I have read a lot of books and feel that I have a decent ability to analyze a story but I am by no means a professional and got this book for personal use.

With that, I gotta say, I loved the book. I was into this book. I couldn't believe how I lost track of time. There is one particular aspect I really enjoyed and I'll do my best to convey it. I really enjoy books that convey an intelligence where it is clear the author isn't trying to be intelligent. It is just natural with the writing. I also enjoy that aspect even more when an author can be intelligent but within the same novel not be afraid to attempt wit and a humor that is, how do I say this, like buddies chatting in a bar. I don't know how many books I have read where I feel the author is trying too hard to be smart and also trying to hard to be "cool/hip/funny" and it really hinders the flow of the novel. I also really enjoyed the cause and effect of what was going on and how it continued to get more complex. I think it would have been easy to over simplify this story and really would have made it weaker in my mind (that being said I'm sure there was a compromise and no end to how complex it could have gotten, so praises for not making smoke come out of my ears either).

Again, I don't at all profess to be any sort of expert or source in literature. But from a regular guy who enjoys reading, music and some sci-fi this was a great read.

Masterfully intricate time traveler novel that will appeal to the time travel geek on steroids, the existential philosopher, or the casual read-on-the-beach vacationer. LaCivita has weaved a great Twighlight Zone caper into a Sartre-esque treatise on who where are, where we are or why we are. Truly original!

I just finished Timely Persuasion and found that I just couldn't put it down. I actually missed my subway stop once.
I'm not one for sci fi books but the musicology and focus on the interpersonal relationships of the protagonist had me intrigued. The time travel details get a bit confusing at times but it doesn't take away from the actually story of the quest our hero is on to save his sister. This would make a fabulous movie with a kick ass soundtrack. I often found myself googling the author's musical references for the full effect. It is a good read for a plane trip or vacation.

I have finished reading Timely Persuasion. I am intrigued by your unusual combination of subject material, namely Rock & Roll music and Time Travel An interesting juxtaposition.
I am also impressed by your use of the Internet in both creating and promoting your book. The printed book from Lulu was quite reasonable in price and arrived in a timely manner. Publishing-on-demand has certainly come of age.
I found that when I Googled the title, the first page of hits was entirely related to your book. How in the world did you manage to do that? I thought you did a good job on your website. The "out-takes" were interesting and there was plenty of additional material to read related to the book.
So many people dream of writing a novel, but very few accomplish it. Whatever happens from here on in, you will know that you followed your dream and were able to complete what you set out to do. With all the skills required and technological dimensions of the project to write and promote this book, there are endless fascinating possibilities of what you might do next.
I particularly liked the section on page 75 where you found yourself in the grip of a big surprise. It caught me off guard.
And I thought Chapter 24 was a good strong one in the latter section of the book. Good use of dialogue. Strands of the story come together here.
Your chapter titles are intriguing.

Good luck,
Mary Ann Hales

Timely Persuasion reflects a peculiar phenomenon that is common in mass-market releases, where hired gun publicists write the back-cover copy, but is less usual in the do-it-yourself POD world. To be blunt, Timely Persuasion's misleading plot blurb (as seen above) makes a fun novel sound absolutely cheesy. Based on the official description (with its promise that the hero is "friends" with Cobain and Hendrix and also "crosses paths" with assorted other rock luminaries), I suspected that Timely Persuasion would be a series of trite wish-fulfillment trysts between a thinly-veiled author-stand-in protagonist and his musical idols, which in the end would add up to little more than a collection of fanboy fantasies.

Happily, Timely Persuasion absolutely does not go down this road. The conceit of the novel is that time travel is possible to any date that resonates strongly in the traveler's memory. For our time-traveling protagonist, those days often have rock music significance. However, our hero does not actually interact with his music idols. Rather, although his remembrances of important music dates are the springboard from which he launches his travels through time, they really are just the backdrop to his real mission: to prevent his sister's suicide.

And so Timely Persuasion ends up being much more enjoyable than the the above description had led me to expect. The writing is professional and polished, and author Jacob LaCivita does an admirable job keeping the complex mechanics of his recursive plot clear for the reader. At times his exposition is a bit too blunt, as one character will spell-out for another exactly what is going on. But that's really no different than Doc Brown drawing on the blackboard to explain the intricacies of time travel for Marty in Back to the Future Part II. And Timely Persuasion is clearly a summer movie at heart.

Of course, as I've mentioned before, big-studio summer films are known for being fun and clever, but also for ultimately being disposable. Indeed, Timely Persuasion raises a number of intriguing issues that it never fully explores. For example, the narrator at one point funnels hit songs from the future to a singer from the past, in order to advance the past performer's career. He expressly recognizes that in doing so, he is effectively depriving the future (original) artists of writing (or profiting from) their own songs. Maybe it's just me, but I find the implications of that fascinating (not just in the chicken-and-the-egg paradox sense; what I really find interesting is the ethical and artistic issues). And so perhaps it is unfair of me to criticize LaCivita for staying focused on the tale he wanted to tell, rather than going off on a tangent that I was interested in. But it is very frustrating to have interesting themes explicitly raised, only to be quickly brushed off to the side.

Nonetheless, high-concept films and novels definitely have their place, and Timely Persuasion fits solidly in that category. I enjoyed it for its substantial cleverness, breezy style, and pleasingly convoluted plot, which had just enough pathos at the end to give the journey some substance. If I'm a bit dissatisfied with Timely Persuasion, it is only because I would have liked more focus on some of the side-issues. But even as the novel stands, it is great for beach reading, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

However, I would still change that back jacket copy.