Caught in a Past Reflection

by J. Jeff Cochran

Asa Blanchard is a 23-year old graduate student who lives in Williamsburg, Virginia and works in the Colonial Williamsburg Silversmith's shop. He is quite content with his life until he happens, one day, to meet Rebecca Lane, an 18-year old high school graduate who works in the Milliner's shop. They begin to share lunchtime and explore hidden corners of the historical area. While their attraction to each other rapidly grows, they find a mysterious "mirror" in a clearing in nearby woods. Through experimentation, they discover that the mirror is a time portal that extends back to 1798. After a particularly turbulent night at her troubled home, Rebecca impulsively decides to go through the portal and live out her life in the past. She leaves Asa a note expressing her love for him. Asa is torn over what to do but decides he must follow her through the portal and convince her to return. Asa finds her and pleads with her to return. Rebecca steadfastly refuses even though she is heartbroken and walks him back to the portal so he can return to the future, but the portal is gone. They are both trapped in 1798. Recovering from the initial shock, they travel north. Recognizing that an unchaperoned woman and single man together would be suspicious in the 1790s, they agree to pose as man and wife. Meanwhile, the police investigate the disappearance of the young couple to no avail. Asa's Uncle John, a history professor with whom he was very close, doggedly pursues the mystery over the years that follow, finding clues and eventually guessing that they somehow went back in time. In their new lives, Asa uses his skill as a silversmith, while Rebecca is able to be a skilled seamstress. With these skills and a few secret items from the future, they adapt and survive. What follows is a series of adventures as they finally consummate their relationship, have children, migrate to Lexington Kentucky, and experience commercial success, weddings, deaths, and the Great Cholera Epidemic of 1833. Interspersed with the main story of Rebecca and Asa, are intimate clues details of their lives written in a journal that Asa starts in his later years.
www.jjeffcochran.com

284 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2015

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was a moving, well-researched, time-travel page turner!

It is the love story of Rebecca and Asa (both of whom work in Colonial Williamsburg, learning skills that will help them when they go back in time to the early 19th century). They discover a time portal, and Rebecca escapes her terrible family situation by going through it, with Asa going back to get her to return.

But the time portal vanishes and they must make a life together in Virginia and Kentucky.

The details about past America are fascinating, and the author obviously learned much about the environs, skills, and customs then, which he conveys effectively.

I love both historical fiction and time-travel novels, so this book was right up my alley! And it was a fast read, with lots of romance and emotional moments.