A page-turner…
A fresh, funny twist to time travel, Tabares’s outstandingly hilarious series tells the story of a time-traveler mother of four who gets entangled into a set of hilarious situations while attempting to fix the timeline shift. In the first installment, Vanessa, a happily married mother of three little girls, is working toward her degree in Archaeology at the University of Washington. Her accidental step through a time portal at the university lab transports her to the future. Her family’s contribution to the future forces the authorities to send her back in her time, but the consequences of going through the time portal will bring chaos in Vanessa and her family’s lives. In the second installment, Vanessa wakes up to find herself in a parallel universe where women are subjugated: they cannot drive, travel without a male escort or take any major decision. Her husband’s sudden accident makes Vanessa realize that things are not as they seem on the surface. With her daughters in tow, Vanessa sets out to fix the shifted timeline and save the world. In the third installment, the stakes rise for Vanessa and her daughters to fix the timeline as the voting for the Nineteenth Amendment draws near. Maddie and Becca must join hands with Philip, a scientist from future, and head into 1920s Nashville to ensure the bill granting women to allow to vote is passed without a glitch. Tabares remains a brilliant observer of human nature as she sketches her relatable and likable cast of witty, spunky, and even somewhat eccentric characters with ease and precision. This is as much a story of time travel as of family ties and enduring marriage: Tabares’s characters stick together in times of trouble and muddle through with sheer courage. Tony doesn’t get much space in the story, but the series reveals the basic compatibility of Vanessa and Tony’s decades-long marriage and the love that binds them together. There is little that changes between the couple at each story’s end, and this very realism makes the series so effective. Spontaneous and enthusiastic Vanessa as a mother is so genuine and relatable, readers will have hard time not to see her as a real person. The girls’ joyous recklessness is totally contagious, making the reader instantly fall in love with them. With irresistibly funny passages the reader wants to read out loud and superb narrative, this is a series that deserves readers’ attention. A must read.
Department of Temporal Adjustment (3 books series)
By Veronica R. Tabares
Sun Break Publishing
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Department of Temporal Adjustment (Book 1)
Pub date June 15, 2010
9781609160029
Price $15.50 (USD) Paperback, $2.76 Kindle edition
Time Without (Book 2)
Pub date July 26, 2017
ASIN B074BF1BD2
Price $2.62 (USD) Kindle edition, $9.95 Paperback