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Romance
- Fiction
- Relationships
- Fantasy
Title: ONLY TIME WILL TELL Author: Sherry Lewis Rating:  Excellent!
Publisher: Jove Books Reviewed by: Maurice A. Williams |
 
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Courtney Moss, having returned home for her grandmother's funeral, rejoins her childhood friend, Ryan Dennehy. Together they sort through grandmother's belongings. They find a beautiful silk gown layered with petticoats that looks like it would fit Courtney. She tries it on and immediately imagines herself in a cabin. When her mind clears, she hears Ryan invite her to a Victorian ball wearing the gown. She accepts and has a good time until she steps outside for fresh air. Surprised not to recognize her surroundings, she gradually realizes that she has stepped back in time. She is in the same spot, in the same city, but more than one hundred years in the past. She is now in Virginia City, Montana, during the gold rush days of 1864. She meets Heath Sullivan who is baffled that she seems to have come from nowhere, has no possessions other than what she is wearing, and has no home. He offers her shelter in his cabin while he sleeps outside. This cabin later turns out to be the same cabin Courtney saw when she first tried on the gown. Sherry Lewis skillfully characterizes Heath and Courtney through adroit narration and crisp dialog. Heath at first appears to be a gruff loser, but the reader soon realizes that Heath is a kind and decent person burdened with heartaches from his past. Courtney has an unhappy past also. The two become friends. Courtney makes friends with some of Heath's friends and gradually makes some friends of her own.
With this excellent time-travel novel, Sherry Lewis takes the reader to a frontier town and a wonderful romance and adventure that shows ways in which past events can influence our lives. The main characters, besides Heath Sullivan, are Delilah and her brother, Blue, Roderick Dennehy, a gambler, Philo Keegan, Tyree Caine, and a few others. Caine is the villain in the story. The rest are all likeable people, very well characterized by Lewis into persons that seem to come alive. Delilah and her brother are slaves, now free, except her brother is already dead, and Delilah is into a situation worse than the one she escaped from. Lewis slowly unveils her characters' heartaches and brings them to healing in this extremely interesting story of love and adventure. In the end, Courtney has to decide if she wants to return to the present or stay in the past, and the reader has to accept that this fascinating story is coming to an end. Why can't it continue?
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