I’m fairly new to time-slip novels. And by new, I mean I didn’t know they existed until last year. So Jaime Jo Wright’s The House on Foster Hill is the first I’ve ever read.
And I loved it.
If you don’t know what a time-slip novel is, it’s a story with two storylines which take place at different times but that connect in some way. For this novel, one storyline occurs in 1906 and the other occurs in present day. Ivy Thorpe, the heroine of the 1906 storyline, is Kaine Prescott’s ancestor. Both are trying to solve mysteries related to Foster Hill House. Ivy is trying to solve a murder, and Kaine is trying to find out who is terrorizing her. Both storylines converge in an unexpected way when Kaine begins trying to unravel the mystery her great-great-grandmother had written about in her journal.
Now I’ll admit I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about this novel. I thought it’d be easy to get confused with the different storylines, and maybe that’s a concern for other authors, but Jaime Jo Wright wove the storylines together seamlessly. I mean, it’s amazing.
One of the things I loved, but also hated, was how Wright drops a bombshell in Ivy’s storyline and then switches over to Kaine, making you wait to find out what’s going on. But what I thought was truly masterful was how Kaine will then discover something that somehow fits in the puzzle that Ivy is trying to put together. Wright drops a little clue in Ivy’s storyline then one in Kaine’s and then another in Ivy’s that answers a question Kaine’s asking that left me so excited I wished I could yell into the book and tell Kaine what I’d discovered.
Truly masterful. Best mystery I ever read. Although, if you’re fond of sleep, you may not like it because it will keep you awake. I was up until about 2 am.
You’ve been warned.
For all the romance fans, there is a bit of romance in both storylines. Ivy crosses paths with someone from her past, and Kaine meets a kind and attractive grief counselor. But the romance isn’t a large focus of the novel. It’s quite small, actually. The mystery is the main focus, and while the romances have satisfying conclusions, there isn’t a lot of time spent on them. That may be a minus for some, but I was okay with it.
The House on Foster Hill was my first novel by Jaime Jo Wright, and it will not be my last.
Want to read it yourself? You can grab a copy at Christianbook.com or Lifeway.
And if you love time-slip novels, check out my review of The Painted Castle by Kristy Cambron.
