Mercer Street (American Journey #2) by John A. Heldt

Weeks after her husband dies in the midst of an affair in 2016, Chicago writer Susan Peterson, 48, seeks solace on a California vacation with her mother Elizabeth and daughter Amanda. The novelist, however, finds more than she bargained for when she meets a professor who possesses the secret of time travel. Within days, the women travel to 1938 and Princeton, New Jersey. Elizabeth begins a friendship with her refugee parents and infant self, while Susan and Amanda fall for a widowed admiral and a German researcher with troubling ties. Filled with poignancy, heartbreak, and intrigue, MERCER STREET gives new meaning to courage, sacrifice, and commitment as it follows three strong-willed souls on the adventure of a lifetime.

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I've been reading John Heldt books for a long time.  It's time travel and it's historical fiction all wrapped up in one.  I love historical fiction and it's one of the things I love best about John Heldt's books.  He knows how to include so many historical events into his books and make things come alive that way.

In this edition, we get to travel with three ladies back to 1938 in New Jersey.  Each lady represents a generation in her family.  The beginning was really slow going for me.  Elizabeth, Susan and Amanda are basically the same person just in different stages of life.  They have the same personalities and the same voice.  It took moving farther into the book for me to be able to distinguish them by their circumstances.  All three were no nonsense, to the point blunt, educated and headstrong.  I didn't really click with their personalities so it was harder for me to make that personal connection and really feel emotions.

The history, like I said, is what makes this book for me.  There was so much going on in the time period these ladies traveled to.  The world on the brink of war, a world's fair, baseball greats, full service gas stations (!!) and an alien invasion.  Each woman in the book has her own reasons for traveling through time back to the past and I think, in the end, they end up achieving their goals even if they came about in an unexpected way.

Content:  drinking, talk about visiting a strip club, a few instances of profanity and mild swearing, sex behind closed doors, an affair.