Genevieve Newhouse and Ash Hargreaves don't mean to blow up the world, but the teens' intentions go exponentially awry in Kendall Kulper's A Time-Traveler's History of Tomorrow, an energetic and satisfying stand-alone volume in Kulper's series of historical speculative novels that includes Murder for the Modern Girl and A Starlet's Secret to a Sensational Afterlife.
Science wiz Genevieve is set to unveil her cyclotron, a device capable of creating "the first entirely man-made element," at Chicago's 1934 World's Fair. When the organizers learn she's a woman, they insist someone else present her invention then ignore her notes and set the power current nearly 10 times too high.
Ash grew up in an isolated Pennsylvania community led by Father Daily, who has predicted that the world will end on June 15, 1934, at the World's Fair. Determined to prove him wrong, Ash goes to Chicago to ascertain whether any of the showcased innovations hold world-ending power.
Ash and Genevieve collide just as her cyclotron explodes. Ash uses his ability to rewind time to save them--but they travel to 1893, four decades before the apocalypse they're trying to prevent.
Kulper's "back to the future" plot moves at a breezy pace as Genevieve and Ash, narrating in alternating chapters, face obstacles and find allies, including each other. The science in Kulper's science fiction is more timey-wimey than textbook, but the history in her historical fiction is spot on as it captures how powerful white men excluded the achievements of women and people of color from venues like the World's Fairs. Kulper has perfected the formula for thoughtful, engaging, and imaginative storytelling. --Stephanie Appell, freelance reviewer