Catherine Taylor | Chasing Destino

Not only is Beyond the Moon by Catherine Taylor set in France and England, one of the characters travels in time from 2017 to 1916 and back at least two times. Personally, I love books about time travel. I am still waiting for a time machine to be on the market.

In 2017, Louisa has been institutionalized since the doctors at the emergency room believe that she attempted suicide by throwing herself off of the South Downs cliff. She really was just drunk and slipped but she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Her friend,Kerry, shows her a separate part of the Coldbook Hall psychiatric hospital that is closed off. It’s falling apart and set for demolition in the near future.

While wandering through the restricted part of the hospital, she finds Lieutenant Robert Lovett in a room by himself. She noticed that besides being blind, Lovett is dressed in clothing from a different era. Louisa is wearing clothes that belong to WWI nurse aide, Rose Ashby. This was probably all weird enough but then other people appear that cannot see or hear her.

Later, Lovett regains his sight but he can still see Louisa. When he tries to introduce her to his friends, they think he has lost his mind. Louisa tells him that they cannot see her and she is from the future. Lovett doesn’t take it well and distances himself from Louisa.

When Louisa falls through the floor of the restricted area, she is somehow transported to 2016. She is Rose Ashby in the flesh. In her mind, she is still Louisa. It seems that Rose and Louisa look exactly the same. Louisa gets a ride to her new post, where she is to be a nurse aide. Unfortunately, Louisa doesn’t know things like how to start a fire. She is without the luxuries of the 21st century like microwaves, light switches and indoor plumbing.

While Louisa/Rose is in 1916, she tries to find Robert but cannot find him anywhere. She doesn’t know that he has been taken prisoner by the Germans. Louisa/Rose finds a man that has studied psychic activity and hypnotizes her so that she can go back to 2017 and find information about Robert that could help find him in 1916.

If you like time travel, romance, historical fiction or characters that aren’t considered “normal” then you might like this Beyond the Moon.

If you aren’t a believer in romance or the possibility of time travel, then you might not like this book as much as I do. Also, Nazis will not appreciate it. I mean, they are Nazis – they are mostly chaotic evil. So I might read it again to spite Nazis. It’s totally worth the time and effort.