‘The Kingdom of Ohio’ is a time travel book, an alternate history book, but most of all, a love story. Set in 1901 New York City, I thought at first it would be a steampunk novel, since the young protagonist is working on the construction of the new subway tunnels, learning how to repair the machinery. Knowing from the book jacket that Edison and Tesla were part of the story, I thought that there would be marvelous inventions and electricity flying. This was not to be, either.

The story is very, very low key. Peter Force finds a young woman stumbling and starving, and takes her for a drink & a snack. She reveals that she is the Princess of Ohio, and that she has traveled forward in time 6 years and sideways across the country. Peter suspects that Cheri-Anne Toledo is delusional, but he can’t resist helping her. Slowly he comes to believe her story- and to understand the danger she- and possibly the world- is in. And they fall in love, a bittersweet ‘Time Traveler’s Wife’ kind of love.

All this is good, but the story moved much too slowly for me, at a glacial pace. Tesla and Edison have minor roles- Edison comes off as a buffoon- and the only scientific wonder on display is the time/space machine- in the shape of a wooden door. I’m afraid I prefer my alt-history stories to move along a bit faster.