Time Traveler's Playlist: A Classic Rock Time Travel Adventure by David Homick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An exciting, suspenseful, and, ultimately, heartwarming story of finding one’s self and one’s soulmate.

Time Traveler’s Playlist by David Homick is an exciting, suspenseful, and, ultimately, heartwarming story of a young man’s pursuit of his one true love (and classic 70s rock and roll music.) I was honestly captivated by this tale from start to finish.

The hunt for legendary Aztec gold on his family’s farm leads 22-year-old Angus Walker to a hidden cave with a mysterious portal to the past. Mustering his courage, he passes through the portal and finds himself in Denver, Colorado, in the year 1978, where the muscle cars and land yachts of his dreams proudly cruise the city streets, and the classic rock music that he collected in his time period are new releases here. He also falls head over heels for the dynamic female lead vocalist and bass player of a rising local band, who knows more than she’s letting on about Angus’s unconventional mode of transportation to the 70s.

Angus is the wonderful protagonist of the story, a sad-sack, self-prophesying loser in his own time of 2024; he seems to fit in with life in 1978, coming close to being one of the cool kids. In his time, he has a good ‘ride or die’ friend in Walter ‘Waldo’ Hastings, a fellow misfit in high school due to his high IQ and dedication to academics, and Ozzy, a lovable stray black lab named after the infamous, original frontman for Black Sabbath. Both Waldo and Ozzy are endearing, and each time Angus returned home to 2024, I worried whether his actions in the past would negatively affect either of these characters – because changes occurred!

While Angus may have succumbed to the negative talk and bullying in his formative years, he regularly shows perseverance and courage throughout the story. He stands up to the bullies. He confronts Lars and Sam head-on when necessary. He talked himself into entering the portal. He pursued his soulmate and then sacrificed everything for love.

The plot is fast-paced, and the transitions between time periods are clear and easy to follow. The descriptions of the rugged and remote Utah farm and 1978 Denver are vivid, creating the perfect backdrops for the ensuing action. I thoroughly enjoyed the song title chapter headings, which not only foreshadowed the coming direction of the story but were tunes contemporary to the time. The selections were so perfect that I compiled them, along with additional songs mentioned in the narrative, into a fun, nostalgic new playlist.

I recommend TIME TRAVELER’S PLAYLIST to fiction readers who enjoy time travel tales of romance.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advance Review Copy from Reedsy Discovery.