March 1st 2017 by Capstone
E ARC from Netgalley.com
Abbi is off to college at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It's hard to leave her mom, because her grandmother has just passed away from cancer, but she is looking forward to getting on with her life. Her roommate, Jada, seems really nice, and she meets a cute boy named Colton at a party, but when she wakes up one morning she has been transported to 1983! She meets another boy, Will, who claims they knew each other in the past, but she is barely there long enough to appreciate the poster of Michael Jackson and the high rise jeans when she is whisked back to 1961. There, she is hopefully able to stop the death of Professor Smith in a building explosion, but before she can find out, she ends up in the early 1950s-- and meets her grandmother. Before her grandmother passed away, she made Abbi promise to "find the baby". Armed with a hatbox of mementos that travels back with her as far as 1930, where she meets a very young professor Smith, Abbi is able to solve a family mystery, figure out key components of time travel, and meet her soul mate.
Strengths: My daughter just started college, I started college in 1983, and my mother was in college when Abbi's grandmother was, so this spoke to me on many levels! I love time travel books, the romance was good, the mystery had it's moments, and I loved Professor Smith. The UW Madison setting made me want to go to college there. If there were a movie of this, I would watch it once a year. It could be gorgeous.
Weaknesses: A little coincidental and pat at the end, but it makes it very satisfying.
What I really think: I rarely buy copies of books, but I have to get this one for my daughters for Christmas. Then, I can always read it again. Adored it personally, but it's not really for my library collection, even though it's fairly tame. A couple passing references to sex, but nothing instructional.
I must admit that I love books like this. Thanks for pointing it out!
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