A Twist in Time by Julie McElwain (Kendra Donovan #2)

The second book in the Kendra Donovan time-travel mystery series, A Twist in Time by Julie McElwain, picks up where the first book ended. In short, Kendra is stuck in 1815 at Aldridge Castle, trying in vain to return to the 21st Century.

I have not reviewed the first book on Mystery Sequels, because that book is first of all time-travel story with little mystery involved, however A Twist in Time is a historical mystery worth talking about on a site dedicated to mystery novels.

Here is a brief synopsis of the first book for those who want to read book two straight away.

Kendra Donovan is an FBI agent who, after a botched raid where most of her colleagues were murdered, decides to go to England to exact revenge and kill the one who deceived them all.

While at the castle, she suddenly has to flee to save herself, so she takes the route of dark secret passage to avoid getting caught. When she decides to finally come out of hiding, she discovers that, while she is still at the castle, she is not in her own time, but sometime in the past. Namely in 1815.

And now the biggest quest of her life is to return to her time. But how?

We now find Kendra in book 2, still trying to get back home. But while she’s in the past, she slowly learns the ways of that time and gets familiar with the family Duke’s and people living at the castle.

And it seems that Kendra is slowly falling for Alec, the Duke of Aldridge’s nephew, who knows of her secret, and who knows that he can’t have her for very long – only until she finds her way back to her own timeline. In the meantime, though, they try to forget about other things and simply enjoy each other’s company.

But when Alec is accused of a murder that he didn’t commit, she knows that she has to use everything she has learned and practiced at the FBI Academy to save the one she loves now more than life itself – at least this life, anyway.

Having already helped solve a murder in the first book, people of that time have learned that Kendra is more than a simple woman, and have learned to trust her. Thus she is, once again, included in the intrigues of saving Alec from a most undesirable fate, and it seems that it is up to her to find the real killer.

Kendra is stuck in a past that she can’t understand – at least initially. The longer she is there, though, the more she gets to realize that the two worlds are not entirely different.

Sure, she does enjoy more material comfort in her own timeline, but her struggles are real in both worlds. And what’s more, where she was not loved back at home by her family, here she gets more love than she knows how to accept.

Could she eventually learn to live her life in that strange, yet alluring past, and learn to adapt to the ways of the old times?

The book was just as awesome as the first one, but I do understand the lower ratings from those who wanted a second time-travel novel and got a pure historical mystery book instead. There was nothing supernatural involved here, no time travel, no wormholes or anything out of the ordinary.

Kendra is an exceptional woman, at least for those who lived back in 1815. She is sharp, knowledgeable, who doesn’t shy away from a challenge.

The author’s writing is just as good as in the first book, and I really enjoyed the way she handled the different genres across the series so far.

As of now, I am looking forward to the third Kendra Donovan book, which ought to be out in April 2018 and should include a major twist that apparently none of us will see coming. At least that’s what the author promised in an interview earlier this year, so I’m really eager to read it next year.