Fran Clark’s grandmother has passed away, and she is assigned the task of going through her Gram’s personal items, deciding what to keep and what to discard. As she is going through desks and drawers, she comes across a key that opens Gram’s trunk, which is filled with quilts made by generations of Clark women. The key was one she had always loved as a child. Filled with nostalgia, Fran spreads the quilts across the room, and while shedding tears for the loss of her grandmother, she suddenly finds herself transported to 1875, and she is not even sure how she got there. Scared and alone, she must find a way to fit into this new world.  

As Fran struggles to find her way back to her own time period, she learns of a new way of living in the post-Civil War era, one of hard work with very little time for relaxation, and lacking any modern amenities, but as she begins to adjust, she discovers a different side to herself. She finds strength and a self-confidence she did not know she had, and she learns that two different men find her beautiful, something she had never thought about herself before.

When the time has come to make a decision to stay or leave, she is torn. If she stays, she will have a contented and fulfilled life, but she will be living a lie, and she risks hurting those she has grown to love and who love her. And if she goes, even though she will once again be back with her family, she will have to deal with all of the pressures of a modern life, and she will be facing it alone, with no one to love.

Can Fran find a way back to her own time? Does she want to? Travel back in time with Fran and decide for yourself what you would do.

Yesterday’s Tears is the first book of a new series by Jane O’Brien called A Slip in Time.