NOW & THEN

Now & Then by Jacqueline Sheehan (Rating 5)
Harper-Collins Publishers
ISBN: 78-0-06-154778-2
At the request of the author's friend, a PB copy was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
  Synopsis (from book's back cover): Anna O'Shea has failed at marriage, shed her job at a law firm and she's trying to re-created herself when she and her recalcitrant nephew are summoned to the past in a manner that nearly destroys them. Her twenty-first-century skills pale as she struggles to find her nephew in nineteenth-century Ireland. For one of them, the past is brutally difficult, filled with hunger and struggle. For the other, the past is filled with privilege.
  My Thoughts: This was definitely not the type of book that I would have picked up for my reading pleasure. I also have to say up front that I misunderstood the synopsis of the plot in regard to time travel, given to me by Mr. Frank Daniels, the author's friend, until I received the book. With all that said and the fact that there was a genuine warmth from Mr. Daniels' initial email for his friend, I was going to try and give this book a fair and undivided attention that I would give books that are from my usual genre of books.
  The main character, Anna O'Shea was likeable and could be identified with, which pulled me into the book from the start. The author initially conveyed the fast paced corporate world of today where personal relationships are ships passing in the night until it's too late to turn back or is it? What about other relationships where bitterness lies instead of forgiveness? Where childhood experiences mold us as adults or should we learn from them? Can love be found in the simple life, do we make our own happiness or do we depend on others? In a split second Anna and her troubled nephew, Joseph, are about to find out! The reader is taken back to Ireland in 1844 when the British ruled and owned Ireland. Do our ancestors mold our futures? Does the saying "history repeats itself" true?
  My Opinion and Rating:(Rating 5) This book was hard to put down. Amazing!! Interesting!! A little bit romance, mystery and history all in one book. The author's writing style, nothing less than phenomenal, in the way she interweaves a gripping fictional plot with non fictional facts of history without boredom. The characters are bigger than life. I had a very hard time putting this book down. I thank Ms. Sheehan and Mr. Daniels for giving me the opportunity to read this exceptional story and I strongly recommend that everyone read this book.

DISCLAIMER

I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me,

in exchange for my HONEST review.

No items that I receive

are ever sold...they are kept by me,

or given to family or friends.