“RETURN ONCE MORE,” by Trisha Leigh, Bloomsbury Spark, Oct. 20, 2015, eBook, $4.99 (young adult)
“Return Once More” is one of a couple of time-travel books to recently cross my path, and it’s one of the better ones.
Step into the future. Earth is ruined, and the survivors have moved on, settling in a new system of planets. Scientific advances have created the ability to time travel, and to predict your one true love — one who may or may not live within your own timeline.
Only the Historians use time travel, and they only use it to document the mistakes and victories. Kaia is an apprentice Historian, and when on her 16th birthday she finds out who her soul mate is, she can’t help but wonder what might have been. When she decides to take a peek at her true love in Ancient Egypt, things don’t go exactly as planned. Soon Kaia is breaking all the rules and the consequences could change the shape of time.
Kaia knows it’s time to pull the plug, but when she notices a fellow classmate poking around where he shouldn’t be, she discovers a conspiracy far larger and more dangerous than she could have ever imagined.
“Return Once More” is part of Bloomsbury’s Spark imprint, for which all titles are digital-first and only available as eBooks at this time. That’s good news for you if you are building a digital library — it’s list price is only $4.99 — but for those of us who like physical books, it’s a bit of a bummer. This is one book I’d like to add to my tangible library.
At 289 pages, “Return Once More” isn’t super long, but Trisha Leigh manages to pack a lot into those pages. Her characters are compelling and her pacing spot on. I particularly enjoyed the detail into which she delves when visiting the past — you truly get the feeling of what it must have been like for the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.
“Return Once More” is the first book in the planned Historians series. I look forward to where Trisha goes with this story.
