Corey is used to being told he has an active imagination, and he used to noticing odd things, so when he sees an old picture in his friend Leila's house, and finds himself in what seems to be New York 100 years in the past, he thinks it's just part of the movie he knows is being filmed in his neighborhood. Or possibly a hallucination. It's not, though. Corey's actually travelled though time. And he is one of a very small group who can actually change things in the past.
His grandfather is also a time traveler, who can't change things. He tells Corey how he's gone, over and over again, back to 9/11, to try to keep his wife from going to work in the World Trade Center that day. And of course, when Corey's talent emerges, the possibility that he might be able to save her occurs to them both....the possibility that he might change other things, disrupt the timeline in ways they can't predict, also occurs to them, and the possibility that if news of his gift spreads in the time traveler circles, there are those who will want to control his use of it for their own purposes....
But Corey is determined to try to save his grandmother, and so he sets off to 9/11, with modern coins and his cell phone with him as anchors that will let him get home to his own time again. It doesn't go well, and instead of getting home, he goes further back in time to 1862, and his phone and money are stolen. Fortunately, he makes a good friend, Quinn, a kid who also has secrets...and the two become urban railroad cowboys (riding on the track ahead of the train, to clear obstacles). Meanwhile, in the present, Leila learns secrets about her own family, and finds she too can travel in time, and heads down stream to 9/11 herself....
Full of lots of tense moments, vivid depictions of the past, interesting characters, and lots of time travel intrigue and danger, this is a gripping read! The first half is full of the mystery of Corey discovering his gift, the second half is essentially dangers in past. The time travel is as believable as it can be, and the implications of being able to change the past aren't complicated any more than they need to be (so my mind stayed as clear as it ever does--sometimes, even though I'm a veteran time travel reader, I get confused by multiple timelines, but that didn't happen here). There's much that isn't fully and carefully explained, leaving room for other books to explore things further, and there's a lot of room for more character development of Corey and Leila now that their setup for adventures is established, and I hope there are more books, and that Quinn, in particular, is in them!
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