The Root of the Matter: The American Puritans Book One

By Lynne Basham Tagawa

Description:

She’s terrified.
Time travel. The North Atlantic in winter. Which is worse?

Geneva Fielding is a researcher in the Archives of the Applied History department, prepping time travelers for their destinations. She loves the smell of old paper and chocolate croissants.

One day, a Traveler fails an important test and cannot go. Instead of canceling the Trip, the dean appoints Geneva and her friend Peter Donatelli, a physicist, to take his place. They have three days to prepare to Travel to 1630s New England.

Geneva’s always wanted to know more about John Winthrop. Maybe she can even get a dissertation topic from the Trip. But the truth is, she’s scared stiff. No one knows her private struggles. And she’s not about to tell.

Geneva and Peter are dumped into an early, struggling Massachusetts, the Puritan inhabitants having escaped the persecution of the Crown only to face a howling wilderness. Roger Williams’s arrival sends shockwaves through the frail colony.

Can the Bay Colony afford to allow a critic of the king to dwell among them?

And what will Geneva do when she discovers Peter’s secret?

Book Takeaway:

The near future timeline addresses religious persecution--can the situation in present-day China come to pass in the US? And what does it mean to be a true Christian? Is there a price to be paid?

Why the author wrote this book:

I write historical fiction, and I've been interested in John Winthrop for a long time. But when it came time to write about him, the usual style didn't seem right. I never thought I'd write time travel, but the plot device eased my way into the seventeenth century and was super fun on top of it!