Acquired Book By: I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours whereupon I am thankful to have been able to host such a diverse breadth of stories, authors and wonderful guest features since I became a hostess! HFVBTs is one of the very first touring companies I started working with as a 1st Year Book Blogger – uniting my love and passion with Historical Fiction and the lovely sub-genres inside which I love devouring. It has been a wicked fantastical journey into the heart of the historic past, wherein I’ve been blessed truly by discovering new timescapes, new living realities of the persons who once lived (ie. Biographical Historical Fiction) inasmuch as itched my healthy appetite for Cosy Historical Mysteries! If there is a #HistRom out there it is generally a beloved favourite and I love soaking into a wicked wonderful work of Historical Fiction where you feel the beauty of the historic world, the depth of the characters and the joyfulness in which the historical novelists brought everything to light in such a lovingly diverse palette of portraiture of the eras we become time travellers through their stories.
I received a complimentary copy of “The Time Collector” direct from the author Gwendolyn Womack in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
On why this story appealled to me:
In truth, the trifecta of ‘time’ narratives (ie. time shift, time slip and time travel) are three of my favourite ways in which genre can become bent towards the will of a novelists pen. It never fails to ensnare a wicked curiosity about what I shall find if I were to dip into a narrative set in a duality of focus between the past and the present whilst what motivates me to seek out these stories is the fact I love being a time traveller of History. There is a benefit to reading Historical Fiction – as the writers who are curating their worlds for us to read are the ones who are re-illuminating the past in such strong strokes of colours and lives to give us a building of the past in our imaginations which befits the real persons who once lived.
It is through this exploration of the human condition, of humanity’s progress and the journeys we venture forth into embracing through this portal of interest where we seek out the most hope for the future because we have a better foundational understanding of whence we’ve previously have travelled.
Although, I previously shared this sentiment about The Girl from Oto, my feelings on the subject are unaltered. I have a penchant for time narratives – everything from Susan Meissner’s A Fall of Marigolds to the previous releases by Ms Womack to the forementioned The Girl from Oto – and all the lovelies I’ve felt ruminatively enchanted by over the years (a fuller list is mentioned on my review on behalf of Ms Womack’s debut novel) – what I love most is how we can see how time can become bent, manipulated at times and either provide forgiveness, redemption or a second chance – when of course, the ways in which time was altered did not have a more cautionary reason against why such measures ought to be weighed carefully against the risk. There is something wondrously interesting about how these stories play out – how the writers have chosen to craft their tales and how we, as readers are being led through a needling of time.
The Time Collector (Spotlight)
by Gwendolyn Womack
Source: Author via Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours
Travel through time with the touch of a hand.
Roan West was born with an extraordinary gift: he can perceive the past of any object he touches. A highly skilled pyschometrist, he uses his talents to find and sell valuable antiques, but his quiet life in New Orleans is about to change. Stuart, a fellow pyschometrist and Roan’s close friend, has used his own abilities to unearth several out-of-place-artifacts or “ooparts”—like a ring that once belonged to the seventeenth-century mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, but was found buried in prehistoric bedrock.
The relics challenge recorded history, but soon after the discovery, Stuart disappears, making him one of several psychometrists who have recently died or vanished without a trace. When Roan comes across a viral video of a young woman who has discovered a priceless pocket watch just by “sensing” it, he knows he has to warn her—but will Melicent Tilpin listen? And can Roan find Stuart before it’s too late?
The quest for answers will lead Roan and Melicent around the world—before it brings them closer to each other and a startling truth—in the latest romantic thriller from Gwendolyn Womack, the bestselling, PRISM Award-winning author of The Memory Painter and The Fortune Teller.
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781250169235
Also by this author: The Memory Painter, The Fortune Teller
on 16th April, 2019
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 368
Published By: Picador (@PicadorUSA) via St. Martin’s Press
imprints of St. Martin’s Publishing Group,
which is now a part of MacMillian Publishers
The stories through time by Ms Womack:
The Memory Painter (debut novel) | see also review
The Fortune Teller (sophomore release) | see also review
The Time Collector (third novel)
I have become blessed by the beauty of watching Ms Womack grow her style of time narratives throughout each of these releases – she truly has a gift!
Converse via: ##TheTimeCollector + #HistFic or #HistNov
as well as #TimeShift and #HistoricalFiction
Available Formats: Trade Paperback, Audiobook and Ebook
About Gwendolyn Womack
Originally from Houston, Texas, Gwendolyn Womack began writing theater plays in college at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She went on to receive an MFA from California Institute of the Arts in Directing Theatre, Video & Cinema.
Currently she resides in Los Angeles with her husband and son where she can be found at the keyboard working on her next novel. The Memory Painter is her first novel.
Photo Credit: Copyright JennKL Photography
