Review: Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

Series: Time Between Us #1

Published: October 9th, 2012

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

368 pages (hardcover)

Genre: Contemporary young adult/time travel

Acquired this book: Bought

Warning: May contain spoilers

{GoodReads || Buy this book: Amazon || Book Depository || Chapters/Indigo}

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

I was intrigued by Time Between Us from the moment I read the synopsis. It combined three things I love: time travel, contemporary fiction, and romance.

Right from the beginning I felt immersed in Anna’s world. The story had a lot of what I love most about contemporary young adult - time spent with friends and family; time at school; time spent alone thinking and figuring things out. Going into a book like this, you might not think it would be believable or relatable, but it was. Anna and Bennett were so real - they were flawed, their relationship wasn’t perfect, and they dealt with real life issues.

Anna was strong, passionate, and determined, and I found her very easy to relate to. She had people and things in her life that were familiar, and while those were good things, she also longed for so much more, and that’s something that I dealt with as a teen and still do as an adult.

All the characters in Time Between Us were so well fleshed out. I felt like I really knew Anna, Bennett, Emma, Justin, Maggie, and Anna’s parents. Tamara Ireland Stone has a real knack for placing you in the time and space with the characters and connecting you to that time and space through dialogue, music, and the characters’ actions and emotions. 

Time Between Us is a beautiful love story, but it’s more than a romantic love story. There was familial love and friend love, and then of course the blossoming relationship between Anna and Bennett, which was one of my favourite things about the book. Watching their first tentative steps toward something more, and then watching them struggle to find ways to work things out was both heartbreaking and beautiful, and just so real. You truly feel their dilemma; it’s so much more than being separated by distance, they’re also separated by time.

The dreamer in me loved Time Between Us. The romantic in me did, too. There’s just so much to like about Tamara Ireland Stone’s debut novel, from strong characters to exciting time travel to a sweet romance. 

  

Have you read Time Between Us? What did you think? If you haven't read it, is it on your TBR? What do you think of time travel romances?

 

{Facebook || Twitter || GoodReads || Pinterest || YouTube || Author blog || Personal/photography blog}
{Subscribe to my author newsletter}