A Time Travel Christmas
My beloved grandmother died when I was ten years old. Over the years I’ve had a fantasy of traveling back to the past to see her once again. Karen McQuestion seems to have a similar fantasy in A Time Travel Christmas where her protagonist, Elizabeth, wishes upon a Christmas star to see her recently deceased grandmother one more time.
Twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth is not on a roll. Her boyfriend just broke up with her forcing her out of their shared apartment. Then she loses her job due to corporate downsizing, and her parents have plans for a Christmas ’22 cruise. On top of all that, on the way to visit her grandmother in Remeny, Wisconsin, she gets word that she just suffered a heart attack and died.
Instead of celebrating Christmas with grandma, Elizabeth is entrusted to plan the old woman’s funeral. On the way to the hotel near her grandmother’s home, Angelo, her driver, after listening to her sad story says, “If you make a wish on the brightest star on Christmas Eve, it will be granted.”
Author Karen McQuestion grants Elizabeth her wish in A Time Travel Christmas where Elizabeth stumbles down an icy incline near her hotel, gets lost in a ferocious blizzard, and eventually stumbles upon her grandmother’s home. But the person answering the door is 10-year-old Dodie caring for her baby sister, Betsy. Their mother is at the airport picking up dad, but they can’t return home due to the ferocity of the storm. A nearby newspaper provides Elizabeth with a startling revelation: it’s Christmas Eve, but the year is 1957 and Dodie is her grandmother.
McQuestion does a wonderful job of playing readers’ heartstrings as we watch Elizabeth and Dodie try to save the life of little Betsy, who is burning up with fever as the blizzard knocks out phone and power lines throughout Wisconsin. Their only hope is a doctor who lives nearby, but who could survive in such a storm to even reach him?
Next Christmas Eve I’ll try wishing upon that bright star so I can see my grandma, too, but until then, I’ll re-read A Time Travel Christmas because it’s a marvelous read any time of year.
About the Author
Karen McQuestion is an Amazon bestselling author whose books have sold over three million copies. Some of her titles include The Moonlight Child, Dovetail, and A Limited Run. Her publishing story has been covered by the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR.
Sounds like another great time travel story.