Review: Time Between Us

Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone
Time Between Us #1
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: October 9th, 2012
Format: Kindle
Date Read: 8/11/15 to 8/13/15
368 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰

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.

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If you don't know me by now, I really like reading about time travel, even though I'm sometimes not content with how it's executed. When it comes to time travel, there are always some plot holes here and there that never get explained because, well, it's time travel, which is a tricky topic in itself. However, with Time Between Us, I thought it best to ignore the flaws within the author's rules of time traveling, since it wasn't the main focus of the plot. But I can explain this later.

A Cool and Intriguing Concept

Even though both are in high school, Anna is from 1995, and Bennett is from 2012. Bennett has the strange ability to travel through time and space, but he's limited to certain rules. For example, he can't jump to a time when he isn't born, and he can't jump to his future. Unfortunately, he ends up losing his sister in the past while trying to travel further than his birth. In order to find his sister, he time travels to Anna's time. And from there, they meet, and eventually fall in love.

 

But can you guys see how implausible it seems? How can you be with someone in the past who is almost 30 years older than you in the present? The author takes the approach that time can be relived through Bennett's time travel, and it can affect the future differently through "re-dos". If Bennett were to travel to the room where he was a baby, he would end up redoing his entire life over. However, if he is not in the same room, then he can exist in two places at once. Therefore, I believe that this story takes into account that parallel lives can occur, which reminds me a lot of Parallel. 

The Characters Were Well Written, But The Plot is Better

I thought the characters were very well written. Anna ended up realizing the costs of being with Bennett, and I'm glad she didn't throw her life away because of him. However, I wasn't fond of her pestering Bennett about breaking his own time travel "rules", even if they were for a good cause. On the other hand, I wasn't able to get a good feel for Bennett, except that he can be a pushover. I was more focused on the story and how the two of them interacted, because they're both from different times. Though unfortunately, I was sad to see how little time was spent talking about the past and the future. (I like it when time traveling characters share things about their own time)

Time Travel = Complex

Like I said before, the mechanics of time travel is complex, and all the answers won't be there. But for this novel, it's best not to think too hard about it. As I said before, although the plot includes time travel, it focuses more on the relationship between Anna and Bennett. Therefore I didn't feel the need to analyze everything that happened. (Though there was this one scene which I was trying to figure out HOW it happened, but in the end I gave up)

In the end, the reason why this isn't a full 5 stars from me is because there are some little holes here and there, but not enough to be considered a major flaw. Plus, although I did like the characters, I was more invested in the plot, and I paid little attention to their development and personality. However, despite this, I loved the concept of time traveling and romance, and I love the execution of it. Overall, the novel was very well done, made me feel emotions throughout, and made me want more. Which is why I am definitely looking forward to the sequel!