Review by dosenron877 -- Yesterday by Samyann

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dosenron877
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Joined: 27 Dec 2016, 06:15
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Latest Review: "Yesterday" by Samyann
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Review by dosenron877 -- Yesterday by Samyann

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[Following is a volunteer review of "Yesterday" by Samyann.]
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4 out of 4 stars
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Yesterday by Samyann is a romance novel, a historical fiction novel, and a novel of reincarnation. As a romance novel, readers will not be surprised by plot direction; they will be able to predict that the guy gets the girl even though elements of the developing story indicate uncertainty about the outcome. As a novel of historical fiction, readers will discover interesting facts about the US Civil War that are not generally covered in public school history books. Readers interested in reincarnation might be surprised at the way almost all the characters readily accept the reality of reincarnation. Minor characters who do not express acceptance of the idea also do not express doubt. The author has chosen not to make belief or doubt about reincarnation an area of conflict. The reader is left with three entertaining stories within one novel.

Police officer Mark Callahan is injured by a fall from his horse and is nearly struck by a falling subway car. Passerby Amanda Parker rescues Mark by pulling his body into a nearby antique shop. Amanda may have been injured in her rescue attempt. She ends up in a hospital. She wakes up to see Mark and instantly feels she has met Mark before. Mark feels the same about Amanda. Amanda also recalls an antique grandfather clock in the shop where she pulled Mark during the rescue. She will return to the shop and purchase the clock. Her attraction to the clock, another instance of déjà vu, combined with the mutual recognition and attraction of Amanda and Mark form the central core of the novel.

Amanda lives in the same apartment building as Mary Axelrod, a friend, godmother, and psychologist who raised Amanda and her brothers after the death of their parents. Mary has experience with Past Lives Therapy (PLT) and suggests that Amanda and Mark might benefit by using a regression method to explain their feelings of déjà vu and their attraction to the grandfather clock. Readers follow Amanda as she goes through repeated sessions of therapy and discovers new things about her earlier identity as Bonnie, a teenager during the US Civil War. Initially, Mary leads the experiences by guiding Amanda using hypnosis and hypnotic suggestion. As the novel progresses, Amanda will enter trances by herself at several different prompts from her present life. Many of the prompts will come from the grandfather clock.

The author uses Amanda’s trances to tell a story of life during the US Civil War. I particularly liked the tales of racial strife, the struggle between the Union and the Confederacy, and the struggle to survive daily with dwindling resources. There is a story of the grandfather clock, its origins, and the many hands of ownership it passed through. The author also offers a fascinating historically accurate account of a specific set of church bells.

Amanda struggles with what she considers to be a central theme in both her present and past lives. She believes that those close to her die prematurely. This leads her to a decision to reject and drive away Mark in her present life. I found this to be unnecessarily repetitive. It detracted from the pace of the overall novel.

Readers should pay attention to names of characters as they are presented. Because the story moves back and forth in time, many names will have similarities. This is entirely logical. We tend to name children after loved ones of an earlier generation. This can become confusing for readers. Mark will have a discussion with Maggie in the present time. Maggie is short for Magdalena. During the Civil War, Magdalena is an important character to Bonnie, a character that appears as Amanda in the present time. The author is helpful in preceding story segments with dates. Sometimes these are chapter titles although some chapters, such as those about the Great Chicago fire, have more than one dated segment. I found the highlight function of Kindle helpful in keeping track of times and character names.

I rated the book at 4 out of 4 stars because of the complex and well-done story that takes place in two historical periods. There were no distracting typographical errors or egregious grammar mistakes. At the end of the novel, the author presents a bonus read. There is a summary of author research done to assure historical veracity. By itself, this section was interesting reading and could serve as a motivator for readers to conduct further explorations into history.

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Yesterday
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