A review for The Time Seekers

Whitney Boyd, a writer I admire very much, has written a great review for the new book. If you haven't read any of Whitney's well-written and engaging novels about modern relationships (In the Stars, Iced Romance) then do yourself a favor and pick one up for a fun read. Thank you, Whitney, for the wonderful review!

THE TIME SEEKERS by Amy Saia is a fast-paced and thrilling novel, where time is twisted and shifted and people are not who they seem to be. Emma and William Bennett, newly married college students have some secrets. Recently they escaped a soul seeking cult led by a ruthless leader, Marcus, and are trying to get back to normal life. However, normal life isn't all that easy. William, a former ghost, can't shake his past life in the 1950s, and Emma can't forget a boy she loved, Jesse, who gave his life so she could live. Torn between time and lovers, William and Emma have to return to Springvale in the 1950s in order to stop the cult before it does too much damage. Once in the past though, William forgets who he was in the future and Emma is left on her own to try and figure out how to save them all.

Emma is an interesting character. A typical teenage girl in many ways, she is at the start somewhat selfish and stubborn, jealous of her husband's professors and other students, and yet unable to see that she is doing the same thing he is. She can't forget Jesse and won't give herself completely to William, despite desperately loving him as well. She likes the idea of marriage without any desire to sacrifice or change in order for the union to work.  But, when she finds out she is pregnant, she puts the needs of her baby in front of her own, a very selfless act despite her desires for a career and life outside of marriage. She is a coward at times, and incredibly courageous at other times, and is a very real person. Her struggles with her mother and grandmother when she goes back to the past, and how she has to put emotion aside to deal with them, is fascinating. She has to interact with them as they were once, even though she knows how they would be in the future and the pain and joy they each would give her.  I enjoyed seeing her tackle new challenges and manage to get through them despite her insecurities and weaknesses. Most of us will find a bit of ourselves somewhere within Emma.

THE TIME SEEKERS is fantasy mixed with every day life. It challenges boundaries and explores relationships and is a must-read book. I recommend reading Saia's first novel, THE SOUL SEEKERS, before delving into this sequel, in order to truly understand the dynamic world and cast of characters Saia has created.