REVIEW: TIME BETWEEN US

Author: Tamara Ireland Stone
Series: No, standalone
UK Publisher: Doubleday
UK Release date: 26th October 2012
Genre: YA, Romance
Kindly given by the publisher for an honest review

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 seem to have come across a few books or films lately that involve some sort of time/space travel, but for some reason I still find it really interesting. With Time Between Us, I was instantly intrigued and pulled into the story, particularly because of the mysterious prologue that was set 15 years before the rest of the book. I also liked that the story was set in the 1990s, with its grunge and rock references (where were you when Kurt Cobain died?). The time travel element added thought provoking "what might happen if" questions that made me think about not only the characters' potential futures but my own.

Anna was just amazing. I liked the way she tied her hair up with a pencil (something I do), wanted to go travelling, and liked rock/grunge bands. She was independent, down to earth and very cool, in a ‘I don’t even realise it’ kind of way. Whilst she wasn’t like her friend Emma who seemed to ooze charm and a sense of her own pretty outward appearance, Anna had so much passion and potential to do something different and interesting with her life, and I really wanted her to get the courage to go for it.

Although we didn’t know as much about Bennett, because he was the secretive ‘visitor’, I really liked him. Despite his gifts he was unpretentious and a nice, caring guy. His mysterious disappearances and appearances, whilst strange to Anna, weren’t quite so suspicious to me (having read the synopsis). But what I didn’t know was how things tied together later on. Being able to jump between times, there is likely to be some crossover of appearing in the same time, and it was these points that I found intriguing and kept me guessing. In fact I would have liked a little more on this to add a bit more complexity and mystery to the plot. Having said this, Time Between Us was well written and plotted out with events from different times or versions linking together and resonating nicely.

I also loved the ending to the book and the "message" that it conveyed. I don't want to spoil the book, so all I will say is that I wish I was more like Anna; brave and with her own amazing dreams and aspirations.

Time Between Us is a heart-warming romance fraught with suspense and mystery.

Rating: 5*