Time Travel for Love and Profit by Oona Go
 |
| An Island of Coastal Redwood Trees by Eric Rorer: thanks to Fine Art America |
Author: Oona Gold
Publisher: Self-published, nearly 100 copies sold
Source Book: Time Travel for Love and Profit by Sarah Lariviere
Despite not being anywhere near the target audience for this charming little YA book, I enjoyed it very much. And I did feel sorry that Nephele Weather has a miserable freshman year at high school. Her best friend Vera dumps her in favour of the ultra popular Ramsey Schultz (that’s a girl), and she is badly bullied. Well Vera, you should know better.
When Nephele (it rhymes with especially) gets home from school her dad hands her a new book to read: Time Travel for Love and Profit by Oona Gold. If Nephele gives it her seal of her approval this book may find a place on a shelf in the family bookshop. But which section? Science, Science Fiction or Self-Help?
You’re not alone, time traveller, Says the book. Every creature in the cosmos is fumbling its was towards its rightful fate.
Dear reader, don’t delay your rightful fate. Wipe away the future that’s so wrong for you. Look in your heart, turn back time and unwell your tragic path. I have faith in you. Now you have faith in you, can you give yourself this gift? Will you take the plunge?
Nephele is inspired to invent a time travel machine, or rather an app for her phone. But, should she? And, hullo! How? How does she do this? And does she really want to start her freshman year all over again?
She searches for a good name for her invention (I am not going to ask why it needs a fancy name) in the Romance section of the bookshop. What about ‘Dr Carissa Silk’ from The Sordid Sacrifices of Dr Silk? Carissa’s healing methods are highly unorthodox, which is a plus, but then she had been left for dead in a ditch by her former best friend and now wears a uniform of lacy pink lingerie. Maybe not.
Or perhaps ‘Thor Jackson’ from Nordic Nocturne: Nine Naughty Tales of Endless Night? Thor is plagued by nightmares, owing to a past life as a murderous Viking. The first book in this series is called Delirious in Denmark. Will Thor ever get enough sleep?
But wait, what about ‘Dirk Angus’, the love interest in Thirsty for Thrills? Nephele likes the scene where Dirk and Sheena Firestorm make out on a threadbare rope bridge above a nest of scorpions and poisonous cacti. [Not quite the Georgette Heyer or Katie Fforde style of romantic fiction then.]
Nephele names her app Dirk Angus. And it does send her back in time so she can start her freshman year all over again. But… everyone else just carries on as normal. So all her former classmates are now a year above her, and her parents seem strangely vague about her date of birth. Well, we all know time travel is complicated.
Other books mentioned in Time Travel for Love and Profit are Coding for Doofus-y Ding Dongs, The Lascivious Life of Lili Lenore (read while tucked inside a book about astrophysics), Quantum Computing: A Quiet Revolution and The Merriest of Murders.
Nephele lives on the Californian coast. Her community is surrounded by Redwoods. Hence my choice of photos.
You will be pleased to learn that it all ends well. And naturally I was pleased with the nice selection of fictional books.
 |
| Thanks to Redwood Hikes |
Comments