TIMEPOOL By Susan Plunkett Jove Time Passages Romance August 1999 ISBN # 0-515-12553-9 {Click here to buy this book} Multi-published author Susan Plunkett gives us another unique time travel story entitled "Timepool". This story begins in 1890 in

When Caledonia Hornsby finds herself in 1990 she immediately sets out to discover how the phenomenon occurred, not because time travel is supposed to be impossible but because she's desperate to get home to continue her search for the person responsible for the death of her father. If it weren't for the generosity of her rescuer, Requiem Maguire, Callie is afraid to think of what might have happened to her in this new and frightening time. After discovering how she got to 1990 she calculates the best possible time to return to 1890. But what happens when she falls in love with a man that she knows she'll eventually leave?

Requiem Maguire has no intention of falling in love with the mysterious woman he rescues from the ocean. When he does he fights the feelings with all he's got, only to lose. With Callie's claims of being from the past, Req accepts the fact that she might be a little left of center. But with a bounty on his head, and living in a safe house until he can testify, he's not sure that he'll live long enough to provide for Callie and her eccentricities. So he does the only thing he can think of. He marries her in an effort to insure that she'll have the resources to survive on her own should something happen to him. When Req is accidentally whisked into the past when Callie returns to her own time he must decide if he loves her enough to stay with her in 1890, or try to convince her to return to his time.

"Timepool" is an interesting combination of contemporary and historical genres. Caledonia Hornsby seems to adapt quite well into her new surroundings in 1990. I admire her assertiveness to take control of her situation and to try and find a way back to her own time. She's smart and savvy when dealing with modern day people as she gathers information on time travel and as she researches the history for 1890. Requiem Maguire is a gritty undercover cop who rides a Harley Davidson and sports tattoos and a ponytail. Under most circumstances one would steer clear of a biker with such a gruff appearance but Callie seems to find him fascinating. But as much as she wants to love him she also needs to return to her own time.

Requiem Maguire, on the other hand, confused me. He's supposed to be holed up in a safe house waiting to testify at a big trial. He knows there are people after him, he's even been shot once, but he still very much visible in town. At one point he travels to Reno to make a phone call so that the person who's after him can't trace his calls, yet they already know he's still in Monterey. This seemed like page filler to me rather than plot.

I had a hard time with scenery and setting. The town is Monterey California. "The Jewel of the Central Coast" as the advertising says. Yet with the exception of the beach scene there was no description of the location. The description of the sunrises that Req loves to watch every morning has the sun coming up over the ocean. Monterey is on the Pacific Ocean, west, a place for sunsets, not sunrises. I reread each of the passages several times to be sure that I was reading correctly but it still seems off to me.