The Fountain

Second Chance, Book 1

By: John A. Heldt

Narrated by: Roberto Scarlato

Portland, Oregon. In May 2022, the Carpenters are a sad lot. Bill, 81, has just buried his beloved wife. Paul, 75, has terminal lung cancer. Annie, 72, is a paraplegic with broken dreams. Childless and directionless, the siblings face an uncertain future in their childhood home. Then Bill, a retired folklore professor, learns from a dying man that the legendary Fountain of Youth, his obsession for decades, may be more than a myth. He races to Mexico to find the truth.

Within weeks, the Carpenters, with nothing to lose, enter a mysterious cave and exit in July 1905 as healthy young adults. They begin new lives in Oakland, California, only vaguely aware of a devastating earthquake that will rock the San Francisco Bay Area on April 18, 1906.

In The Fountain, the first book in the Second Chance trilogy, three siblings find opportunity, romance, and heartbreak as they make the most of a new lease on life.

©2022, 2023, 2024 John A. Heldt (P)2025 John A. Heldt

Historical time travel into the past, requires you to know dates, places and times of natural disasters very well.

I love the idea of being able to live life over again and get away from the sickness that had taken over my body. However, the age they were when they time traveled they will never ever have an opportunity to get that old again traveling back when they did because people did not live that long in the early 1900s. No spoilers.

One thing that I noticed was quite lacking in the book was the notice of missing present day amenities. For instance, one of them knew how to cook very well, but there was no mention of having to learn over again on the older equipment. There was one big spoof where, in 1906, The guy thought about using his cellular phone, but knew that the “reception“ was spotty at best. There were no cellular phones in 1906!

Personally, if I went back to 1906 one of the things that would stand out most to me would be having to live without the things that I have become accustomed to like air conditioning and heating, an Ice-maker, and refrigeration which was not widely used in normal homes.

In the book, it seemed as though everything was just normal. that you just wear different clothing and certain things had not transpired so you had to take care not to talk about cliches that we would use today. Other than that they acted like it was just another normal life but they did not have the diplomas or any of the things that they had earned in their lives before, and no history of employment or family.

The narrator did a very good job in the production was very good as well.

A well written story of life, love and loss.

Found this story on FreeAudiobookCodes.com. Sometimes you find a gem in all the various audio books offered. Time travel done right can be a really good story and this one was one of the best I have had the pleasure of listening to. A truly well written story. Worth reading and spending a credit on.
I received this free review audiobook and I am voluntarily leaving this unbiased review.

wow. powerful.

a moving story about some extraordinary young people made more extraordinary through adversity and through their relationships.

Time travelers

I love this story. Three siblings in their late 70’s and early 80’s in 2022 came upon information for the fountain of youth. They traveled to a cave in Mexico and jumped into the pool together. They ended up in the late year of 1905. They made their way to San Francisco where a horrible earthquake and subsequent fire broke out. They all found love and two lost their loves either in the aftermath of the earthquake or taken to war. This ends in a bit of a cliffhanger that picks up in the next book with Annie’s story a few years later.