Time After Time by Tamara Ireland Stone

Time After Time by Tamara Ireland Stone
Buy Time After Time by Tamara Ireland Stone at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Teens
Reviewer: Jill Murphy
Summary: Enjoyable time-slip romance. Perhaps too slight for those interested in the time-travel aspect but a lovely story for fans of romantic fiction.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 352	Date: October 2013
Publisher: Corgi
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 0552565210
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Anna and Bennett should never have met.

Why not? Because he is 17 in 2012. And she is 16 in 1995. Thanks to Bennett's extraordinary ability to travel back in time, though, they have met. And they have fallen in love. In this sequel to Time Between Us, they are trying very hard to work out a way to continue their romance while maintaining lives in their own time.

It's not easy. Bennett has promised his parents he will stop travelling back in time. Anna's parents are suspicious of the boy who is there sometimes but more often is not, leaving their daughter alone and miserable. It's difficult to concentrate on one world when your heart is in another. How can Bennett continue to stay with Maggie while he is in Anna's time without telling her that he is actually her grandson? And Bennett's gift has limits, which become more and more obvious - and dangerous - as the book goes on.

Can these two time-crossed lovers forge anything lasting in the face of all these difficulties?

If you're looking for an interesting book about time travel, Time After Time may not be it. This is primarily a romantic novel with a side-helping of the timey-wimey stuff. Bennett can only travel back during the period of his own life, so 1995 is his limit. And this story skips over any of the really meaty issues associated with time travel - paradoxes, and the like. It leads to some genuinely daft events so you'll need to suspend your disbelief. Even so, it's quite amazing to see how much the world has changed in 17 years, particularly with the coming of the internet.

Conversely, if it's a love story you want, you'll love Time After Time. Bennett and Anna's romance is touching and sweet. Despite a mountain of obstacles, they really, truly love each other. This time, the story is told from Bennett's point of view and he is the kind of boyfriend - when he's there! - that every girl would want, full of romantic gestures. At one point, he takes Anna to the Pont des Arts in Paris, where they inscribe their initials on a padlock and attach it to the bridge for it to become the first of the famous "lovelocks" there. Who wouldn't melt?!

Quite a few plot threads are picked up but then dropped, which is a little frustrating. And I'm still not clear as to the narrative point of Bennett's gift. Surely, he can't be a time-traveller simply so that he can meet Anna? Or perhaps he is. However, the book ends on a satisfying note that could conclude the story nicely but also leaves room to revisit the characters again.

All in all, this is an enjoyable time-slip story for fans of romantic fiction but perhaps too slight and superficial for many other readers.

If you haven't read it already, you really shouldn't miss The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

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