My rating: 3.5 stars out of a scale of 5

My review: I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. This book tells the story of Joel Smith, a young man who is interested in geology and can’t pass up a chance to look at an abandoned mine. When he walks out of the mine though he finds himself not in the year 2000 as it was when he walked into the mine but instead it is suddenly the year 1941. And with no cash in his wallet and only credit cards that don’t work yet, he’s stranded in the year 1941 with no way to even buy food for himself. Joel decides to head back to Seattle as that is where he had been going to school in 2000. It is there that he begins to build a new life for himself. Six months later though he realizes that he has a chance to go back to his own time, and he has to make the agonizing decision to leave behind all the people he’s grown to care for in 1941.
Overall I really ended up liking this book. The plot line was just so interesting and I can’t remember reading anything like it before. I thought it was a little sad that Joel built this whole new life that he really enjoyed and then had to decide to leave it behind but I can understand he wanted to get back to his family. The dialogue between the characters was decent and the tension between Joel and Grace was basically palpable. It ended pretty much how I wanted it to, though I felt like there could’ve been a little more closure. There were a lot of questions I still had at the end of the book that I didn’t really think were addressed (How did Grace find Katie in 2000? Why didn’t she meet up with Joel in 2000 sooner?) but I know that Book #3 in the Northwest Passage series is about Grace’s story so I’m hoping that book will answer a few of my questions. I’m also hoping this next book (The Show) will tell us a little more about Grace once she gets to the future, does she assimilate ok? I hope they talk about that in the book. Also I can’t believe that Joel’s grandmother was able to keep this secret from everyone for all these years. I feel like she would’ve spilled the beans at some point during Joel’s first 17 years. Good book though, and I’m looking forward to reading the next one.