This book was extremely interesting to read, partly because it moved from relatively modern times (the 1970s) to the nineteenth century and back so seamlessly. The entire book read like a fantasy, rather than pure fiction, and it held my interest throughout the story. The Epilogue, however, almost seemed to be a let down after the rest of the excitement and situations of the rest of the book. Kevin gets back safely, Dana kills Rufus and loses her arm, and they fly to Maryland to try to find answers to what happened to the people they met while they were in the past. It is all kind of disappointing after the rest of the book, and the way the final chapter before the Epilogue ended.
             In the end, the Epilogue ties up all the loose ends, just like an Epilogue is supposed to, but it is a real letdown from the rest of the book, and it almost seems as if the author did not know how to end the book, so she "wrapped it up" with the Epilogue and left it at that. I would rather have seen a more meaningful ending, such as Dana did find some records of her lost family, and she even found a living relative that she could talk to and discover. Maybe that could have spun off into another book, or something, and I think it would have made the ending more enjoyable and even more realistic.
             Part of the book that had an effect on me was when Dana had to react to the realities of slavery, and Kevin, knowing what he knew from the future, tried to help the slaves help themselves. The Old South was truly a very different world, and this book shows how different it was, not by relating history, but by putting the characters right in the middle of it. She experiences racial differences when she marries a white man and their families turn against them, but she experiences the pain of slavery when she is whipped, something unheard of today. The book made me think about what it would really like to be a slave, and how horrible an experience it really...