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

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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.

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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