Eve Carpenter has a tarnished reputation in the public eye, a mother that ran off with all her money, debts to the tax man the she could never pay, and is working a dead end job. She didn’t think things could get much worse- until she falls through a hole that leads her into a parallel universe- where England is definitely not the England she knows. Practically no landline telephones- forget cell phones. No one knows what a computer is. Princess Diana is still alive. Eve doesn’t know what happened to her, but she needs to figure out a story, and quick. People think Eve is a spy, and they aren’t afraid to get rid of her- by killing her. She finds out that there is a civil war taking place, and she has luckily fallen in with the good guys- including Major Harker. Harker is dealing with his own set of baggage- including a divorce- and doesn’t take to Eve right away. But when a mission involving a mysterious technological gadget- a computer- is called for, Eve must go along for the ride. From there, Harker and Eve develop an awkward type of romance, since these two people are from very different worlds. But is Eve destined to stay in her new world? Or go back to her real life and leave Harker forever?
The UnTied Kingdom by Kate Johnson is a very unique and complex story. The synopsis was hard to decipher, and even harder to write one of my own for the above paragraph. If it confuses you, I say still go for it. I’m glad I did. I was first confused when reading the story, because I thought Eve actually went back in time. She was comparing the hospital and all the scenes to a war zone, so I figured she had stumbled back in the past, but that is not correct. This is where the title comes into play- it is the “untied kingdom” instead of the United Kingdom, nice play on words there. Though the year is still the same as the one Eve came from, she landed in a world that was without the British Empire, only had one World War, and more events that left England in a very different state that what we know now. It was thrilling to think about what the world would be like if certain events in the past never happened, or if the outcomes were different. Johnson clearly has a wild imagination, and to be able to capture such an interesting take on what the world could have been takes talent. Besides the plot being highly engaging and quite thrilling, the characters are also gems in their own ways. Besides Eve and Harker, readers will meet more soldiers in depth when the group goes on their mission, and each will shine. I had a lot of fun reading this novel, but I will warn you to read carefully. If you skip over a paragraph, you could become confused. There is a lot going on, a lot of characters, and an intricate plot. I would have given this book five stars, but the ending was a little disappointing. I won’t give any spoilers, but I just didn’t feel the ending was very believable- it seemed just a bit too easy for the situation that was happening. I know the whole book has a time traveler/unbelievable feel to it, but to wrap everything up so neatly and quickly was a little bit of a downfall for me. Other than that, great book and a definite recommendation.
[Rating: 4]
