Tag Archives: John A Heldt

The Patriots (Stone Shed Trilogy 1) by John A. Heldt-review

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The Patriots (Stone Shed Trilogy 1) by John A. Heldt-review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 25, 2024

From the author of the critically acclaimed Second Chance series comes the first book in the Stone Shed saga.

When Noah Maclean, 22, races home from Europe, he finds a dying grandfather, a hidden letter, and a family secret that dates to the 1740s. He learns he is the keeper of a stone shed that can send people through time.

Within weeks, Noah and his brother, Jake, 15, test their inheritance. They travel to 1776 to see Philadelphia in the age of Benjamin Franklin, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution.

Expecting to return within weeks, the orphaned brothers make the most of their field trip through history. Then they meet the lovely daughters of a furniture maker, and a pleasant adventure becomes a transformative journey.

Filled with humor, romance, and heartbreak, THE PATRIOTS follows two lost souls through a critical moment in time as they adjust to new surroundings and wrestle with knowledge of things to come.

••••

REVIEW: THE PATRIOTS by John A Heldt is the first instalment in John A Heldt’s adult STONE SHED SAGA historical, time travel trilogy focusing on twenty-two year old Noah Maclean, and his fifteen year old brother Jake.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

Told from several omniscient third person perspectives including Jake and Noah THE PATRIOTS follows Noah and Jake Maclean in the aftermath of their grandfather’s death in 2024. A letter, a stone shed, and a portal through time finds the brothers journeying to Philadelphia in 1776 wherein the American Revolution is in full swing, and the brothers are about to change a little bit of history for love and heart. Finding jobs and falling in love means leaving a piece of themselves behind but a couple of trips into the future will reveal the truth to two young woman whose lives will be changed forever.

Like Star Trek’s ‘prime directive’, the Maclean brothers are not to interfere or change history but their brother’s contemporary knowledge of history and medicine means aiding and assisting when lives are in trouble.

Throughout the story line, the brothers will meet or watch history unfold: from an influenza epidemic, to Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, to George Washington and Lafayette, the Maclean brothers travel through time wlll be noted in history by the changes they wrought, much to the chagrin of the people they left behind. But to save the young woman with whom they are falling in love, the truth is revealed, as the British soldiers marched toward their targets.

We are introduced to several historical figures, as well as Noah and Jake’s Uncle Doug and Aunt Donna ; Uncle Lachlan; sisters Abigail and Rachel Ward, as well as their parents Sam and Elizabeth, soldier Colin Richards, and house servants Sarah, Flora and Fauna Jones.

THE PATRIOTS is a time travel story, using both fictional and factual accounts of the time periods visited, with elements of romance, family, relationships and love. The premise is intriguing and entertaining;the characters are charismatic and charming; the romance is subtle. THE PATRIOTS ends on a cliff hanger-you have been warned.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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12th Anniversary Celebration Giveaway with John A Heldt

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The Reading Cafe 12th Anniversary Celebration Giveaway with John A Heldt

Today’s Prize Package

NOTE: All giveaways require a comment to qualify

John A Heldt is graciously offering ebook copies of the SECOND CHANCE TRILOGY to ONE (1) commenter.

One (1) winner will receive the ebook SECOND CHANCE TRILOGY

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

NOTE: If you are having difficulty commenting after logging onto the site, please refresh the page (at the top of your computer).

2. If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with your comment.

3. Please tell us to enter you into the giveaway.

4. Please LIKE and FOLLOW John A Heldt on FACEBOOK.

5. LIKE us on FACEBOOK and then click ‘on’ NOTIFICATION under ‘liked’ for an additional entry.

6. LIKE us on Twitter for an additional entry.

7. Please FOLLOW us on GOODREADS for an additional entry.

8. Please follow The Reading Cafe on Tumblr

9. Giveaway open INTERNATIONALLY

10. Giveaway runs until February 6-15, 2024

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Duties and Dreams (Second Chance 3) by John A Heldt-review

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Duties and Dreams (Second Chance 3) by John A Heldt-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 9, 2023

As World War I rages in Europe, the Carpenters and the Lees make a home in Southern California. Bill and Cassie add to their family. Andy and Annie start one of their own. Paul, a bachelor, enters the world of business. All find peace in a turbulent time. Then draft notices arrive, illness strikes a child, and life for two intertwined families takes a troubling turn.

Thirty years later, Emilie Perot, a beautiful resistance fighter, and Steve and Shannon Taylor, an American couple with ties to Paul Carpenter, conspire to escape Nazi occupation. Each seeks freedom and a new life in France’s Vosges Mountains, home of a legendary fountain of youth that can restore health and send visitors through time.

As events unfold in the different eras, the participants march on. All are unaware of the forces that seem determined to throw them together.

In DUTIES AND DREAMS, the epic conclusion of the Second Chance trilogy, several young adults find love, heartbreak, and redemption in a world of war, pandemics, and social unrest.

•••••

REVIEW:DUTIES AND DREAMS is the third and final instalment in John A Heldt’s adult SECOND CHANCE time-travel trilogy focusing on the Carpenter siblings-Paul, Bill and Annie.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

SOME BACKGROUND : The Second Chance series focuses on the search for the Fountain of Youth. In May of 2022, 81 year old William Carpenter is a retired professor of folklore, who learns the mythology about the Fountain of Youth may be the reality of which he and his siblings are looking. Having just buried his wife, William believes he has nothing more to lose, and convinces his siblings Paul 75, who has terminal cancer, and Annie 72, a paraplegic, to test the proverbial magic waters in La Paz, Mexico but the myth comes with the caveat of time travel, a caveat wherein the siblings have no idea where in the world or when they will land.

Told from numerous omniscient third person perspectives and several timelines (1918, 1944, 1961) DUTIES AND DREAMS, advances the series approximately seven years. The year is now 1918, and the siblings, now all in their twenties and thirties, two with their respective spouses and growing families, have travelled to an era wherein war and a pandemic are about to ravage the world’s population. When Paul, and his new brother in law Andy are conscripted into the US Army, they know their futures are no longer set in stone. Sent to Europe as marksmen, both men would come under fire: one would be injured, while the other is MIA.

Meanwhile back home in America, the pandemic aka Spanish Flu is gaining momentum but William’s small family is about to learn of the helplessness of medicine in the early 1900’s. Their only hope is to jump to the future, a future wherein one of the siblings may remain lost to the past.

DUTIES AND DREAMS is the culmination of three story lines, several real-world and fictionalized histories and historical events, and the reborn lives for the Carpenter siblings. Having lived through several timelines each sibling will find his or her new happily ever after, with new loves, new lives, new families and new friends. The premise is intriguing and captivating; the romances are subtle; the characters are determined and dynamic.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
The Fountain
Annie’s Apple

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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Annie’s Apple (Second Chance 2) by John A Heldt-a review

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Annie’s Apple (Second Chance 2) by John A Heldt-a review

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 11, 2023

Six years after emerging from a fountain of youth, siblings Bill, Paul, and Annie Carpenter, time travelers from 2022, make their way in 1911.

In New York, Bill and wife Cassie finish a year as educators and struggle to start a family, while Annie tries her hand as a society reporter. In Arizona, Paul and Andy Lee, sergeants and brothers-in-law, attempt to keep the Mexican Revolution from spilling across the border.

For all, life marches on. Then the soldiers receive new orders, Paul and Annie meet alluring strangers, and the family’s fortunes take dramatic turns.

In ANNIE’S APPLE, the sweeping sequel to THE FOUNTAIN, five young adults find love, danger, and adventure in the age of factory fires, high society, and the sinking of the Titanic.

••••

REVIEW: ANNIE’S APPLE is the second instalment in John A Heldt’s adult SECOND CHANCE historical, time travel series focusing on the Carpenter siblings-Paul, Bill and Annie.

NOTE: Due to the nature of the story line premise including attempted suicide, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

SOME BACKGROUND :The Second Chance series focuses on the search for the Fountain of Youth. In May of 2022, 81 year old William Carpenter is a retired professor of folklore, learns the mythology about the Fountain of Youth may be the reality he and his siblings are looking for. Having just buried his wife, William believes he has nothing more to lose, and convinces his siblings Paul 75, who has terminal cancer, and Annie 72, a paraplegic, to test the proverbial magic waters in La Paz, Mexico but the myth comes with the caveat of time travel, a caveat wherein the siblings have no idea where in the world or when they will land.

Told from several omniscient third person perspectives ANNIE’S APPLE advances the series approximately five years. The year is now 1911, and the Carpenter siblings, all in their twenties and thirties, are about to face and experience some of the most painful and heart breaking events in history from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan, to the sinking of the HMS Titanic. The Carpenter siblings are witness to, and unwitting participants in historical happenings and developments of 1911-1912 but the Carpenter’s are not the only time travellers to arrive in Manhattan in 1911, and Paul will find himself flirting with another broken heart from the future. As the Carpenter family grows, and the next generation is born, the siblings must come to terms with the past, a past that is now a part of their present. Annie will have loved and lost, not once but twice; and Bill, having never had children in his previous life, will learn the meaning of true love and acceptance.

John A Heldt, once again, blends a little fact with fiction, taking literary license with events from the past. The reader is up close and personal with the what ifs and whys of yesterday, as the sibling bear witness without interfering in the history of the past. The premise is engaging and captivating; the romances are passionate but ill-fated; the characters are impassioned and struggling.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one THE FOUNTAIN

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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The Fountain (Second Chance 1) by John A Heldt -a review

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The Fountain (Second Chance 1) by John A Heldt -a review

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 14, 2022

Portland, Oregon. In May 2022, the Carpenters are a sad lot. Bill, 81, has just buried his beloved wife. Paul, 75, has terminal lung cancer. Annie, 72, is a paraplegic with broken dreams. Childless and directionless, the siblings face an uncertain future in their childhood home.

Then Bill, a retired folklore professor, learns from a dying man that the legendary Fountain of Youth, his obsession for decades, may be more than a myth. He races to Mexico to find the truth.

Within weeks, the Carpenters, with nothing to lose, enter a mysterious cave and exit in July 1905 as healthy young adults. They begin new lives in Oakland, California, only vaguely aware of a devastating earthquake that will rock the San Francisco Bay Area on April 18, 1906.

In THE FOUNTAIN, the first book in the Second Chance trilogy, three siblings find opportunity, romance, and heartbreak as they make the most of a new lease on life.

Readers’ Advisory: The Fountain is the first novel in a family saga that spans several years. While some storylines are resolved, others are not. They are addressed in subsequent books.

•••••

REVIEW: THE FOUNTAIN is the first instalment in John A Heldt’s adult, SECOND CHANCE time travel romance series focusing on the Carpenter siblings: William, Paul and Annie.

Told from several third person perspectives THE FOUNTAIN focuses on the search for the Fountain of Youth. In May of 2022, 81 year old William Carpenter is a retired professor of folklore, and learns the mythology about the Fountain of Youth may be the reality he and his siblings are looking for. Having just buried his wife, William believes he has nothing more to lose, and convinces his siblings Paul 75, who has terminal cancer, and Annie 72 a paraplegic, to test the proverbial magic waters in La Paz, Mexico but the myth comes with the caveat of time travel, a caveat wherein the siblings have no idea where in the world or when they will land. Arriving in 1905, William now 23, Paul 17, and Annie 14 will find love and experience loss when history repeats itself with the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.

John A Heldt weaves a little bit of fact with fiction in each of his time travel series, and The Fountain is no different. We are introduced to author Jack London, US General Frederick Funston, as well as a look at the early Suffragettes, and the losses and devastation of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The premise is interesting and intriguing; the romances are sweet; the characters are charismatic and passionate.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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Crown City (Time Box 5) by John A Heldt-a review

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Crown City (Time Box 5) by John A Heldt-a review

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date November 26, 2021.

From the author of the critically acclaimed Time Box series comes the dramatic conclusion of a story that spans a century.

Two years after stealing portable time machines, the Lanes, a family from the present day, stop running and start living. They settle in the seaside town of Coronado, California, in 1963.

For Jordan, Laura, and Jeremy, the oldest children, the respite is a chance to nurture relationships, start families, and explore the country. It is an opportunity to put down roots.

For Ashley, the youngest, it is a chance to thrive. Now fourteen, she is ready to start high school, make friends, and make up for lost time. She finds popularity and more after a classmate nominates her for freshman homecoming princess.

Robert Devereaux could not care less. The deranged billionaire wants his time machines back and is willing to do anything to get them. He sends a hit man to the past, setting into motion a final confrontation between a hunter and his prey.

In CROWN CITY, the suspenseful finale of the Time Box saga, a defiant family finds romance, friendship, and danger as it navigates the final months of the Kennedy presidency.

•••••••

REVIEW:CROWN CITY is the fifth and final instalment in John A Heldt’s adult TIME BOX time travel series focusing on the Lane family-Mark and Mary, and their children Jordan, Jeremy, Laura and Ashley. CROWN CITY should not be read as a stand alone-I recommend reading the series in order as their is an ongoing premise throughout.

SOME BACKGROUND: Having created two time machines in 2021 known as the Time Boxes, patriarch Mark Lane discovers that his business partner, billionaire Robert Devereaux, wants to use the Time Boxes for questionable purposes. Having prepared for weeks, Mark Lane and his family pull up roots, and send themselves, along with the Time Boxes, back in time. Robert Devereaux desperate to retrieve the time boxes, and punish his one-time partner, hires a modern day assassin who goes on a time travel hunt for Mark Lane and his family.

Told from several third person perspectives CROWN CITY finds the Lane family travelling to 1963 in the months prior to and after the assassination of John F Kennedy. 1963 beckoned Mark and Mary Lane and their growing family but the constant jumping through time was beginning to take its’ toll on the youngest child Ashley. As Ashley started high school for the very first time, the soon to be fifteen year old needed more freedom than the family would accord, and in this , Ashley was about to bring trouble to the Lane’s front door.

Meanwhile, Randy Taylor, Mark’s one-time mentee, had proclaimed his love for Mark’s daughter Laura, and in this, Randy will begin a deliberate take down of Robert Devereaux, by travelling to the future. Setting a plan into motion, Randy will ensure the safety of the family he has grown to love but trouble continues to follow in the form of a hired assassin who refuses to back down.

CROWN CITY follows the Lane children as they come into their own-falling in love, starting families, venturing further without their time-travelling parents. As one couple struggle to prevent the death of someone else, everyone must come to terms to a decision that will affect them all, going forward.

CROWN CITY is a story family and friendships, relationships and love: a story of betrayal and vengeance, acceptance and moving forward. John A Heldt pulls the reader into another multi-faceted story that tentatively looks at a factionalized account of historical events, events that our family must regrettably ignore. The premise is detailed and complex, engaging and captivating-a fantastic conclusion to a wonderful series.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
The Lane Betrayal
The Fair
Sea Spray
The Refuge

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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The Refuge (Time Box 4) by John A Heldt-a review

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The Refuge (Time Box 4) by John A Heldt-a review

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date My 25, 2021.

Months after stealing two time machines, the Lanes, a modern family of seven, make a stand against the unhinged software mogul who wants them back. They travel to 1941 Oahu to eliminate the billionaire’s mercenary, an assassin who has chased them through time.

While son Jordan, a former intelligence officer, stalks his unknowing foe in the streets of Honolulu, his parents, younger siblings, and pregnant wife settle in the village of Laie, where love, friendship, and opportunity await. All seek refuge from the perils of time travel.

Hit man Silas Bain has his own agenda. He hopes to alter the events of December 7, 1941, and indirectly save a brilliant German physicist, his employer’s grandfather, from certain death. He has prepared for every contingency, except the charms of a beautiful heiress.

Filled with romance, suspense, and intrigue, THE REFUGE takes readers on a thrilling and memorable ride through the colorful, magical, and dangerous world of pre-Pearl Harbor Hawaii.

••••••

REVIEW:THE REFUGE is the fourth instalment in John A Heldt’s adult TIME BOX time travel series focusing on the Lane family-Mark and Mary, and their children Jordan, Jeremy, Laura and Ashley. THE REFUGE can be read as a stand alone but I recommend reading the series in order as their is an ongoing premise throughout.

SOME BACKGROUND: Having created two time machines in 2021 known as the Time Boxes, patriarch Mark Lane discovers that his business partner, billionaire Robert Devereaux, wants to use the Time Boxes for questionable purposes. Having prepared for weeks, Mark Lane and his family pull up roots, and send themselves, along with the Time Boxes, back in time. Robert Devereaux desperate to retrieve the time boxes, and punish his one-time partner, hires a modern day assassin who goes on a time travel hunt for Mark Lane and his family.

Told from several third person perspectives THE REFUGE takes the reader and the Lane family to 1941 Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands, months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. As eldest son and former intelligence officer Jordan Lane hunts for the man who is hunting the Lane family, Jeremy falls for Sarah Gustafson, a young woman with ties to the family’s past but a young woman who is about to lose everything on that fateful date in December 1941. As assassin Silas Bain searches for the elusive Lane family, the assassin will, once again, leave a trail of bodies, in his struggle to take down his intended targets.

Meanwhile, Robert Devereaux has instructed his ‘assassin’ to save the life of Maximilian Roth, Robert’s late grandfather, and the man who invented the original Time Box but Max is a physicist in Germany, and the Nazi’s aren’t about to let one of their scientists walk away.

THE REFUGE follows in the weeks and months prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, an act that brought the USA into the Second World War when America declared war on the nation of Japan. Knowing they could not interfere meant the loss of people the Lane family would have liked to save but they have agreed not to upset the natural order or significance and outcomes of historical events.

John A Heldt pulls the reader into a detailed, multi-leveled and fascinating look into a fictionalized account of the bombing of Pearl Harbor; another historical glimpse into ‘the day that will live in infamy’, and the family who will witness history up close and personal.

Reading Order and Previous Reviews
The Lane Betrayal
The Fair
Sea Spray

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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9th Anniversary Giveaway Celebration with John A Heldt

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The Reading Cafe 9th Anniversary Giveaway Celebration with John A Heldt

NOTE: All giveaways require a comment to qualify

John A Heldt is graciously offering ebook copies of the first 3 books in his Time Box series to ONE (1) commenter.

One (1) winner will receive the first 3 ebooks in his Time Box series 

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

NOTE: If you are having difficulty commenting after logging onto the site, please refresh the page (at the top of your computer).

2. If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with your comment.

3. Please tell us to enter you into the giveaway.

4. Please LIKE and FOLLOW John A Heldt on FACEBOOK.

5. LIKE us on FACEBOOK and then click ‘on’ NOTIFICATION under ‘liked’ for an additional entry.

6. LIKE us on Twitter for an additional entry.

7. Please FOLLOW us on GOODREADS for an additional entry.

8. Please follow The Reading Cafe on Tumblr

9. Giveaway open INTERNATIONALLY

10. Giveaway runs until February 11-18

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