Let Me Help Her (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781548973018)

History class and boys

Alicia's life has taken another very strange turn. She awakens to a world where her grandmother is no longer alive, in fact she passed away years before. Everything else about Alicia's life is the same, aside from her parents being there instead of her grandmother. Alicia is certain that something she did in the past was the cause of her grandmother's passing.

She is so distraught that she has almost forgotten about the strange boy she shares a history assignment with. When he declares that he knows who she is, Alicia is left speechless. Was there something more to the familiarity that she felt when she was around him? To make matters worse the grandfather clock is gone and Alicia has no way to get back to the past. All she can think of is what will happen to little Zia, Matthias, and all of the gypsies. She had promised them that she would save them, then she had walked them directly into the fiercest danger that they would ever face. Now she was forced to abandon them.

The world around her expects her to be the same Alicia as always, cheerful and eager to have fun. Instead Alicia is exhausted and very depressed. When the mysterious boy in her history class invites her to his home for the afternoon she is not sure if she should go or not. Deciding to get into the car with him and his stone faced grandfather was a hard choice for Alicia, but it is not long before she discovers it is just the latest twist in the strange web of secrets and mysteries that her life has become.

It turns out that the boy from her history class is Matthew, the grandson of Matthias, who has sought out Alicia in an attempt to change the past together once more. Alicia is so overwhelmed by the revelation that she almost loses focus on what matters most, figuring out what went wrong that caused her grandmother to pass away before she even had the chance to know her.

Now not only does she have to reveal her deepest secrets to Matthew, she has to face Matthias not as the defiant young boy she had once known, but as a powerful older man who expects her to be completely compliant to his wishes. His temper has not lessened with age, and Alicia is frightened of the fury in his gaze. When she finds out that Matthias is in possession of the grandfather clock her first thought is to travel once more into the past, to prevent the horrible consequences that her absence had created.

And now for Alicia what will this all mean?

* Once she had promised Matthias that all the devastation around him was not his fault, now she would have to prove the same about herself. Will Alicia be able to get back to the past in time to save her grandmother and the rest of the gypsies?

* Will Matthias ever forgive her for abandoning them at such an important time?

* Alicia cannot help but wonder if her life will ever return to normal, after living in two worlds for so very long. Can she find her way home again, and will home ever be the same?