Review: A fantastic and enjoyable sequel.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 4, 2013
The Show is a direct sequel to The Mine, the first book in the Northwest Passage series, but instead of following Joel, the novel focuses on Grace, the girl Joel fell in love with but left so he could return back to the year 2000. The Show opens up with Grace determined to travel into the future, and back into the arms of the man she truly loves. I really admired Grace's determination throughout the entire book. She never gave up on Joel, no matter what era she was in, and I loved that about her.I found it interesting that Grace managed to travel both forward and back in time in The Show. Within the first quarter of the book, Grace has found herself in the year 2000, with a little money and no clue on how to find Joel. Yet, as with Heldt's previous two books, the kindness of strangers steps in, and Grace finds herself helping Penelope Price, in return for a roof over her head. And once she was reunited with Katie, her college friend whom she left back in the 1940's, Grace soon re-enters Joel's life, much to their delight. I loved their reunion, as we read about it from Joel's perspective in The Mine but didn't really get to see how it happened, but with The Show we did. From that point on, the book seemed like it was flowing towards a blissful happily ever after situation, but of course, that wasn't quite the case. Grace finds herself stuck in 1919, reunited with her Great-Uncle, and eventually her mother and aunt.The first time Grace travelled into the future, she remained calm about her surroundings and how foreign they were to her, which is an aspect I really appreciate in Heldt's books, as I love watching them battle between acting normal and completely having a meltdown when they realise their world is totally different to what it should be! I though Grace adopted to the technology and totally different pace of the 2000's really well, probably a lot better than I would have done if I was in her situation! Unfortunately though, Grace turned slightly hysterical after her second whirl with time-travel, although I can understand why, because it was far more traumatising for her the second time round!I loved reading about Grace in 1919. I did feel sorry for her, especially when she realised what it was that made her travel through time, and the realisation that she would probably never make it back to 2002. I accepted her decision to move on and live her life, and I really enjoyed John Walker's character. I liked Grace and John together almost as much as I like Grace and Joel together, although I did wish that Grace had explained her situation to John a lot sooner in the book, because I want to believe he would have just accepted Grace's story and loved her all the same.The Show was an extremely enjoyable installment to the Northwest Passage series, and I cannot wait to see where Heldt takes us next in his next book. If you haven't checked out this series yet, I highly recommend you do, because it's time travel done fantastically well.I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.