American Journey: The First Three Novels (American Journey, #1-3) by John A. Heldt

American Journey: The First Three Novels (American Journey, #1-3) Reviews

• 
  Valerie

  I so enjoy the day dreams I have when reading a time travel novel. John Heldt sends people off into the past through Professor Bell in this trilogy. The first book, September Sky, sends a father and son to Chicago, right?! Wrong, they instead go to New Orleans to right a family wrong. Then, they endure a historic hurricane and help to rescue people and rebuild lives. The hurricane causes a lot of white knuckles on the part of the reader. Prof Bell always warns people against falling in love and bringing humans forward in time. This is a battle he cannot win, as all of Heldt's stories end up with romance as a major part of the plot. Book two involves three generations of women who journey to Princeton, New Jersey in 1938. They meet Albert Einstein, become involved with the infant self of one of the women, and Hitler's rise to power with spy detection and betrayal. There is such a historical realism that one feels that this story is part of reality. Another of Prof Bell's warnings is to not change history, while time traveling. Another "yeah, right!" In book 3, a young doctoral student in 2016 wants to find out about time travel. He ends up in Evanston, Indiana, where Prof Bell's time traveling ancestors lived. He also feels compelled to save the life of a distant cousin of Prof Bell, who was brutally murdered in 1925. Do not change history! He is also supposed to find the time travel cave in the Sierra Nevada's to obtain more crystals. He finds even more than he bargained for and has to become more involved than he thought he would have. Additionally, he makes a pretty surprising life changing decision for himself. Since I was reading this for a reading challenge, I would not read these books in one volume, but get the three individual books.
• 
  Kate O'Connell

  Is time travel possible?
  
  Thank you for these entertaining journeys
  This is a good summer time read. I found myself questioning a few things caught up in the possibility that time travel is a reality.
• 
  Rachael

  I read approximately 10% of this book. So far the father and son have traveled 116 years into the past to flirt with pretty girls. Seriously. This may be the least imaginative fantasy novel ever.
• 
  Donadee's Corner

  American Journey box set - September Sky, Mercer Street, Indiana Bell by John A Heldt Review
  The start of the journeys to the past!
  
  Meet a mysterious professor, step into a hidden chamber, and take the time-travel plunge! The opportunity awaits in the first three novels of John A. Heldt’s celebrated American Journey series. Filled with history, romance, and adventure, the American Journey series takes readers on a ride through the most memorable eras of the 20th century
  
  What did I like? My second love is time travel and I have fallen in love with this series and have now read all five books. I loved the concept of the books and each of the players in all the books. The thought and the research that it took to write each of the books but to be able to pull them all together is incredible.
  
  In SEPTEMBER SKY, a reporter and his estranged son find southern belles, lawlessness, and danger as they travel to Galveston, Texas, on the eve of its devastating 1900 hurricane.
  
  The facts of the books for anyone that is a history buff will put you into the series and the emotional depth to each will pull all the strings to your heart. Filled with humor, romance, intrigue, mystery, and history will have you till the last page. You can see the comprehensive and full-scale research but take it a step further into the details of each movement of their journeys from the clothes, paperwork and time frames. What an incredible trip it would be for anyone to experience. With the descriptive descriptions, I felt each step and held my breath for every heartfelt mistake they made while they were there
  
  In MERCER STREET, a family of Chicago women, representing three generations, takes a sentimental journey to Princeton, New Jersey, in the turbulent months before World War II.
  
  Imagine being able to travel back and meet yourself, what a trip that would be for anyone. These girls make this unbelievable decision to journey to the past and right a wrong that was dependent on teaching and learning what it takes to do the right thing and not change history. Each girl is involved, interesting, enthralling, engaging and fascinating with each step they took on this fully emotional trip through the past at a time that was spellbinding. Each took a different path that leads to the most inconceivable ending.
  
  In INDIANA BELLE, a lonely doctoral student follows a trail to the Roaring Twenties, where a beautiful society editor, a cold-blooded killer, and a century-old mystery await.
  
  Romance, intrigue, mystery, humor, murder or the lack of, time travel, history and amazing characters all lead to the best read yet. If I didn’t have the flu I would not have been able to put this down, it reads great and keeps your attention on every page. Very strong characters that definitely grow with the story. Detailed descriptions to keep you in the action but not bog you down, I felt like I was right there in the book with them. You can see the research that has been done to keep this with the true feel of the era or should I say eras! I saw that the attention to detail was meticulous and as a reader, I am appreciative of that. I received this from the author for an honest review with no other compensation
  
• 
  Tess Ailshire

  Still debating how well I liked it. Somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, and I'm feeling generous today.
  
  It's obvious a ton of research accompanied each story. In "September Sky", in fact, I got bored with all the details of which building survived and which succumbed, what stood on which corner, etc. "Mercer Street" brings a bit of humor with Dr. Einstein being "Old Guy" on the street, though the library descriptions get tedious. "Indiana Belle" has the least boring detail of the three, though its description of the future only 25 years on amused me. (Find me the political party that wipes out corruption, poverty, blight, vandalism, etc. in 25 years or less, I might vote for them. But it doesn't say much for the author's view of Americans that he thinks it could happen in that amount of time.)
  
  Each of the three stories leaves at least as many questions as it answers. In "September Sky", Professor Bell answers some of them, but one never gets a real feel for Bell; his motivation, his rationale, and his real role all seem somewhat flat. The ending of "September Sky" is explained well enough, but I had to wonder about the butterfly effect in the other two.
  
  I got these three in one volume through Amazon; I haven't decided yet whether I'll read the rest.
• 
  norma linza

  Great trilogy you can't put down
  
  I enjoyed this theme immediately. The first story went fast and had me captivated. The second book was rather 'long' and dragged on for quite a bit about half way through. *reminded me of Stephen Kings' original books. Too many words and too long.
  The last story had ideal pace although the trip to the future could be omitted and instead a trip to the Bells should have been done while they were in California. That is what I expected while they were out that way.
  Nice ending but it ended too soon. Needed a chapter on the visit to 2017 to tie up loose ends.
• 
  Carol

  Disappointing. I wanted to immerse myself in the historical periods visited. What I got was 21st century people visiting a place that was only very superficially historical, meeting people who talked and acted much like we do today.
  
  This is a romance novel thinly clothed in history. If you want to really immerse yourself in an historical period, read Vijaya Schartz' books! Her "Curse of the Lost Isle" series transports you to Medieval Europe, and my favorite, Ashes for the Elephant God, while contemporary fiction, puts you firmly in India with all of its tantalizing sights and smells and food!
• 
  Astrid Falkenberg

  Even though I’m a big time travel fan, the 3 stories spent too much time on individuals’ selfish pursuits of their own agendas to change the past and sappy love stories. In my understanding of time travel, changing history can have dire consequences, which the author didn’t ever fully explore. However, what kept my interest were certain aspects of a simpler life that lured the time travelers to leave the present and explore living in a past without modern conveniences. Even with being faced with all the bigotry, prejudices and backwardness that comes along with it......Food for thought....
• 
  Michelle

  I was expecting something different. I was expecting more history, less romance and changing the past to suit the romance angle. It would have been far better to come away with a hard lesson, than handed a gloss over that it’s ok to disrupt history by filling it with 21st century people. It’s not a series I will follow.
• 
  Jackey

  I enjoyed this book. The stories moved forward without too much faffing about. An interesting vision of time travel and the third book left it open for many more adventures. Well researched and thoroughly enjoyable read.
• 
  Peggy Haupt

  Time travel at it's finest
  
  Anyone that likes time travel will really enjoy American Journey: The First Three Novels! I loved all 3 but the last one set in the 20's I think was really great. I really had a hard time putting it down.
• 
  Janet

  Journey
  
  I enjoyed the way the author linked the present with the past. The stories had romance, adventure, and a little suspense.
• 
  Curt

  While I found that it was a bit formulaic, every story involves falling in love, I also enjoyed all three stories, as each one was just different enough to be enjoyable.
• 
  Janie Ziegler

  Awesome story
  
  Leaves me wanting more. Can't wait to read more books in this series or to even start a new one.
  
  
• 
  Lolajune Wayne

  John
  
  A. Held has become a favorite author .. My favorite genre is historical fiction but he always transcends the basics with his charming characters and descriptions of the scenery
• 
  Jacqueline

  So far I've read the first two books in this series of five - September Sky and Mercer street. The third, which I'm about to start, is Indiana Belle. These are the first three referred to on the cover. All begin with a man who, thanks to his g-grandfather, has a secret means of travelling back in time. He chooses people with certain criteria to take the opportunity to go back for as long as they choose but with certain rules. The first two books, although with this same basic theme, are very different because the time travelling characters are very different and have different reasons for wanting to travel back to certain years. It has made me question myself and others: If you had the chance to back in time and influence things without fundamentally changing history, when and where would you go to, and what would you want to do?
• 
  Nan Adel

  All three of these novels were so enjoyable. The three books are only linked through a time tunnel and two characters, the professor and his wife. After the introduction to them at the beginning of each book, they are stand-alone stories. Besides the fun of traveling through time (which almost seems possible), the author blends real history with the lives of the time travelers. If you like time travel and some interesting history this series will keep you entertained.