true, and I think I would have preferred a book which showed how Grace got used to the new millennium. Having said that there was a certain element of this too the story, and once I got into the story after she had time travelled it didn't really matter to me whether it was too much of a stretch or not.
When reading The Mine I had preferred Grace to Joel and it was nice to have a story which was more from her perspective. Also because I already knew Grace from reading The Mine I cared a bit more about her. Her emotions once she lost Joel again were quite well built, and I could imagine myself acting in a similar way, however I think she got over the loss and moved on a little too quickly. It was again a sense of Heldt pushing a story in a direction which didn't seem quite natural. Whilst I did enjoy the plot in terms of a story in it's own right, I didn't really like it as it related to The Mine.
There was one this in particular that bugged me about this book. It was only a little moment, not even an important one, but it really bugged me. Especially as it's partly billed as a historical novel. In the book two girls move from England to America. They talk about how happy they are to move to the US because it's so much more liberated than England. As a Briton that grated at me, but I was ready to overlook it. But then they started talking about how women could vote here, but not in England. Which made me think, wait a sec...didn't votes for women exist in the UK before the US? Which yes they did, in fact at the time that the book is based women couldn't vote in most of America. -
Having read the first two books in this series, I knew what to expect of this story. Young love, and time travel via portals are the main themes of The Northwest Passage Series. This story picks up from The Mine, book I.
It’s the 1940’s and Grace’s boyfriend tells her he is a time-traveler from the year 2000. Instead of grieving his loss for the rest of her life, she decides to find the portal so that she can be with him again. Things go horribly wrong when she accidentally steps back into 1918.
While the POV was mostly through Grace, I didn’t connect with Grace like I did with her boyfriend, Joel, (The Mine), and I’m not certain why. I did like seeing the return of some of the characters though – like Joel! It’s been awhile since I’ve read The Mine, but The Show brought it all back to me. It was great to revisit their world.
I did like Grace’s persistence to find Joel, as well as how she found her family members in different stages of their lives. I was surprised at how easily people took her word for it, when she would tell them she was a time traveler. – (Not always, but for the most part people believed her).
Overall, The Show is an enjoyable science fiction tale with romance as well as time travel. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy both.
FULL BOOK REVIEW:
https://awellreadwomanblog.wordpress.... -
This book picks up where The Mine left off. In this book, Grace is faced with an unknown future when she finds out the truth about Joel. She goes on her own journey. She makes her way to 2000 and after finding Joel, with the help of an old friend, she gets her happily ever after. 2 years later she finds herself on an unwanted time travel adventure that sends her back to 1918. While there she deals with the loss of her new life in 2000 and is taken in by her distant family. She goes on her own amazing journey. Will she make it back to the future and to Joel or is she stuck in the past?
This story was so good. It brought so much more adventure to Grace and Joel's love story with a little twist of fate added in. It had me from the very first page. It was full of adventure and romance. It was written well and was deeply enthralling.
I have grown to love John A. Heldt as an author. Each book has a good mix of history, romance, and time travel. Each book I read is better than the last. This is a great series so far, from a great author. I cant wait to continue with the next book.
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This is a follow up book to The Mine and tells the story from Grace's point of view. It was a little weird reading the same story at the very beginning but it wasn't the same because it was Grace's story. It was also interesting to see how she went back in time to before her parents met and was able to see how they met and learn more about them since they died when she was a teenager.
very enjoyable story and if you like time travel you will like this book! -
The Show (Northwest Passage) bk 3 by John Heldt Review
Following your heart could have unknown problems!
Seattle, 1941. Grace Vandenberg, 21, is having a bad day. Minutes after Pearl Harbor is attacked, she learns that her boyfriend is a time traveler from 2000 who has abandoned her for a future he insists they cannot share. Determined to save their love, she follows him into the new century. But just when happiness is within her grasp, she accidentally enters a second-time portal and exits in 1918. Distraught and heartbroken, Grace starts a new life in the age of Woodrow Wilson, silent movies, and the Spanish flu. She meets her parents as young, single adults and befriends a handsome, wounded Army captain just back from the war. In THE SHOW, the sequel to THE MINE, Grace finds love and friendship in the ashes of tragedy as she endures the trial of her life.
What did I like? Being a history buff, I have loved all the books that I have read so far and only have three left for all of the series. I have definitely loved every one of them. This one was quite interesting because it spanned several years and had so many twists in it that I was glued to the pages.
What are you going to like? Wow, what a cast of characters! Each of them are so interesting and they just keep getting better as the pages fly by. The storyline with all the twists and turns and then turnabouts I could hardly put the book down. Every page the story just keeps getting better and it grows stronger till the end. Romance, heartbreak, drama with both joy and sadness. Each of the books relate yet don’t as each have their own stories. I love that about this series. I am off to the next book. -
BOOK SYNOPSIS
Seattle, 1941. Grace Vandenberg, 21, is having a bad day. Minutes after Pearl Harbor is attacked, she learns that her boyfriend is a time traveler from 2000 who has abandoned her for a future he insists they cannot share. Determined to save their love, she follows him into the new century. But just when happiness is within her grasp, she accidentally enters a second time portal and exits in 1918. Distraught and heartbroken, Grace starts a new life in the age of Woodrow Wilson, silent movies, and the Spanish flu. She meets her parents as young, single adults and befriends a handsome, wounded Army captain just back from the war. In THE SHOW, the sequel to THE MINE, Grace finds love and friendship in the ashes of tragedy as she endures the trial of her life.My Thoughts
In the summer of 2012 when I first started this series by
the author by reading book 1,
The Mine the main characters of Grace Vandenberg and Joel Smith were the focus of the story. Now in reading book 3 in the series
The Show, which starts in 1941 with Grace finding a letter left to her by Joel, the main focus is on Grace and what takes place after she manages to follow Joel back to the year 2000.
There is a sense of urgency throughout this story as we follow Grace to Seattle in her search for Joel.Having found that she could only afford to travel by bus Grace buys a ticket and sets out, her traveling companion that she sits next to is an elderly lady by the name of Penelope Price and as they chat Grace comes to the eye opening realization that not only has she no idea how to find Joel but she also does not have a place to stay once she gets to the city of Seattle nor the means to take care of herself once she gets there.
Like Joel before her Grace is a stranger in a strange time and place, also like him she manages to befriend someone who is kind hearted enough to offer her not only a place to stay but a way to make some money which would give her a bit of cash to spend on clothing and other items that she needs to blend in better with everyone else in the year 2000.
Grace is lucky, she finds out that her best friend from 1941 is still alive and upon tracking down her address she sets out to reacquaint herself with Katie. Once she and Katie are reunited the hope that she is one step closer to finding Joel is rewarded as not only does Katie know where he is but she helps Grace travel there and sets up a meeting with the young man at his hotel where once again the time travelers find themselves together in a joyous reunion.
All is well, Joel and Grace get married, spend two glorious years together as a family with their twin daughters and then in late 2002 they decide to spend their 2nd anniversary dressed up in period costumes at a gala thrown at the Paladium theatre. That is where the true story begins, Grace needs to go to the ladies room when she feels discomfort in one of her eyes. She ends up however getting the surprise of her life when she finds what was once a 2002 modern restroom has become something out of the turn of the century and when she leaves the restroom itself and returns to the theatre lobby she is shocked to find herself stranded in 1918.
The heartrending anguish that Grace feels is also felt by the reader, her disorientation and her complete and utter horror at finding herself stranded 84 years in the past with her young daughters and Joel out of her reach will not only make you weep for her but will make you want to hug her and make everything okay as well!
Grace is once again fortunate enough to keep her wits about her, she remembers that in this time her uncle lives in Seattle and upon being taken to a nearby hospital she insists that he be called to come to her assistance. Luckily when he does not only does he offer her a place to stay until she can make her own way but he continues to help her with her everyday needs as well as makes her feel safe and cared for. Grace finally sees that if she is to keep her sanity that it is in her best interest to try and make a new life and new friends; which include her uncle, his wife and daughter and their injured neighbor John Walker; who end up being her staunchest allies and support system when she finds out another shocking bit of news that affects her physically as well as emotionally.
This is a truly lovely book, once again the author has taken quite a bit of historical information and made it relevant to the story in a way that is both informative as well as good background to make one feel Grace's plight much more clearly.
I have true affection for these characters,it warmed my heart when she found herself witnessing the birth of the romance between her parents who died much too young and while Grace herself was just a child. The other secondary characters whose intertwining connections are revealed a bit at a time are also some that will endear themselves to the reader as they surely did to Grace.
Not only is the book one that takes the art of time travel to a different level with the method that activates the portal but it also treats you to an emotional story that you will remember fondly for a long time to come.
To truly experience what it means to overcome a huge loss and to then experience a slow rebirth of hope that leads to what can only be called a trial by fire you must read
The Show as it will teach you that one must never give up because without the strong belief that things will work out we may never make it happen!
Really enjoyed this heartwarming tale of true love and you will too.[Kindle copy from author in exchange for honest review]
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As posted at THE READING CAFE
http://thereadingcafe.com/john-heldt-northwest-passage-seriese-combined-reviews/
5 out of 5 for this reader folks!
Oh John A. Heldt, how you write a beautiful story. I completely loved this book and how it all tied together into a continuation of the first book in this series called The Mine. The Show is a continuation of Joel and Grace's story but this time it is told from Grace's POV.
This book begins with Grace's determination to make her way to year 2000 to be reconciled with her soul mate Joel. She has come to terms that he was in fact from the future and her journey through the mine was an absolute joy to read. It was wonderful to have some pieces filled in and revisiting little details that where mentioned in the first book and how she interacted with all these details.
Once Grace finds herself in year 2000 she is befriended and cared for by other kind souls (much like Joel was in The Mine) and is assisted in her reconciliation by none other than the very friend she had in 1941. Reading Grace's and Joel's realization that they get their happily ever after was a bit of a tearjerker! LOL Fast forward a couple of years, they are now married, have twins and they are madly in love. Grace has adapted to the future beautifully .. all is well!
One night Grace and Joel attend a retro movie night (kinda funny considering it doesn't feel so retro to our couple) AKA "The Show" and Grace finds herself traveling through another time portal landing her in 1918. Well let me tell you, our Graceful Grace isn't so graceful when she realizes paradise is no more. She FREAKS OUT! Can't say I blame her as now nothing is certain. She has a husband and children in the future and tries desperately to return to only to find out it's pretty much impossible. She is thrown into an epidemic (Spanish Flu), and reunited with family she thought she had lost forever. She gets to experience her parents young and falling in love (her parents died too early in Grace's life) and become close and in love with another man (although not her soul mate) Captain Walker. Captain Walker seems to ease the ache that Grace feels in her tornado of a life and it was quite endearing reading these two together. BITTERSWEET!
John A. Heldt is so eloquent in his words. His writing absolutely flows and captures a beautiful picture in the reader's mind. I dare say he is the best self published author that I have ever come across. He effortlessly weaved a continuation of a time travel story from one book to another and added more depth to it all the while keeping the reader completely captivated.
Once again, like The Mine, this isn't just a love story. I appreciated the love story, but again it was the history and the cast of characters that kept me intrigued and that were highlighted in this book. Once you start reading, you will have a trouble putting it down! WINK!
So... do Joel and Grace once again reunite or has Grace resigned herself to the fact that she has time traveled twice in her life and it's all for a reason?! Does she concern herself with changing anything in the past only to negate the future?? You'll have to pick up a copy of The Show to find out! LOL
HAPPY READING! :)
Copy provided by The Reading Cafe for an honest review! :) -
This review was first posted on
Music, Books and Tea
The Show is a direct sequel to The Mine, the first book in the Northwest Passage series, but instead of following Joel, the novel focuses on Grace, the girl Joel fell in love with but left so he could return back to the year 2000. The Show opens up with Grace determined to travel into the future, and back into the arms of the man she truly loves. I really admired Grace’s determination throughout the entire book. She never gave up on Joel, no matter what era she was in, and I loved that about her.
I found it interesting that Grace managed to travel both forward and back in time in The Show. Within the first quarter of the book, Grace has found herself in the year 2000, with a little money and no clue on how to find Joel. Yet, as with Heldt’s previous two books, the kindness of strangers steps in, and Grace finds herself helping Penelope Price, in return for a roof over her head. And once she was reunited with Katie, her college friend whom she left back in the 1940’s, Grace soon re-enters Joel’s life, much to their delight. I loved their reunion, as we read about it from Joel’s perspective in The Mine but didn’t really get to see how it happened, but with The Show we did. From that point on, the book seemed like it was flowing towards a blissful happily ever after situation, but of course, that wasn’t quite the case. Grace finds herself stuck in 1919, reunited with her Great-Uncle, and eventually her mother and aunt.
The first time Grace travelled into the future, she remained calm about her surroundings and how foreign they were to her, which is an aspect I really appreciate in Heldt’s books, as I love watching them battle between acting normal and completely having a meltdown when they realise their world is totally different to what it should be! I though Grace adopted to the technology and totally different pace of the 2000’s really well, probably a lot better than I would have done if I was in her situation! Unfortunately though, Grace turned slightly hysterical after her second whirl with time-travel, although I can understand why, because it was far more traumatising for her the second time round!
I loved reading about Grace in 1919. I did feel sorry for her, especially when she realised what it was that made her travel through time, and the realisation that she would probably never make it back to 2002. I accepted her decision to move on and live her life, and I really enjoyed John Walker’s character. I liked Grace and John together almost as much as I like Grace and Joel together, although I did wish that Grace had explained her situation to John a lot sooner in the book, because I want to believe he would have just accepted Grace’s story and loved her all the same.
The Show was an extremely enjoyable installment to the Northwest Passage series, and I cannot wait to see where Heldt takes us next in his next book. If you haven’t checked out this series yet, I highly recommend you do, because it’s time travel done fantastically well.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. -
After every romance novel there’s that question of “What happens next? Does their happily ever after they worked so hard for continue on? Or do those petty arguments they had during their courtship separate them indefinitely?” These questions always linger when a heated romance novel is put down, but they come further into fruition when we finished reading The Mine. **Spoiler Alert** At the end of the novel Joel and Grace are reunited with the help of their good friend Katie, who is now an elderly woman, the only answer we get is that Grace could not let him go, nor could she see herself living without him, and that she picked up the crumbs he dropped and followed his trail. Questions arose, could they possibly make it work with a 20th Century woman from the forties really learn to live and love in the 21st Century of 2012? Well these questions and many many more are answered in the beginning pages of The Show. However, on the night of her second wedding anniversary during a trip to the restroom Grace finds herself thrust back in time only this time to 1918.
A time in American history when the Spanish flu was raging and WWI was just completed, she’s thrown into a seemingly foreign world with no means of making it. Only after she is hospitalized does she find her Uncle, a man she’s never actually met, but knows lives in Seattle 1918. Once she figures out how to exist in 1918 she begins to settle into her life figuring she’s stuck in 1918 permanently, but she makes the very best of it. In a situation similar to the one found in The Journey Grace now has a chance to also undo a tragedy that changed the projector y of her young life and prevent deaths of her family members. She meets the teenage versions of her parents, don’t we all wish we had that chance from time-to-time, and the Aunt who raised her after her parents were killed. Grace is now able to befriend both of her parents and Aunt before falling for the handsome Captain John Walker, the neighbor who has just returned from the War. When she is presented with the chance to return to Joel and her family in 2012 will she take it? Or will she remain in the arms of the handsome John Walker?
Many questions are answered and even more presented in this wonderfully written third installment in the Northwest Passage series. The one thing I have loved about this novel and the other three in the series is that the author picks one character’s point of view and sticks with it, but also poses difficult questions while putting them into tight spots that may or may not change their lives indefinitely, doing so beautifully! The characters are real people, the reader can almost put themselves into the shoes of Joel, Grace, Michelle, and lastly Kevin and feel their pain, grief, fear, uncertainty, love and other various emotions as they adapt to their surroundings while debating how to handle revealing their true identities. Again this novel is one I read in one sitting and will be recommending to all around me!
Five out of Five Stars for The Show!
**I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review** -
I've read John A. Heldt's paperback book. I enjoyed reading this story, 'The Show' by John A. Heldt. It truly is a simple, nice fantasy story about time travel. Poor Grace Vandenberg finds happiness in her new time in the future, just to get sent back into time before her original time; then attempts to adjust and move forward in her new life. Complications and decisions arise; hence, the story. I'm looking forward to reading the fourth book in the series.
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I received an e-version of The Show from author John A. Heldt after I reviewed The Mine. He did not specifically ask for a review, but hey, it's what I do.
After enjoying The Mine as much as I did, I was intrigued that there was another book in the series focusing on character Grace Vandenburg. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from The Show, but wanted more about Grace. I guessed there would be some rehash from the first book, and there was. I don't think it was too much. Since I knew at least a part of what was coming, I got a little impatient waiting for Grace and Joel's reunion. I chalk that up to my own impatience rather than any great flaw in the book.
There were twists and turns that kept the story fresh and compelling for me. The story is an emotional roller coaster for Grace. It shouldn't be a spoiler to say that her life is once again thrown into turmoil. I suppose the readers reaction to Grace's dealing with her situation will be rooted in their own coping mechanisms. Yeah, I know, psychobabble, but the reader can respond to the situation in a few differing ways. To some, her actions will be seen as flighty, fickle, or maybe even selfish. To others, they will be perfectly reasonable given the realities she is faced with.
I usually do not try to delve too deeply into the psychological ramifications of the books I read, I just sit back and enjoy the ride. I consider myself to be somewhat cynical when it comes to deep emotions in the characters I read about. If the story is good, I acknowledge the emotions, but don't usually spend much time thinking about them, they're just part of the story. That's one of the differences I find in John Heldt's work. I get so drawn into the story, I find myself, experiencing the emotional conflicts of the characters. I do get drawn into the best books I read, but Heldt is able to draw me farther than other authors. I look forward to reading more of his work. In fact, I have already started the next book in the series. More on that when I finish.
Since I didn't mention it before, The Show is, I believe, the third book of the Northwest Passage series of five books.
The Show is a great player in the time-travel genre for the audience that prefers emotional connections over technological wizardry. I do, so I say, "Great read!" Enjoy!
Mike -
The Show by John A Heldt
If you have read and enjoyed John Heldt’s book The Mine then you will certainly equally enjoy The Show. It is an excellent sequel to an excellent book.
There is some necessary recapping of The Mine storyline but Heldt keeps it short enough not to bore a reader familiar with Grace and Joel’s story but enough to set the scene for readers starting with this book.
It begins when Grace attempts to find her time travelling boyfriend. They had met in 1941 but he has decided to return to his own time 2000.
How they meet again in 2000 is creative, different and enjoyable.
Everything is perfect for the reunited couple. They marry and have twin daughters but once again, this time by accident, Grace enters a time portal and travel back to 1918.
Unable to return she starts a new life, meets family members and falls in love with a soldier returned from the war. She also discovers she is pregnant to Joel. But what decision would she make if an opportunity arises? I’ll leave the reader to discover that.
Heldt is a master story teller and the historical facts demonstrate his skills as a researcher. He cleverly weaves fiction with historical events. His characters are likeable and believable. His story telling is engrossing and it is easy to get lost in the story; feel the atmosphere, hear the sounds and experience life of the time.
Like his other stories you will guess and re-guess what the ending will be and I am guessing you won’t pick it, or even some of the twists and turns within the story.
I still have one more book of John Heldt’s to review and two more to read. I am already a big fan of his writing and hope he continues with stories of this quality. He deserves to become a best-selling author.
This review is also available on my website
www.pam.id.au -
Having read The Mine, I was really excited to find that Grace was the main character in this book. And to find out things from her perspective. While there were times in the first book that we got her perspective it just wasn’t the same not to mention there were times we didn’t get her perspective. So to get that now it was perfect! Not to mention that you get to learn more about what happened after Joel leaves in The Mine. I was so excited to do so as I hadn’t expected to find out anymore about the couple.
Then there was also the fact that I already had a connection with Grace so I enjoyed it so much to find out more about her and get into her head a bit more. But then there’s the fact that it feels as if you’re reconnecting with old friends. John A. Heldt doesn’t make you feel like you missed anything or if you did than it’s not something that can’t be retold. It was a great story.
As a reader you also find yourself finding new perspectives on characters that you’ve previously met. Sometimes you change your opinions or just learn more about them and develop a more concrete opinion. It was a great chance, one that I appreciated. And may I just say that I sighed over the ending. Actually sighed.
But if you’re a fan of time travel and/or romance, than you should definitely give the Northwest Passage Series a look!
Find this review and many others at
Reading Shy With Aly -
What do they all have in common, popcorn, potato chips and John Heldt time-travel novels? To quote an old friend, "they're ever so 'more-ish'." As soon as you finish, you want more.
So I launched from The Mine straight into The Show and learned not only how Grace managed to stay with Joel and travel from 1941 to 2000. She also must cope with her own diversion in time, when the now-mother of twins and happy wife of Joel Smith walks into the restroom of a newly-rebuilt theater in 2002 and emerges - alone - in 1918 Seattle.
For Grace, the need to return to 2002 is urgent. She knows the theater in which the time portal rests will be completely destroyed by fire in a few short months. If she cannot find the combination that triggers the portal before then, she'll be stuck in 1918. I also found fascinating the woman's different handling of her bleak knowledge of the future. Unlike her husband when he traveled to the past, Grace finds reason to inform those she knows will suffer in the coming months.
And it appears that there are time portals all over the Northwest, because I have just started reading the third in the series, The Journey in which a trip down a dark staircase in 2010 ends in a chance for a woman in her late forties to revisit the world of her adolescence.
I sincerely hope there will still be more to come - popcorn, potato chips and John Heldt time-travel novels! -
The Show is a sequel to
The Mine. I must admit I was surprised, because:
1) Book #2 in Northwest Passage series was completely unrelated to
The Mine (except for the time-travel theme).
2) I didn't think that Joel's and Grace's story needed a sequel.
The Show is the proof that you can really dislike the novel even if you really love author's writing style. Narration and humor specific for John A. Heldt were still there but there were too many thing that bothered me:
- Too many POVs.
- First third about Grace's travel to the future was boring.
- The middle was too fast and a lot of things happened.
- And then suddenly a couple of years later (more than half into the book) big plot twist. The way it was resolved made the whole twist/event unnecessary. I didn't see the point of it. It seemed that author just wanted to torture the characters a bit before the end.
I couldn't wait for this novel to be over. (If I didn't need it for a challenge and it was a fast read, I would have DNF-ed it.) -
Originally published at
Reading Reality
While The Show is the third book in the author’s Northwest Passage series, it is much more of a direct sequel to The Mine, the awesome first book in the series, than the second book in the series, the marvelous The Journey, turned out to be.
In the Northwest Passage series, at least so far, the protagonists accidentally, or in the case of The Show, accidentally-on-purpose, discover methods of traveling in time. The time travel is complete handwavium – it’s purely a plot device and nothing more. And no more or less believable than the methods used in Outlander.
Not that the time period is the same as Outlander, or even the same from one book in the Northwest Passage series to another. In The Journey, the heroine travels within her own lifetime, and makes changes to her life in the past. Definitely changes for the better from her perspective, but one wonders about the butterfly, its flapping wings, and the effects on the futures of all of the other people who were within her original orbit.
That’s a question that raises its hand and waves vigorously by the end of The Show.
Because both Joel Smith in The Mine and Grace Vandenberg in The Show travel outside of their own lifespans. And then more.
In The Mine, Joel travels from 2000 to the summer of 1941, and leaves on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. He leaves, at least in part, because he knows about WWII and fears that if he finds himself in the Army there is the possibility that he will save someone who should have died, or kill someone who should have lived. He’s worried about that butterfly quite a bit.
But he didn’t worry about it enough not to fall in love back in 1941, and not to leave behind a trail of breadcrumbs that allows someone to follow him to the future. That someone is Grace, the woman he loves and would have married if he had stayed in 1941.
So she comes forward to the future, to him.
It’s all sunshine and roses – not to mention marriage and children, until yet another portal whisks her away from 2002 to 1918. Her journey is just as accidental as Joel’s original trip to the past – but the consequences are even more devastating.
When Joel left 2000 for 1941, he was a young man, fresh out of college, with no dependents and relatively few cares in the world or hostages to fortune. When Grace leaves 2002 for 1918, she’s a wife and mother of two little girls. She leaves everything behind – and can’t figure out how to get back.
Just as Joel did in 1941, Grace manages to make a life back in the past, with relatives that would become hers in the fullness of a time that she has already lived but they haven’t yet experienced.
She has her parents again, this time as contemporaries. She has a front row seat on their courtship. She even manages to fall in love again. It’s not the same, but it’s a life that could be sweet.
And then she discovers that she has one last chance, and it is the last chance, to go back to her real life in 2002 – if she’s willing to leave behind everything she’s found in 1918 to take the chance that this time she can go home.
Escape Rating B: I enjoyed The Show, but it doesn’t hold up quite as well as my memory of The Mine – which you really need to read before going to The Show. Nor did it grab at my heartstrings in the way that The Journey did.
I think that one of the reasons this didn’t grab me quite as hard was that the blurb for the book gives the big plot twist away. We know from the opening pages that Grace is going to travel back in time – and it hangs over the story like the proverbial Sword of Damocles. Grace’s advent into 2000 was way too easy, and I just wanted the story to get to the interesting – and hard – parts.
Grace’s life in the 21st century also raises questions that Joel’s life in 1941 didn’t. How did Grace and Joel even manage to get married in 2000 without Grace having a birth certificate? How did she get a driver’s license – which she definitely did. It’s a detail that niggles at me.
Joel was rightfully worried in 1941 about what would happen if he turned up at an Army recruiter’s office after Pearl Harbor with no birth certificate or ID of any kind. But in the rush to get bodies in uniform he would have had a way easier time than Grace should have had even in the pre-9-11 21st century.
Grace’s story in 1918 was much more tightly focused on Grace, her dilemma and her once and future family than Joel’s was in The Mine. We don’t see nearly as much of the era in which she finds herself as we did with his story. That may also reflect that Grace, as a young woman, would have had fewer opportunities to engage with the wider world in 1918 than Joel did in 1941. Part of the reason that The Journey got to me so much was that I identified with Michelle’s choices very strongly, while Grace’s don’t resonate with me in the same way.
However, one of Grace’s choices that I did empathize with was her eventual decision to move forward in 1918. A choice that some readers seem to have been appalled by. As far as Grace knows, she’s stuck in the past. She doesn’t believe that she has any hope of returning to 2002. She mourns her life there and misses her husband and children desperately, but she came back to the past already pregnant and needs to make some kind of future for herself and her child.
One final thought about that butterfly flapping its wings. Joel worried about changing the past and thereby changing his future. Grace, on the other hand, when the opportunity arises, rushes to change the past in a way that should prevent the future that gave birth to herself. It’s the ultimate paradox of time travel, and it bothers me that it isn’t addressed in any way.
Then again, this series feels as if its intended as historical fiction mixed with romance and not SF – where the time paradox would get done to death. I’m considering it as much handwavium as the time travel mechanism itself.
And I’ll be back for the next book in the series, The Fire, the next time I need a reading pick-me-up. -
See official review:
http://www.bookscompletemeunlimited.c...
WOW!! I had the opportunity to read The Mine and The Show. I was so glad to see that we were able to find out what happened in the end of The Mine. The Show is in Grace's POV and a few other smaller characters. More so we can see what is happening with Joel and Grace. I was on the edge of my seat reading this book. I had a hard time putting it down.
We start with Grace's expierence in finding Joel. Boy, do I love the descriptions of the scenery!! When everything seems to be going just fine, BAM, Grace is transported backwards in time. Then, wow, she starts to get a grasp at what it must have felt like for Joel, when he traveled from 2000 to 1941. Luckily she finds some good smaritains, who take her in. Then, the handsome wounded Army captain captures her fancy. Only Grace is no longer sure if she'll ever make it back to Joel. What to know what happens? Pick up a copy of The Show and find out!! -
"The Show", is the third book in John A Heldt's "NorthWest Passage" series. It revisits circumstances and characters from "The Mine", and I would strongly suggest that "The Mine" be read first.
Grace is a happy wife and mother after her decision to leave her life in 1941 to follow Joel into the year 2000. However, while celebrating their 2nd Anniversary by attending a "1918 Night" at the rebuilt Palladium Theater, Grace once again finds herself ripped through time. Having landed in 1918, she unsuccessfully attempts to re-enter the time portal. Finally, Grace goes about adapting to life in 1918.
Once again, Mr. Heldt's characters and story come to life, and he creates another very interesting and engrossing tale. He has a unique ability to tell his story in concert with customs and events for any 'current' time! -
The show continues the story of Grace Vandenburg. Grace is the girl Joel Smith fell in love with when he time traveled from 2002 to 1941. The story begins with Grace chasing after Joel when he returns to 2002, and follows the story of her finding Joel only to lose him again when she gets transported back to 1918. While there she meets her parents, some other family members and a young Army Captain back from the war. Grace is faced with some life changing decisions, and she alone must make them. I enjoyed The Mine and The Show i look forward to reading more books by John .A. Heldt
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This is the sequel to the story The Mine. You should really read The Mine before starting this one. I liked The Mine better but this one was still easily worth five stars. Please refer to my review of The Mine because I would pretty much say the same thing here. Great story, great historical content and it really pulls on your heart. I enjoyed the ending and I do have a feeling of great contentment that everything worked out as it should. This book will take you places in your mind and paint pictures that you feel you could reach out and touch. I really enjoyed these two books.
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I have read this series out of order, but still each one is enjoyable and I am able to connect to the other books characters. The author enjoys changing things in time.
