The Fountain by John A. Heldt

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy from . This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Fountain

by John A. Heldt

Series: Second Chance #1
Series Rating:
Published by Amazon Digital Services on August 14, 2022
Setting: California, Mexico
Genres: Historical Time Travel Adventure Romance
Pages: 567
Format: Kindle, Paperback
Goodreads
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Get Your Copy at: Amazon
Also in this series: Annie's Apple

Portland, Oregon. In May 2022, the Carpenters are a sad lot. Bill, 81, has just buried his beloved wife. Paul, 75, has terminal lung cancer. Annie, 72, is a paraplegic with broken dreams. Childless and directionless, the siblings face an uncertain future in their childhood home.

Then Bill, a retired folklore professor, learns from a dying man that the legendary Fountain of Youth, his obsession for decades, may be more than a myth. He races to Mexico to find the truth.

Within weeks, the Carpenters, with nothing to lose, enter a mysterious cave and exit in July 1905 as healthy young adults. They begin new lives in Oakland, California, only vaguely aware of a devastating earthquake that will rock the San Francisco Bay Area on April 18, 1906.

In THE FOUNTAIN, the first book in the Second Chance trilogy, three siblings find opportunity, romance, and heartbreak as they make the most of a new lease on life.

The Fountain by John A. Heldt features a new time-traveling family. Except this time, the family is only three siblings, and they are all older.

Will Bill, Paul, and Annie find a better outcome in the past than in the future?

Bill

Bill, the oldest of the Carpenter trio, is tired of burying deceased loved ones and is trying to keep Paul from dying. The only thing Bill is certain that he needs to do is to listen to a so-called time traveler to see if what he is saying is true. William finds out that he is and convinces his dying middle brother and a younger sister, who hasn’t walked since the eighth grade, to take a leap of faith with him into the unknown.

I loved that Bill was ready to take the chance of doing the impossible with his two siblings and even more to go into the unknown. Another thing that I loved was seeing the early 1900s through these three characters’ eyes and seeing how easy it was for them to fall in love with certain people. Of course, like most of Mr. Heldt’s family series that revolves around siblings, the first book focuses on the oldest sibling’s romance front and center.

Paul

Paul, the middle one, is dying of lung cancer and is saddened that he won’t be put into a military graveyard because he is a disgraced soldier. He is the one that loved the idea that Bill offered them and was even happier to be back in a younger body again. Once they got settled into their new year of 1905, Paul was back in his element and was glad to have this second chance at life.

Paul got that in spades as he found a wonderful girl at his new high school in Oakland, California, even though an earthquake would happen sometime in 1906. None of the Carpenter siblings remember when it would happen, though. I felt a lot of different emotions when a chapter or subplot focused on Paul. Firstly his cancer was a grim discovery at the novel’s beginning that went away, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Until he found other things to worry about. I have to say that I felt extremely sad for Paul.

Annie

Annie, the youngest, was stuck in a wheelchair in her first life, and now she is free of the wheelchair in her second life. I have to say that seeing Annie come to life through the pages of this novel was fantastic. The little spitfire is quite hilarious. I have to admit I was quite worried about how Mr. Heldt would do a 72-year-old back in a young woman’s body, and I have to say that he did it well. Annie started her first year at their Oakland high school and is loving her second go-through of being at high school even more so because she might have caught the eye of a certain boy even if he is too old for her.

Of the three Carpenter siblings, I have to say that Annie is my favorite.

Five Stars

The Fountain by John A. Heldt starts a trilogy for his newest family. I have to say that the Carpenter siblings are quite a trio of siblings. The banter between them was perfect, and I loved everything about it. Mr. Heldt has quite a way of bringing a historical tragedy to life in his novels, and this one is another beautifully written one to add to the list. It made me feel like I was with them, experiencing all the tragedies. I can’t wait to see what the second novel will bring us.

I am giving five stars to The Fountain by John A. Heldt. I recommend not only this one but all of John Heldt’s series. They are all great and give each person that reads them a great way to live history through the characters.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of The Fountain by John A. Heldt.

Until the next time,

Happy Reading!

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• 2023 ABC Soup RC
• 2023 Goodreads RC

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