Lyon's Legacy by Sandra Ulbrich Almazan

I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.

First Impression: The cover makes this look like a story about a musician – although there are musicians in the story, that’s not actually what’s inside. Synopsis of time travel and meeting you ancestors? Interesting concept, carry on.

Characters: Joanna Lyon is the great-granddaughter of famous and long-dead musician Sean Lyon. Right away she is angry and detached from her heritage, but finds her roots and a softer side as the story progresses. An aspiring geneticist and reluctant musician, Joanna must literally confront her past in order to have a future. She is the only developing character this novella - with a supporting, if stationary cast of family and friends.

World Building: Earth is still home in the near future, and the wormhole allows time travel to a parallel Earth back in the 1960’s. There have been advances in technology and medicine, but not enough to really focus on.

Writing Style: Lyon’s Legacy is more of a plot-driven write than anything. I appreciate the author’s attempt at explaining every twist, but at times I felt a bit coached.

What I Liked: At 132 pages, it was easy to digest this story in a few short sittings. With a busy life, I sometimes like to find works to read in snippets. This is a perfect read for lunchtime at the office or when waiting in line somewhere – not overly complex, yet thoroughly enjoyable.

I also appreciated the science and plausibility created by author Almazan. The suspended belief was at just the right level for this type of reading.

Deal Benders: There’s a relationship between two characters that I didn’t quite ‘feel’. It seemed they fell in love too fast over some laughs…and because they slept together…? I think this part of the story needs some work – something more to tie the characters to each other than what transpired.

Overall Rating: 3 stars puts this at I liked it, and I will read the second one. Hopefully some of the kinks are worked out, because this has potential to be a decent sci-fi series.

For Fans Of: Time travel adventure.