Review: REVIEW - The Mine
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2013
As posted at The Reading Cafe bloghttp://thereadingcafe.com/john-heldt-northwest-passage-seriese-combined-reviews/4.5 out of 5 for this reader folks!The Mine written by John A. Heldt is an incredible book.  This had a different feel to many of the books that I have been reading lately, and I absolutely loved that.  I am not normally a huge fan of time travel romances, but if it's well composed and realistic than I am sold.  I am SOLD on this book.We first meet our leading man Joel Smith in year 2000 while travelling with his buddy Adam through Montana.  Joel is about to graduate from college, has the world at his fingertips and intends to live life to the fullest.  Joel is described as a handsome, carefree, adventurous, full of wit soul that generally loves being himself.  I totally fell in love with him, but not for the gushing, swooning reasons I normally fall in love with my heros, but because he was believable and could be the guy next door.  He's adorable, intelligent, risky in some ways, confident (but not in that arrogant way) and ultimately SO MUCH FUN.So ... while coming into some traffic blocks, he manages to talk his buddy Adam into taking a rough road up to a shut down mine so he can explore.  Turns out this so happens to be on the day that planets are aligned just right and there is some freaky cosmic phenomenon going on.  Joel notices a funky light in the cave (he is a geologist at heart so really the poor guy had no chance ..lol), has an encounter with a snake, a low level beam and somehow manages to come out the cave in 1941.Joel comes to terms pretty quick with his time travelling ways (despite the fact that the moula and cell phone in his pocket are of NO HELP to him), jumps on a train (yes literally) and heads to Seattle.  After a rough few days, he meets a guy named Tom who befriends him, gets him employment and becomes his new best buddy.  Just so happens, Tom is engaged to his grandmother "Ginny", but isn't his grandfather.  Joel becomes completely smitten with Tom's group of friends and really begins to live the 1941 way of life.In this group he also meets Grace.  Grace was a bit of a colder fish for me at first but she has much to deal with in her life and as I continued to read I found her to be very "real" and likable.  Grace becomes Joel's love interest and ultimately a huge part of the choice he has to make of "should I stay or should I go?"In many of my reviews, I love to indulge the romance of the book, and while the romance was beautiful in this book, it was not the highlight nor the most enticing part for me.  It was Joel and his dilemmas about how to not intercede in history in the event he changes the future and perhaps his own existence.  He develops a true friendship with his grandmother, falls in love with her best friend and is best buddies with her fiance who he knows will not be his grandfather (nor why he won't be).  Can you imagine having all this kind of knowledge and not being able to stand up and say "I KNOW WHAT'S COMING!"  Especially something as pivotal as a countries entrance into a world war.  That isn't a small thing to carry on one's shoulder's.  Mix into the equation finding your soul mate and good grief, I am surprised this guy didn't self com-bust!I am going to leave the story explanation at that .. seriously so much happens, and chunks of the story are just way to good to spoil for you. The only reason this was not a solid 5 out of 5 for me was because I did find Joel's reaction to time travel a little too accepting.  There was no freak out just a simple "yah okay I'm in 1941!"  I did find that a little far fetched.  I also am not in love with this book cover!  This is such a great book and that cover is way too dull.Leaving this review on a super happy note though, I add that this is an adventurous, page turning read that is hard to put down.  John A. Heldt is an honest to goodness very talented author.  From the beautiful descriptions, tidbits of history, the conversations between characters and the relationships formed, I was completely drawn in.  Do yourself a favour though, grab some tissues is you plan to dive in .. I sure needed them! ;)HAPPY READING!Copy provided by The Reading Cafe for an honest review