Guest Review by Melanie
Title: A Token in Time
Author: Ethan Day
Publisher: MLR Press
Length: Novel

Buy Links: Amazon

Rating: 4.75 stars

Zachary Hamilton comes from a family endowed with special gifts. He has them as well and it has cost him everything. Zachary doesn’t want his gift and his family doesn’t think he should have it either. To “return it” is to die, so Zachary and his love, Nick, have been on the run from the Hamilton family since they were teenagers. Living as fugitives has been hard and each time they think they are safe, the Hamiltons find them yet again. Then Zachary and Nick land in Los Angeles and their luck seems to change. A benefactor appears out of the blue, offering them a store for their antique business and a place to call home. And for a while they are happy. Until a bullet shatters their lives and Nick dies in Zachary’s arms.

Zachary is consumed by his grief, refusing to leave his apartment until Dave, his shop assistant, pulls him out of his house and back into their store. As Zachary tries to determine his next step regarding his family, he receives a phone call from a lawyer. It seems that Marc Castle, a famous movie star from the 50s has died and left Zachary the entire Castle estate, including an ancient relic. This powerful token will change Zachary’s life and those around him if Zachary has the courage to use it. And so begins A Token of Time.

Well, what an amazing story.  I read it twice before sitting down to write this review, not because I needed to, but because I wasn’t ready to let go of Zachary and Marc and all who come with them, past and present. I have been a fan of Ethan Day’s books but A Token of Time represents a departure from the light comedic fiction I have come to expect from him. The book fluctuates between contemporary and historical romance under an umbrella of the supernatural and it does so beautifully. The story of Zachary Hamilton and Marc Castle flows like a Mobius strip from the year 2008 back to the 1950s and around again and never hits a false note.

Day has certainly done his research into life in the 50s and it shows, without it coming across like an information dump. When Zachary (and the reader) land in Los Angeles circa 1958, the surprises are endless and sometimes very funny. Stereophonic Hi Fi is new and wonderful, Coke is Coke, and gas “costs a friggin’ quarter.”And the lack of the internet and Starbucks come as an unhappy surprise to a young man accustomed to the everyday pluses of life in 2008. Oh it’s so great to tag along with Zachary as he visits the West Hollywood Sears store and has to pick out pants that most certainly aren’t low riders! Day’s deft touch with comedy is everywhere without overwhelming the dark and angst-filled romance behind the story.  He brought the 50s vividly back to life so much so that I was reaching for the iTunes store before the end of the book to recapture the sounds of the times.

And lets talk characters shall we? I have loved Day’s previous creations but the characters he has brought to this story are remarkable and have so much depth to them as to be unforgettable. Zachary is a complicated young man, beautiful, gifted, and still so full of joy for life through all his pain. But he doesn’t fully come to life until he falls onto the sand and into 1958. Free from the mechanisms of his family, he starts to blossom and the love affair between Zachary and the reader snaps to life as well. Marc Castle too is rendered here in gorgeous Technicolor from his golden tan to white movie star smile. We come to love him dearly the more we get to know him. And don’t get me started on Jonathon Reed, Max, Maddie, and Leo. The author keeps adding characters so real, so damn lovable, that I wanted to hold onto them for dear life and not let them go. I am going to beg here, Ethan Day. Please consider giving us Jonathon and Max’s story. Pretty please? With fuzzy swinging dice on top?

And lurking behind all of this is a constant menace, the dark we hide from, the monsters we know are under the bed. Skillfully, the dread increases, the anxiety ramps ups a notch after notch much like the music from the shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. We know where the danger coming from in both eras but not how or when it will strike. And strike it does in stomach churning, heart stopping ways. Mystically, brutally rendered evil to balance the joy and love that infuses the rest of the story.

So why not give it 5 stars? Only because of the way the story begins. A minor quibble but it took me a little while to get accustomed to the manner in which Zachary and Nick’s back story is told. I found it a little jumpy at the beginning, but it soon settles itself out and the reader gets sucked in this wonderful page turner not to be let out until the very last word of the epilogue. And you will love the end. Really, you will. And now I will say no more. Except that this is a must read for all.

Cover: Winterheart Designs did the cover and they did an outstanding job of it. It looks like it came right off the book jacket of a novel from the 50s, both in color and illustration. It really couldn’t be more perfect. I would love to have a copy of it for myself, framed and hung on the wall, it’s that good.