As Time Unfolds: how can our family heritage influence our life paths?

As Time Unfolds by Barbara Zerfoss is the story of one woman’s search for her family’s history and lessons learned that can help save a life. Bethany Miller’s life is on the fast track as she is the CEO and owner of an advertising agency when it comes to a halt with a surprising phone call. She has inherited an ancestral home from the biological mother she never knew. Unsure what to do, she visits the home in Jameson, Virginia. Inside the grandfather clock known as The Timekeeper, Bethany discovers a treasured family journal. In it, generations of first daughters wrote one entry, sharing family secrets, chronicling a courageous life in challenging times and words of wisdom for the next generation of daughters. Reading these women’s stories, Bethany takes the chance to reassess her life moving forward. When an alarming encounter with one young girl’s soul piercing eyes keeps haunting her thoughts, Bethany senses a pull to help. But how? Can the stories of her maternal ancestors give her the strength and courage to fight for someone else? Even if it comes at a personal cost? 

As Time Unfolds is a story that dragged in the beginning and picked up at the halfway point. The connections between Bethany, her family’s legacy and the young missing girl isn’t made until the end. However, there was enough pull and intrigue to keep the reader looking for the connection. I enjoyed the story of Bethany discovering her family heritage more than the connection with the missing girl. I also enjoyed the grandfather clock. The Timekeeper was the silent character that stood watch as a guard and a guide. Although the issue of human trafficking is an important and current crisis, I felt it didn’t quite fit. The two stories didn’t quite mesh. There was also a lot of repeating information. At one point, Bethany finds newspaper articles that just rehash information that is revealed in the journal entries. It would have been possible to introduce the articles without doing another information dump to rehash information the reader already knows. Overall, I enjoyed As Time Unfolds for its story of courageous women from the past that informs and molds the courageous acts of today. I recommend As Time Unfolds. 

As Time Unfolds is available in paperback and eBook