From Publishers Weekly
Though narrated in the stylized, spine-tingling voice that has become a Cooney trademark, this tale of time travel and romance lacks the momentum of the author's best work (The Face on the Milk Carton; Driver's Ed). While her decidedly unromantic boyfriend tinkers with a car engine, Annie wanders through the soon-to-be-demolished Stratton mansion, longing for a more gracious way of life. Suddenly she "falls through" 100 years-landing in 1895 just in time to witness (albeit hazily) a murder. The first person Annie meets is Hiram "Strat" Stratton, slated to inherit both the mansion and the family fortune if he marries his plain but sweet and devoted cousin Harriett. Annie and Strat fall head over heels in love, thus reproducing in the 19th century a triangle loosely similar to the situation created by Annie's father, who, unbeknownst to Annie's mother, is conducting an affair with a co-worker. Along with the murder, the various affairs of the heart provide fodder for almost requisite musings on the position of women then and now. Constrained by the novel's black-and-white approach, the truly intriguing social issues raised here never acquire real urgency. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
Gr. 6^-10. Disturbed by her parents' marital discord and completely taken for granted by Sean, her mechanically inclined boyfriend, Annie Lockwood is ripe for romance. And where better to find it than in the past--a past epitomized by the once elegant mansion about to be razed in her hometown. At the mansion during a storm, Annie finds herself falling 100 years back in time to a point, where she encounters the romantic idyll she has yearned for and where she alters the lives of several people when she and Hiram Stratton Jr. fall in love. But she realizes that the 1890s are not her time and makes the transition back to the present, only to realize that she has to return to prevent a miscarriage of justice because a ladies' maid has been wrongfully accused of murder. Life among the wealthy in the 1890s is nicely rendered, as are Annie's bittersweet experiences. However, after the first time, Annie's time shifting loses credibility, and her ready acceptance by the Strattons is forced. But romantics will be caught up by the story and will catch their breath at the cliff-hanger of an ending, when Annie, trying to return to her own time, falls even further back in time and "opened her eyes to see when, and what, came next."
Sally Estes
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
