“Madeline, I do not care where you are from–the future, the past, a star in the sky. I will love you here, now. I do not care what people think. I will love you in the past. I will love you in the future. I will love you, forever, Madeline.”

The Messenger by Pamela DuMond
Published April 20, 2012 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Young Adult/Fantasy/Historical Romance
Format: e-book; 257 pages
Also By This Author: The Story of You and Me, Annie Graceland Mystery series
Goodreads | Amazon
My Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Madeline’s meant to fall in love with Samuel in every lifetime. But she meets him for the first time when she accidentally time travels into the past—hundreds years before she’s even born!

Their relationship is forbidden—Samuel’s half Native, Madeline’s white. Every rendezvous they share must be secret. Each moment they spend together tempts the odds that they’ll be discovered and brutally punished. But their love is fated—they musk risk all.

Danger intensifies when Madeline learns she’s in the past not only to fall in love, but also to claim her birth right as a Messenger—a soul who can slip through time’s fabric at will.

Deadly Hunters, dark-souled time travelers, crave Madeline’s powers and seek to seduce or kill her. Can Madeline find her way back to the future in time to save herself and Samuel?

 Thoughts

I really enjoy time traveling books! I just wish I read more of them. The Messenger combines my interest in time-travel with historical fiction, and I really love that combination because there is always that major predicament: is the main character going to stay in the past or will he/she chose to return to their present day? I will not spoil Madeline’s decision, but I will tell you that the book had me in total suspense until the very last paragraph.

The majority of Madeline’s time travelling adventure revolves around Samuel, a Native American with a soft heart and healer’s hands. As Madeline discovers more about her inexplicable trip to the past, she begins to feel a pull towards Samuel that even three hundred years of history cannot deter.

But Madeline’s time-traveling abilities open up so many questions regarding her past and her family. And Madeline isn’t the only one with these fantastical abilities–the longer she stays in Colonial America, the more she realizes that her abilities are so much greater than herself.

Read This Book If…:

…you love time-traveling stories!
…you have a guilty pleasure for historical romances.
…diverse stories involving race and racism resonate with you.
…you enjoy books that leave you hanging in suspense until the very last page.

Final Musings:

I thoroughly enjoyed The Messenger! There were several times when I could not put this book down. I was worried when I couldn’t find any announcements on a sequel, but I just found out that book 2, The Assassin, will be published early next year! Can’t wait :)