Leave all your expectations behind as your favorite characters from the Tennis Shoes adventure series are reunited in a miraculous journey into worlds never before imagined, where villains old and new must be stopped to keep the landscape of history from becoming permanently altered.
When Becky and Josh Plimpton are kidnapped by Todd Finlay, Megan and her two suitors, Ryan and Apollus, attempt to rescue them, but through the mysterious powers of the Rainbow Room, one group ends up in nineteenth-century Jerusalem and the other in central America hundreds of years after the visitation of the Savior to the Nephites.
Tropes:
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: At book’s end, Apollus admits to Megan that he realized how much he loved her when he realized she was in danger, and that he wasn’t being honest with her earlier.
- Bad Liar: Apollus is a hilariously bad one when trying to bluff Finlay out in their first meeting.
- Been There, Shaped History: Discussed. The time travel in this book is completely accidental, but both parties eventually end up finding something historically significant to interfere in. See Contrived Coincidence.
- Big Brother Instinct:
- Joshua comforts Becky while they’re kidnapped and devises a plan that gets her freed from his clutches.
- Mary has this when she’s looking after the Plimpton kids.
- Cannot Spit It Out: Apollus has a difficult time admitting any feelings for Meagan, as he feels their relationship is a youthful dalliance and that they’re too different from each other.
- Contrived Coincidence: Discussed by Joshua when they end up accidentally time-traveling. Every time their family’s traveled there’s been some mysterious purpose they ended up helping fulfill, so they might as well head to a big city center instead of bee-lining for home. And he turns out to be right.
- God Guise: Apollus, Meagan, and Ryan are confused for them by a Lamanite village and - unsure of what will happen if they tell the truth - try to use it to teach them about Jesus Christ.
- Graceful in Their Element: Ryan is pretty cool by modern standards, but is totally out of his depth as a time traveler. In his defense, he gets better.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Apollus insists on retaining his in the modern day, and puts it to good use as a security guard for Mexican laborers. When he loses it, he switches to the obsidian-edged clubs the Lamanites use.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Joshua is foolish to suggest that they use time travel to save the Nephites, but he is right to say it feels wrong to leave them to die when they could do something about it.
- Love Triangle: There’s briefly one between Meagan, Apollus, and Ryan. But Ryan gives up quickly since he realizes who Meagan really wants.
- The Missus and the Ex: A gender-flipped version when Meagan has to juggle both Ryan and Apollus when Apollus returns.
- Narrator: Ten-year-old Rebecca Plimpton and transplanted-to-modern-days Apollus are the primary narrators of this adventure, although the prologue and epilogue are narrated by different characters and Meagan narrates when she’s separated from Apollus.
- Obfuscating Disability: Finlay pretends to be a mostly wheelchair-bound man to kidnap the Plimpton kids.
- Properly Paranoid: Becky gets the strong impression that they shouldn’t stay the night in the monastery, so they leave. It’s later revealed that either Akish or Finlay would’ve attacked them if they’d stayed.
- Rescue Arc: This is the arc that kicks off the rest of the series, as Meagan, Ryan, Apollus, the Plimpton kids, and Mary accidentally time-traveling will prompt their family members to come after them. The epilogue is written by Harry as he, Garth, Marcos and Steffanie split up to get the two groups.
- The Reveal: A number of them.
- Todd Finlay has returned and become a purveyor of Satanic artifacts in the meantime.
- They can travel to any era of history, including 1830’s Jerusalem.
- Shika is actually Akish, the Book of Mormon sorcerer. This means he’s been using the time travel tunnels. Also, his sorcerery is real and discernible. Also, he has the Sword of Coriantumr.
- And the final, the reason Todd Finlay lusts for the sword is because of a Stable Time Loop. He was killed by the sword in the past/now, so when he found the sword in the past/future, he was literally part of it.
- Rubber-Band History: This is discussed heavily, as Joshua discusses his dream of saving the Nephites. The Hawkinses changed things in the past, but only when they felt they’d already put something out of place.
- Shout-Out:
- Ryan references The Lone Ranger, Clint Eastwood, and Spartacus when snarking at Apollus.
- Meagan mentions entertaining the villager kids with her own Lamanite tellings of The Wizard of Oz and 'Star Wars.
- Shown Their Work:
- Heimerdinger goes to great pains to try recreating 4th century AD Maya civilization. The book even comes with a pronunciation guide in the front.
- In a more literal example, the end of each chapter (and an addendum in later editions) features a section explaining the real-life historical references in it, as well as which elements are conjecture or artistic license.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Harry is due to arrive home in one week, and the Saturday before Mary and the Plimpton kids get sent back in time, separating Mary from him further. This is one of the few things that she lets show as bothering her.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Apollus refuses to let Meagan accompany them to Tikal.
- Take Me Instead: Mary tries to trade Joshua for herself when negotiating with Finlay. He rejects it, but it was a good try.
- This Is Reality: Apollus explains to Ryan that he shouldn’t expect to become good with a sword in one hour.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The narrative switches between Becky and Apollus for the most part, with the two also ending up in different timelines. Ocasional chapters are narrated by Meagan when she’s with Apollus in Nephite times.
- Wham Episode: This book features the return of a long-time enemy, the reveal that they can travel to more than two scriptural eras, and the return of the Sword of Akish and Akish himself.
