Sometimes the past is better left alone.Kaley Kline is thrilled to have landed a job as director of the new Tesla Museum in Colorado Springs. To make the museum successful, she searches for undiscovered works to display. When she finds an old safe that might have been Tesla’s, she’s shocked to find some diary pages supposedly written by the inventor himself.Kaley initially thinks either that the … initially thinks either that the journal is a fraud or Tesla was experiencing a nervous breakdown when he wrote it. However, if his experiments were real, the world will never be the same. She decides to secretly build Tesla’s time machine and attempt to go back into her own life to change a decision she has always regretted.
She prepares for a trip to the past, not knowing whether she will electrocute herself or travel back to the Boulder of her sophomore year in college. But an old boyfriend might have hidden some secrets from her—secrets that could have her fighting for her life.
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Kaley Kline is the director of a new Tesla Museum in Colorado. When she finds an old journal of Nikola Tesla’s in which he outlines his plans for a time machine and how he used it, she decides to replicate his experiment and go back in time to change a decision she made in college and has regretted since. But revisiting the past could have major repercussions for the present and Kaley soon realizes that it’s not only the technology that could put her at risk – unveiling old secrets could be more dangerous than she ever imagined.
This book was a great one to snuggle up with on the couch and read on a crisp fall day – part thriller, part mystery with a little bit of romance mixed in, it’s fast-paced with some fun twists. It left me wondering whether there were moments in my past I’d want to do-over if I had the chance. I think there are one or two I’d like to revisit – how about you?
Many thanks to the author and Kate Rock Book Tours for an ecopy of this book to review.
If She Had Stayed is not my typical read, but it was indeed a decent break. Kaley Kline is a young director at the ground level of developing a museum in honor of the long dead Nikola Tesla. Tesla was a gifted inventor, and Kaley is fascinated by his work. She is working hard to find everything she can from his writings to his inventions, even going so far as to break into the house he where he used to live in Colorado Springs to see if she can find anything of his man. A potential donor to the museum has an old safe that belonged to Tesla’s attorney, and he gives this to her for the museum. After long weeks, she cracks the safe combination, and what she finds inside is golden. Tesla had found a way to travel back in time. Kaley decides to build the time machine as he described in his journals that were kept in the safe. During this, her old college boyfriend returns to her life, and she decides to share with him the secret journals about time travel. Kaley is incredibly intelligent and methodical, but for whatever stupid reason, Kaley takes Scott back in time with her to their late college years, and things go downhill from there. Diane Bylington has woven an incredible story here showing us a small piece of what going back in time and changing things in the past can do to the future. The book was hard to put down because I had to know how this mess turned out.
The likable main character, Kaley, is heading up the Tesla Museum opening. While searching for something of his to use, she finds his old diary pages. She uses those to create her own time machine. She always regretted a decision and wanted to go back to change it. But is that a good idea? There might be secrets that could put her in danger.
I enjoyed this book. This is my first read of hers and I loved her writing. Sometimes, I may not at first, be interested in a time travel book, but I greatly enjoyed this. Along with some suspense & romance, Byington tied it all together to make this time travel experience work for the reader.
Fun and Engaging!
If She Had Stayed is an original page turner! It is so very entertaining. Diane Byington was able to draw me right in and keep me hooked throughout the whole story. I was on the edge of my seat. The plot and characters are extremely engaging.
This book has a little something for everyone! Thrilling, suspenseful, time travel! All in all, a crazy wild ride! One that I am so glad I took!
This is my first book by this author, but with her easy flow and gripping words, it absolutely won’t be my last!!
Time travel is my lane, both reading and writing. This original story gripped me from the start. It involves three things I can’t resist: traveling through time, the eccentric genius Nikola Tesla, and a young woman who won’t give up as she tracks down the truth. Was Tesla traveling through time? You’ll have to read to find out.
In her latest novel, If She Had Stayed, author Diane Byington introduces the reader to Kaley Kline, a woman who works as the director of a Nikola Tesla museum in Colorado Springs. Kaley is likable and relatable, yet feels she’s not living up to her potential, so when she finds an old Tesla journal that outlines how to travel through time, Kaley is intrigued. If She Had Stayed is a fast-paced, romantic, time-travel novel that’s hard to put down.
“If She Had Stayed” is an engrossing, imaginative story which combines elements of women’s fiction and romantic suspense in a captivating tale with a twist. Anna Kaley Kline, a failed rock star, attempts to rebuild her life as a historian and would-be director of a museum honoring Nikola Tesla. Yet she remains haunted by her perhaps selfish abandonment of her college lover when she left to pursue her dreams of singing with a band. Her attempts to right that perceived wrong cast her into a maelstrom of conflict and danger. Kaley takes a bold and possibly unwise risk–and confronts her 20-year-old self in a time-travel thriller that pits her against someone who would destroy both her past and her future. Riveting, imaginative, and fast-paced, this is one to lose yourself in while reading.
Not very realistic
Premise of the story seemed interesting, sorry that the character development was unfortunate. Don’t like stories with women who have little or no self-esteem. Stopped reading at 14%.
Kaley finds the journal of Tesla and instantly decides that she can reenact what Tesla did to time travel. Once she decides where she is going it is full speed ahead. I felt like the part leading up to the time travel went slow. There was a lot of information, a lot of details concerning Tesla that I did not follow or understand but it all led up to a great story of Kaley going back to undo a wrong that led to someone she cares for getting hurt.
Diane Byington told a story that made me stop and think about what I would change it I could time travel. Would it change my future? Make my life better?
If you are looking for a fun book to read If She Had Stayed is a book I’d recommend. I’ve read both of her books and enjoyed them both.
This book was not a favorite for me. It was slow and the main characters, Kaley and Scott, were more like young college students than a grown woman and man. Their interactions and the way they talked was just off. Scott was not at all likable and was one to not be trusted from the beginning. Kaley, who was suppose to be a very smart young woman did not have walking around sense after her boyfriend broke up with her and she got back in touch with Scott. It was like she wanted to relive their college romance, which was not that great from what I read.
Kaley reconnects with her college romance, Scott, after finding papers in a safe that belonged to Tesla. The journals contained his work on a time machine and told how he had gone back in time several times. It also said how it made him feel and it seemed to scare him to the point that he stopped using the machine. Kaley hasn’t seen Scott in many years yet she entrusts him with her most prized possession. Who does that. What intelligent hard working woman would do that. Scott was a stranger to her really. Not seeing him for so many years then jumping right into a relationship with him. He was unstable and to me it was obvious what he wanted from the start. Scott had personal reasons for wanting to stay with Kaley and go back to the past. He was just not who he appeared to be most of the time. It was just to obvious and what he did was expected. I saw it coming from the beginning.
I could not connect with any of these characters. I didn’t like them. They way they talked never seemed to change from college into adulthood. It was like listening to two kids with a kind of slang dialect in my opinion. Just not what I enjoy. Toward the end there was some thrills that kept me Turing the pages to see how it played out and I did enjoy that. There were some good things about this book but overall it was just not for me.
Thank you to #DianeByington for the ARC of this book.
I gave it 3 stars. I didn’t enjoy it but I would recommend you read it for yourself as I am sure a lot would maybe like this book. It seems anyway. I just didn’t. I’m sorry it was not one that I liked.
Kaley has recently become the director of a brand new Nikola Tesla Museum. In procuring items for the Museum Kaley uncovers some pretty amazing items one item isTesla’s diary pages which are written in the book which gives a cool historical fiction element to the story. I may have read them hearing David Bowie’s voice from his role in The Prestige
Kaley begins to think about her past in college, regrets she had about her old boyfriend. She is determined to travel back in time by building Tesla’s time machine. She has studied Tesla’s notes carefully what to avoid to not effect the future in a catastrophic way, avoid causing the butterfly effect, ETC. Can she travel back in time safely & return proving Tesla a genius for creating an actual time machine? Think about how successful & famous she’d be if she is successful.
This was quite an enjoyable fast pace story that I finished in a day. It’s a perfect quick read for some much needed escapism.
Having recently moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado, Kaley was excited about her new job at the Tesla Museum, that was not yet opened. She was on a fund-raising mission as well determined to collect as much information about Nikola Tesla, including anything that once belonged to him. She was willing to go to great lengths to find anything about him, including a night-time visit to a dilapidated Victorian home where he once lived in Colorado Springs.
Although Kaley started out with plans to be a Rock Star, and had attended the University of Colorado in Boulder studying music, she quit college to tour with a band in Europe and eventually completed her education with a history degree. She was slated to be named the Executive Director of the museum, if she met a fund raising goal. In her search, she was given a safe that had once belonged to Tesla, who was known for hiding his inventions in unusual places. Kaley discovered his description of his experience with time travel which intrigued her. This is a lively, fast-moving story, that is delightful. Kaley looks up her old college boyfriend, who still lives in Boulder and together then make plans for more adventures in the pursuit of experiencing and learning more about the well-known scientist and inventor. An interesting book that was engaging until the very unexpected end.
If She had Stayed is Ms. Byington’s sophomore book, and it was such a joy to read I whizzed through it in one sitting. She successfully blends women’s fiction with time travel while fan-girling Nikola Tesla. Kaley Kline, a mid-thirties woman, having never lived up to her potential, feels she is a “dud.” When she discovers pages from Tesla’s journals detailing time travel, she resolves to prove his assertions are correct. Tesla, too, is a bit of a dud, never living up to his potential as a scientist nor never reaching the success of his contemporaries. As the director of the new Tesla Museum in Colorado Springs, Kaley hopes to make her museum successful and envisions the old journal as the means to do it—plus she’ll get personal kudos for being the second person to travel through time.
The tone is upbeat but with some darker undertones of madness and abuse, but revealing those would disclose the plot. The characters—from Kaley to her boyfriend to Tesla—all have appropriate growth during their character arcs.
I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
The story starts out rather uneventful which made me wonder why it was labeled a suspense thriller. Kaley Kline is working hard to make a name for herself and be successful. She feels like the “dud” in her family of successful parents and siblings. Her interest in the research and work of Nikola Tesla leads her to Colorado Springs to conjure donors for the Tesla Museum opening.
Her complete dedication to her job left little time for a her boyfriend Kevin who finally calls it quits. Unaffected by the breakup, Kaley sees this as an opportunity to concentrate on her work. While trying to secure a wealthy donor she is given some artifacts from the Tesla home including an old safe. Thinking that it could be added to the other items relevant to the museum she accepts the kind donation. Once the safe was transferred to the museum Kaley begins to fantasize about the possible contents if any. She does some research about the safe and eventually deciphers a combination which successfully opens the old safe.
Kaley is fascinated with her discovery; an old diary belonging to Tesla regarding his research into time travel. She has thoughts for fame and fortune by attempting to successfully recreate his device for time travel. She begins to reminisce about a college boyfriend she left behind to pursue her dream of being a singer.
Kaley remembers that Scott had been an engineering student in college and decides see if they can reconnect. When Kaley sees Scott again it seems that both their lives had moved in different directions after their split. She felt guilty for not letting him know she was leaving and he felt resentful for being left without explanation.
The two seem to be able to work through issues from their past to work together on this secret project. They each have their own intention for wanting this to succeed. As they prepare for their adventure into the past, Kaley wakes up to discover that Scott has left her behind. She soon realizes that Scott is not the same person she used to know. Kaley goes on a frantic search for him which proves to be dangerous as he seeks revenge for the past.
This was an interesting book. Is it a thriller, romance or time travel story? Yes,yes and yes to all three! Quick read, really enjoyed story. This was my first book by this author, won’t be my last!