Julie McElwain  |  Fiction

I don’t understand how I can give Ms. McElwain’s first book, A Murder in Time. four hearts, and I can’t struggle my way through her second novel. It is like a movie sequel in which the sequel is simply a flop.  I have been working on this book for days, and I am only on page 94. I am abandoning it.  There seems to be nothing new and fresh in this novel.  The setting remains the same … FBI Agent Kendra Donovan is still caught in England in 1815 as an unwilling time traveler.  She is investigating a second murder now.  But except for the fact that a different society Lady has become our victim, nothing new seems to be happening.  Kendra remains befuddled by the norm differences and societal changes in 200 years.  She has the same manner of shocking people with her modern-day assertiveness.  She has the same sweet way of telling her benefactor, Duke Aldridge bits and pieces of life in the 21^st century, while being fearful of saying too much so as not to change history.  There is the same sexual/romantic tension between her and Alec.

Nothing is engaging me.  I am moving on.