Category: Science Fiction Publisher: Sun Break Publishing
ISBN-10: 1609160029
Type: Fiction
Pages: 346
Copyright: June 15, 2010
ISBN-13: 9781609160029
While maintaining an impressive juggling act as a wife, mother, and student of archaeology, a young woman accidently steps through a time portal into the future.
In Department of Temporal Adjustment, a fresh, funny, wisecracking novel by Veronica R. Tabares, chick lit makes a pact with science fiction and seals it with a kiss. In the spirit of being a doting wife and good mother, Vanessa spends her time directing traffic, kissing bruises, and diverting disasters such as the peer pressure her daughter Becca will feel if her friends decide she's smart. And Becca's just the tip of the iceberg that includes two more girls, Vanessa's husband Tony, and her college education floating on top. Still, she and Tony are committed to being there for their girls, so when they decide to return to the ivory halls of academia, they make sure that one or the other is always at home for the kids. The drawback is that Vanessa is often on campus late at night, so when she inadvertently steps through a time portal at the school's lab, there aren't any witnesses. Transported to the future, this super mom is forced to become a super hero in order to save herself-and the world.
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Reviews for "Department of Temporal Adjustment"
Reviewed by Betty Gelean
9/14/2010
Now, this is an author with a great imagination and fun, too. The kind of person who would be a great friend. Certainly, I'm basing this on her book, but no one could write that way without having a great sense of humor and fantasy. I refer, of course, to Veronica R. Tabares, the author of Department of Temporal Adjustment. With this title, I just had to read the book and I was not disappointed. Vanessa's life both in her reality and in her mental wanderings is hilarious in places, completely serious in others, and involves constant conversations with herself, a trait most mothers with small children pick up very quickly. I found myself identifying with Vanessa on all kinds of levels.
Vanessa is a very happily married mother of three little girls and a prince of a husband. She is working toward her degree in Archaeology. Between her hours and her husband's hours working on his degree, they are still able to have one or the other home with the girls.
The fun begins when the family sees a group of people dressed in clothing of other eras, but seemingly unaware of their surroundings. Though that is odd in itself, Vanessa begins to see these same people most evenings, sometimes in town, sometimes on campus. Considering she works alone at night in the basement at the university on her archaeology projects, her mind takes her through all kinds of possibilities, building from maybe '...an acting group', right up to '...a bunch of terrorists'. I said the author had a rich imagination! Once she sees this impossible group emerge from the janitor's closet, she is dumbfounded, but also fearful.
This story is like deja vu in reverse. She suffers confusing memory losses, and though some things trigger a slight memory that wafts away on the wind, other memories at home seem to be normal activities that are forgotten, fortunately for short periods. Again and again she is told she has "been here before" but has absolutely no memory of it. Put it down to Vanessa's inquisitiveness, she goes where she shouldn't, and just what is that humming sound she hears every night she works late? What goes on in that closet? How can so many people get in there? This book reads as though it is all told from the mind. It's a mystery to be solved, a story of family love, a living potential, fantasy, and a secret that must be kept at all costs. A very enjoyable and quick read.
