Marlys Millhiser (1938–2017)

I can understand why pre-teen would have enjoyed this book. Adult me though got fed up with Shay super quick and the idea of this all just...nope.

There was another book I read (A Will of Their Own) around the same time that also dealt with a trio of women throughout the 20th century. Vastly different circumstances though.

Partially I'm not fond of hearing about the bygone way folk lived*. I did find it fascinating as the town/environment that Shay remembered so well changed so much in the 70ish years she was Brandy. It slowly grew into the world that Shay was familiar with, but by the time the world caught up to the kind of life Shay was comfortable with, she couldn't appreciate it as much.

In the end I'm glad to have reread this, equally glad it's an ebook. While it's not to my tastes any more, it's long bugged me I couldn't remember enough of it to think on WHY young me loved it.… (mehr)

On the eve of her wedding, Shay's father delivers a full-length antique mirror as an early wedding gift. When her grandmother Bran visits her bedroom she seems strangely agitated by its presence, and then Shay suddenly blacks out. When she comes to, in another time and place, she realizes that she now inhabits the body of her grandmother, on the eve of her wedding...in 1900.

This 1978 novel came to my attention only a year or so ago when it was mentioned in the publication BookPage. I was a little worried about how well it would hold up, having been written the decade I was born, but it was actually delightfully riveting and engaging. Its weakness, sadly, is the ending, as though the author wasn't sure how to conclude what had up until that point been a surprisingly strong and compelling story. With about 25% to go it first goes off the rails, and then kind of fizzles out. However, for me the book's strong points, including well-developed characters and forcing the reader to contemplate what it would be like to have been in either Shay's or Brandy's situation, continue to make it a worthwhile read, particularly for fans of time travel stories. Bonuses: It was fun to see the unfamiliar Cornish accent depicted and attempt to "hear" it. I have also not only recently been to Nederland, Colorado, which features heavily in the book, but to the very cemetery mentioned.… (mehr)

I want you to think about the next time you see your grandmother how it would be if you would wake up in her body when she was young and then have to marry your own grandfather and give birth to your mother. That's sounds quite insane I know, but that is what happened to Shay Garrett in this book. She wakes up in the year 1900, in her grandmother Brandy McCabe's body.

This book cured me of any romantic notion about time-travel. I don't know what's worse going back in time having to live your grandmother's life or going forward and living your granddaughter's. Either you know too much that is going to happen or you are totally lost in the future. And, poor Shay's mother and Brandy's daughter Rachael that is the one that has to live with a mother that is her daughter and a daughter that's her mother.

It's a really good book, not perfect, I found the parts in the book about Shay in the past and Rachael growing up the best. But the ending with Brandy in Shay's body was just not as good. I mean I felt for her, but personally, I found it was far more interesting to read about someone getting used to life in the past than life in the future.

But it sure was an interesting book to read and I recommend this one to anyone that likes time-travel books!

Thanks to Open Road Media and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!… (mehr)

I believe that this was one of the most interesting and intriguing books that I have read this year, or perhaps any year. My library was putting some of the books that they had more than two copies of on the shelf that they have to sell them for a little bit of nothing... and I was lucky enough to be there to grab it up. Lucky, lucky, me! There are some unexplained deaths in the book and a supernatural plot, but it's not really horror. It's actually more of a time travel book, much like Jack Finney's famous Time and Again, which I have also read several times. Finney's book had a murder mystery plot, and this one doesn't. This mirror is an Oriental mirror of unknown origin that travels from one place to another, enticing its victims. It hums and crackles with anticipation, pulling the victim in to either drive them insane or to switch them with someone else either decades in the past or into the future. That was one of the things that I found extremely fascinating. Image being a young woman of the twenty-first century with equal rights and the freedom to do pretty much what you please and suddenly finding not only are you in someone else's mind and body and the rights and freedoms you enjoyed in 2022 are no longer yours and you may even face death if you object or attempt to pursue them. I absolutely loved it. I believe that The Mirror is going to be one of those books that really stands the test of time.… (mehr)