Reviewed for Review the Book
Published by Sun Break Publishing

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.

Reviewed on 09/13/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Betty Gelean

 Mother of three young girls, Vanessa also took on a coarse load of classes as an Archeology student at the local University.  Having the need to use the lab in the basement of the University for late night study sessions was not unusual.  For this curious women who had a certain sense of right and wrong, a strange humming noise coming from the janitors closet and the strange comings and goings of large groups of people, especially these oddly clad people, just couldn’t be ignored.  Once the janitors closet was opened, things were different then she expected.  There were no mops and brooms, only a large white laboratory that she had never, in her three years at Washington University known existed.  As the scientists approached her and started telling her that she had stumbled into a time portal and been transported into the very, very  distant future she came to understand that she had an important roll in creating the future that they knew and with that information they had to send her back to her own time without the memories of being them and the future events.  The memory blocking process that they used created some unusual side effects that left Vanessa wondering if she was losing her mind.  Unfortunately the memory blocks did not prevent the curios mind from stumbling again and again through the portal.

Reviewed on 07/28/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Debbie Berry

Reviewed on 07/15/2010 by ReviewTheBook.com Member Tiffany Schlarman