Review: The Five Times I Met Myself by James L. Rubart

five timesTitle: The Five Times I Met Myself by James L. Rubart
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Genre: Contemporary, Christian, Mystery/Suspense
Length: 398 pages
Book Rating: B

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

What if you met your twenty-three-year-old self in a dream? What would you say?

Brock Matthews’ once promising life is unraveling. His coffee company. His marriage.

So when he discovers his vivid dreams—where he encounters his younger self—might let him change his past mistakes, he jumps at the chance. The results are astonishing, but also disturbing.

Because getting what Brock wants most in the world will force him to give up the one thing he doesn’t know how to let go . . . and his greatest fear is that it’s already too late.

Review:

The Five Times I Met Myself by James L. Rubart is an intriguing novel with a very unique premise. When a middle aged man tries to understand a recurring dream, he learns of a method to control his dreams. With this newfound knowledge, he is provided the opportunity to give his younger self advice which will hopefully change the past.

Just as Brock Matthews learns the family owned business is in trouble, his twenty six year marriage also begins to fall apart. Hoping to convince his younger self to take a different path in hopes of changing the events occurring in the present, Brock uses his newly discovered knowledge about lucid dreaming to impart suggestions about career, love and family. He is also thrilled to learn he can also talk to his friends, family and wife while he is dreaming as well. When he discovers he has successfully changed the course of his life, Brock is hoping to save his marriage and business. However some of these changes have unintended and sometimes, disastrous consequences and he is dismayed when his efforts to fix things continues to make everything worse. Although Brock has a reawakened appreciation for his wife and brother, he wants nothing more than to change things back to the way they were before he embarked on his quest to fix things in the past. Will Brock be able to make that happen before he loses everything he holds dear?

Brock’s relationship with his brother and business partner Ron is fraught with tension. Their once close bond began to disintegrate after their father’s breakdown when they were kids. Brock’s relationship with their father never recovered and he greatly resented the fact that Ron inherited the controlling shares in their company. The truce between them is fragile and instead of running the company together, Ron is in charge the business end of things while Brock takes care of publicity and new product development. With such a vast separation of duties, it comes as a complete shock when Ron announces they are on the verge of losing everything and he expects Brock to agree to his plans to sell off their business.

Just as Brock becomes aware of the looming financial disaster, he realizes that his devotion to the business has taken a toll on his relationships with his wife and son. His attempts to save the company also lead to inadvertent changes in their history and he is growing increasingly alarmed by the terrible toll his actions are taking on his family. Increasingly desperate to stop the downward spiral, Brock continues to use lucid dreaming to convince his younger self to make different choices, but he begins to despair he can fix what he has set into motion.

The Five Times I Met Myself by is a thought-provoking novel with a spiritual aspect that is sure to appeal to fans of Christian fiction.  It is a fascinating and uplifting journey of reconciliation and healing that also contains a hint of  a mystical element.  James L. Rubart brings the story to an emotional yet heartwarming conclusion that is sure to resonant with readers.

1 Comment

Filed under Christian, Contemporary, James L Rubart, Mystery, Rated B, Review, Suspense, The Five Times I Met Myself, Thomas Nelson Publishing

One Response to Review: The Five Times I Met Myself by James L. Rubart

  1. Timitra

    Thanks Kathy