The past is a dangerous place in this fast-paced time travel novel about a young Cherokee Indian woman of 1840 and a twenty-first century investigative journalist.
Determined to keep her ancestral lands after her family is forced to march west during the Trail of Tears, Forest Water finds herself trapped by a brutal white man on her own farmstead. When Kathryn Spears arrives from the twenty-first century, Forest Water hopes she's a good spirit come to help her. The Going Back Portal is the story of two courageous young women caught in a dangerous confrontation between good and evil where one wrong move could reverberate across generations. Each one falls in love with a man from her own time, but there's no certainty they'll survive the savage intent on bending them to his will.
The Going Back Portal is possibly one of the most intriguing novels I’ve read this year.
The Going Back Portal by Connie Lacy is a suspenseful novel portraying a battle between good and evil. Kathryn Spears, a producer for an investigative news team, takes care of her grandmother – Nana – who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. When Nana speaks about a family living on her land, Kathryn dismisses the story as a symptom of the disease. There is no family, or is there? While checking out Nana’s story, Kathryn stumbles into a time travel portal and finds herself in 1840 where she meets Forest Water, a young Cherokee Indian. Forest Water is married to an abusive white man she cannot escape, as leaving him will mean giving up her ancestral land. Unwilling to leave Forest Water to her fate, Kathryn intervenes. Will she be able to save Forest Water? And if she does, will changing the past jeopardize the present?
The Going Back Portal is possibly one of the most intriguing novels I’ve read this year. There’s nothing as wonderfully frustrating as willing a character not to make a choice it is obvious she will make, and then see her make it anyway. What can a reader do other than frantically turn the pages to see how the drama will play out? Connie Lacy spins a spell-binding story that will seduce fans of time travel and take them on a thrilling ride through the ages. Her compelling writing style coupled with elements of high drama and relatable characters makes for an emotionally intense read. Connie Lacy has a new fan in me!
‘You must leave. It is not safe’....’Are you Forest Water?’
Georgia author Connie Lacy earned a degree in Journalism and Creative Writing at University of North Carolina at Pembroke and used her skills as a radio reporter and news anchor. Now she writes time travel, magical realism, climate fiction and historical fiction novels: her published books include THE TIME TELEPHONE, A DAFFODIL FOR ANGIE, THE SHADE RING TRILOGY, VISIONSIGHT, and now THE GOING BACK PORTAL. She lives in Atlanta.
In keeping with Connie’s character preference for ‘young women facing serious challenges set against the backdrop of some thorny issues,’ this exceptionally well written novel offers the experiences of two courageous women in different time periods whose lives intertwine by means of a Portal through which the contemporary woman can step into 1840 Georgia to witness the trials of a young Cherokee woman, finding parallels that grow in meaning and significance as the story progresses. Time travel novels can often challenge reality testing for readers, but the secure manner in which Connie introduces the concept results in allowing the reader to suspend disbelief and instead find the story credible.
The note as to the plot compresses the adventure well: ‘Rural Georgia, 1840. Determined to keep her ancestral lands after her family is forced to march west during the Trail of Tears, a young Cherokee Indian woman finds herself trapped by a brutal white man on her own farmstead. When Kathryn Spears arrives from the twenty-first century, Forest Water hopes she's a good spirit sent to help her. The Going Back Portal is the story of two courageous young women caught in a dangerous confrontation between good and evil where one wrong move could reverberate across generations. Each one falls in love with a man from her own time, but there's no certainty they'll survive the savage who's taken possession of the land and their freedom.’
The flow of writing is evident from page 1: ‘There was no denying Nana did sometimes resemble an old Indian woman. She certainly had the high cheek bones and brown eyes. But I stopped believing her tall tales when I was twelve. Not wanting to hurt her feelings, I humored her when she said she was one sixteenth Cherokee. Or one thirty-second. Or maybe one sixty-fourth. Her story changed from one telling to the next.’
Add to the mix well sculpted characters whose presence enhances this fine novel and the result is one fine read! Recommended.
Engrossing and heartwarming…
Fresh and captivating, this time travel novel chronicles one woman’s adventurous quest through time and space. After TV producer Kathryn Spears decides to check on her aging grandmother’s claim of a Cherokee family living in the neighborhood and walk through a property line, she’s somehow transported to 1840. Encounter with Forest Water, a young Cherokee woman left behind after her family marched west on the Trail of Tears, sets Kathryn on a harrowing journey of getting justice for the former. Lacy’s writing impressively evokes the cozy disarray of 1840s farm life and viciousness of native rights violations in colonial America.The pace of the book is fast and the characters realistic: women feisty and likable (All of them) and men darlings (except for the antagonist). A delightful read!
