The Mine by John A Heldt

The Mine is a self-published historical novel (available on Amazon).  It is fast-paced.  A happy ending is guaranteed.  This is light reading with short, episodic chapters.   It is a love-story set in motion by time-travel and a swash-buckling hero.

I love a love story.  And I found the ending to be quite satisfying.  The middle-school girl deep inside me was certainly caught up in the romance that blossomed between Joel and Grace.  And I was excited to read a story that was reminiscent of Back to the Future but set in the 1940s.  The dialogue is well-written and show-cases the characters personalities.  Conversations are lively and added to the pacing.  

But I like stories that examines the real “meat” of a situation.  The emotions shown through the actions of realistic characters.  Joel was larger than life, always the good guy.  I like the characters to be human and not akin to contract-actors from MGM or RKO Pictures.

It feels “edited”.  Heldt’s voice is there, for sure, but some of the writing feels like he snipped and cut, rearranged.  While this can be a good thing at times, it just didn’t come across as natural.

This story feels gimmicky at points.  It is trivia –laden, nostalgic and romanticized.  Lists of minutiae or news events felt like they were cut and pasted from “On This Date in History” web pages.  I would rather read the experiencing of those examples by the characters instead.

Joel, fearless hero, referenced Marty McFly (twice) but didn’t examine his own struggle with life nearing time of Pearl Harbor.  Any of us going back six decades would experience struggles – with tasks that are simple now due to advancements in technology.

This idea has been done.  I wanted something different.  Something less kitsch.  Something less surface.  Less clichéd.   

But I will repeat: it is a fast-paced, satisfying love story.  If looking for a quick read with a happy ending, you’ll find it here.

This book is part of a series by the same author.  The Mine is Northwest Passage Book 1.

Photo credit: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41oakTsA0-L._AA160_.jpg

This review can also be found on Amazon.