2016 Book #68 – Indiana Belle by John A. Heldt

Title: Indiana Belle
Author: John A. Heldt
Date finished: 7/10/16
Genre: Fiction, Time travel
Publisher: Self-published
Publication Date: April 14, 2016
Pages in book: 295
Stand alone or series: #3 in American Journey series
Where I got the book from: Author/publisher NOTE: I received this book for free from the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinion of the book, or the content of my review.

Blurb from the cover:

Providence, Rhode Island, 2017. When doctoral student Cameron Coelho, 28, opens a package from Indiana, he finds more than private papers that will help him with his dissertation. He finds a photograph of a beautiful society editor murdered in 1925 and clues to a century-old mystery. Within days, he meets Geoffrey Bell, the “time-travel professor,” and begins an unlikely journey through the Roaring Twenties. Filled with history, romance, and intrigue, INDIANA BELLE follows a lonely soul on the adventure of a lifetime as he searches for love and answers in the age of Prohibition, flappers, and jazz.

My rating: 3.75 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 Cameron Coelho, a doctoral student from Providence, RI studying societal norms and customs during the 1920’s, with a specific emphasis in Indiana, as part of his doctoral research. During the course of his studies, he comes across some diary entries of a Miss Candice Bell, some of which mention time travel. He discusses this with one of his professors, who directs him to talk to a colleague named Geoffrey Bell in California. Geoffrey turns out to be a relative of Candice’s, and since he has a great personal interest in Candice and her diary entries (specifically whether she knows of the location of her father’s lost diary) he offers Cameron the chance of a life time: to travel back in time. It is in the 1920’s that Cameron is able to meet the girl he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about, Candice Bell herself. Though Geoffrey has warned Cameron not to interfere in the past, Cameron can’t help but develop deep feelings for this vivacious and intelligent young woman.
Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was fairly predictable but this actually added to my enjoyment of the story since I knew I wouldn’t be left disappointed at the end. I liked the characters in this book, and the villains were adequately evil and also got a somewhat justified end. I liked that we were able to look into the future in this book in an interesting way and I thought that it fit well within the story line, and honestly it did make a lot of sense to me because I agreed with Cameron that the government is heading in that direction. I think the concept of time travel is just really interesting and I like the story lines of these books and how the author approaches time travel. This is I think the 5th book I’ve read by this author and I’ve enjoyed all of them. This was a good read and I would say anyone who likes to read about time travel should definitely give it a try!

The bottom line: I enjoyed both the story line and the characters in this book, and I love the author’s continued creativity with the concept of time travel. There were some cringe-worthy moments and some of the conversations were a bit awkward but it didn’t detract overall from my enjoyment of the book. A good read and I would recommend!

Link to author website

Click on the cover to go to the book’s Amazon page