AWAKEN

In this first book in a planned duology, a young woman falls for a man with a painful past and travels back in time to save their love.

Nineteen-year-old Florence Contini is desperately searching for a job. But in New York City in 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, so are a great many others. Luckily, her friend Jim delivers newspapers and brings her the job ads early so she can get a head start on finding a position. Seeing that the mysterious new owner of the Oak’s Place estate is in need of a secretary, Florence eagerly applies and is hired to start the next day. She heard that her employer was a retired British general and assumed that he’d be older, but Alexander Sterling is only in his 40s and quite handsome. Upon their first meeting, his eyes seem familiar to her, and even Alex asks if they’ve met before. If that wasn’t odd enough, Florence keeps having dreams about him—as a younger man. Currently, Alex has a mysterious illness keeping him in bed for days at a time. But what really pains him is a heartbreak he suffered years ago when his wife and infant child died. Florence knows he has secrets, but his questions about her past, and his interest in the bracelet she’s had since birth, have her intrigued—and when she get a supernatural chance to delve further into his past, she can’t pass it up. Over the course of this book, Maidana presents a historical romance that spans lifetimes and timelines. She provides an intriguing take on the idea of soul mates and eternal love, but what really makes the story original and worth a read is the time travel aspect, which is well handled. The story starts a bit slowly, but overall, the prose has an old-world feel that fits perfectly with the time period. The mysteries are intriguing enough to keep the reader guessing and eager to find out more, and the cast of secondary characters, mostly longtime employees of Alex’s, have their own secrets and motives that add to the suspense.

An engaging historical time-travel romance featuring a love that spans the ages.