Kate Christensen is a typical, twenty-first century fifteen-year-old. She adores the latest electronics, her music, constant contact with her friends. She even has a teen's disdain for her dad and his roots. Then he takes her to what she believes is a prison for summer vacation, where she is caught ... more

Kate Christensen is a typical, twenty-first century fifteen-year-old. She adores the latest electronics, her music, constant contact with her friends. She even has a teen's disdain for her dad and his roots. Then he takes her to what she believes is a prison for summer vacation, where she is caught up in a forty year old mystery about how her aunt died – the same aunt Kate resembles enough to be her identical twin. Caught up in a twist of time, she lives out her aunt's last two months on earth, and discovers Sarah's final moments weren't as everyone believes. Jessica Tornese weaves a tale of a typical teenager, in trouble for sneaking out and angry at her father, with magical ease. Although Kate is somewhat unlikeable at the beginning of the story, the reader soon falls into the pain she feels, almost like the pain of abandonment. Kate's anger and rebellion leaves her lost in time, back on her Aunt Sarah's fifteenth birthday, two months before she dies in what the rest of the town believes is a suicide. Tornese then takes the reader on a journey, where modern day Kate is trapped in a past she never knew about, a past where her dad is her champion, a past where children work as hard or harder than their elders. There is a special guy for the person who Kate is during this time, a guy that gives her the creeps and fascinates her at the same time. The chores done by the children while Kate is in the past toughen the world-weary city girl, give her the chance to right a wrong. Does she succeed? You'll have to read the story to find out. Jessica Tornese give the reader the chance to see the world through Kate's eyes, as she matures and learns her dad is always suspected something was wrong, and he is there for her when she returns to the present.