Book Review: "George Falls Through Time" by Ryan Collett

“Did I want to go home? And which one was that?”

George has it bad. He’s lost his job, the rent and other bills are due, and his boyfriend broke up with him and moved out of their London flat. Desperate to make money, he works as a dog walker, but he cuts corners in order to walk more dogs at a time than he’s supposed to.

On a walk with six dogs owned by immensely high strung people, George looks up to discover two of the dogs are missing. How is he going to explain this to their owners? In the midst of trying to rescue one of the dogs, he trips and falls.

When he comes to, he’s in the middle of Greenwich Park, as he was when he fell. But the park is much quieter and emptier, and nothing looks familiar. As he discovers, somehow he’s wound up in the year 1300. Uh-oh.

Life in 14th-century London isn’t much better for George. He finds himself imprisoned, starved, and tortured. But his luck turns when one of his captors, Simon, helps him escape and they run off together and fall in love. But then there’s this thing with the King and a dragon…

This book was certainly wacky and really creative. But George isn’t the most appealing character, and at least at the start of the book, his dialogue is written as a stream of conscious marathon, full of run-on sentences. I liked the themes of rediscovery and anxiety about wanting to be loved, but it just took a long while to get there.

Book Review: "Stealing Time" by Tilia Klebenov Jacobs and Norman Birnbach

What a fun romp this was!! Thanks so much to Get Red PR Books for the complimentary copy!

It’s 2020 and teenage Tori is pretty dissatisfied with her life. Her parents are getting divorced, her father is annoying, and the pandemic has motivated her mother to move the two of them from their NYC home to Massachusetts to live with Tori’s aunt until the world gets back to normal.

Just before she heads to Massachusetts, “land of Boston accents, inferior bagels, lousy pizza, and having to be driven everywhere,” Tori makes a shocking discovery. (Well, she overhears it.) Apparently her paternal grandfather (whom she’s named after) was accused of a colossal jewel heist 40 years ago.

As if that’s not unsettling enough, the next thing Tori knows, she’s in 1980. The world—and NYC, for that matter—is very different than what she knows. She finds herself becoming allies with a teenage version of her father, on a mission to stop the jewel theft and perhaps correct the course of their family’s lives.

Getting used to a world without cell phones and the internet is not something that Tori ever wanted to do. It’s good to feel like you can have an impact on the future. But will she able to make it back to 2020? And will she have to share her secret with the 1980s version of her dad?

I’m a sucker for a time travel book, and this was a fun adventure. There was humor, emotions, family dysfunction, and so much more.

Book Review: "The Emperor and the Endless Palace" by Justinian Huang

“What if I told you that the feeling we call love is actually the feeling of metaphysical recognition, when your soul remembers someone from a previous life?”

Justinian Huang’s debut novel was my pick for our book club this month. A romantasy—which isn’t a genre I’ve read much of—that dealt with the idea of soulmates through time, it definitely provoked some interesting conversation.

The book alternates among three different narratives.

Dong Xian is a court clerk in the Endless Palace in the year 4 BCE. He wants to make something of himself, so when he is offered the chance to befriend and seduce the young emperor, he agrees. He does not count on the intrigue that surrounds him, or the one who wants to stop him.

In 1740, He Shican is an innkeeper who welcomes a handsome guest and his grandmother, who is very ill. Summoning his friend and former lover, a doctor, to help the guests, He doesn’t know what forces he is awakening.

In current-day Los Angeles, River, recently out of the closet, goes to a circuit party with a friend of his. There he meets Joey, a handsome man, whom he is immediately drawn to. Yet both have a feeling they know each other from somewhere, and River’s determination to find Joey again brings him up against a corrupt businessman.

This is a beautifully written book, although the few sex scenes were very odd for me, distracting me from the rest of the story. The ending was a bit abrupt and I don’t know if I made every connection between the three stories, but I was drawn in to the story.

Book Review: "Woke Up Like This" by Amy Lea

There are a number of ways to get to my literary heart. One is to manipulate my emotions. (I'm totally a sap, as those of you who have been following my reviews for a while should be aware.) Another is to throw me a time loop or time travel storyline. (I'm addicted.) So when it came time to pick my Kindle First Reads pick for September and I found that Amy Lea's Woke Up Like This was a YA rom-com with a time loop, what do you think I picked?

Charlotte Wu is a type-AAA high school senior. She's never met a situation that couldn't benefit from a checklist, and she thrives on being the glue that holds everything together. With just a few weeks left of high school, she's determined to check the last thing off her high school bucket list—plan the perfect prom. But standing in her way is JT Renner, her ridiculously handsome, charming nemesis, who wears "smedium" shirts (to show off his biceps) and serves as student council president. One day as the two are decorating for prom, Charlotte falls off a ladder—and JT's ripped body mostly breaks her fall.

When Charlotte wakes up, she's in bed...and then she discovers that she's somehow 30 years old and her fiancé is a bearded JT, who somehow is even more muscular than he was in high school. Is this some kind of practical joke? How did they somehow wind up 13 years in the future? How could they have wound up engaged when they absolutely hated each other in high school? And perhaps most importantly, how can they get back to 2024 and the last few weeks of high school?

Of course, finding a way back to the past isn't easy. And while it's difficult to constantly pretend they're in love with one another, as they occupy their future lives, they learn about what they've missed over the last 13 years and how much has changed. At the same time, Charlotte starts to realize that some of the things that annoyed her most about JT are actually kind of charming in adulthood, and there is a lot she never took the time to understand about him in high school because she was so mad at him.

As their feelings toward one another grow, Charlotte wonders what will happen if they can ever get back to their high-school selves. Will things be different between them? Will they even remember this time from the future?

I thought this really was a fun read. It's definitely predictable but I love the whole concept of seeing your future self and then using some of that knowledge to change your behavior. If you enjoy cute YA rom-coms with a little bit of a time loop thrown in, pick up Woke Up Like This when it officially releases October 1.

Book Review: "The Invisible Hour" by Alice Hoffman

Sometimes a book starts out so strongly, then veers into a strange and unexpected direction that completely takes you out of the narrative. Sadly, that happened to me when I read Alice Hoffman’s newest novel, The Invisible Hour.

Mia is a young woman who has spent her entire life in the Community, a cult in Western Massachusetts that forbids nearly all contact with the public, considers books to be evil, and punishes transgressors with unorthodox methods. Her mother died just before Mia was able to convince her to try and escape, leaving her under the harsh and watchful eye of Joel, her mother’s husband and the mercurial leader of the Community.

Although books are forbidden, Mia’s first time in a library changed her life. She started reading every chance she got, stealing books from the library and hiding them wherever she could. But her secret was discovered, and after several warnings, she is told to await her punishment the next morning.

That night she discovers The Scarlet Letter, and the book speaks to her in a way that no other has. So much of this book mirrors her life and that of her mother. But how could a book written several centuries before so perfectly capture the hell she is living in?

The book helps fuel her courage to escape, and she begins a new life, where she experiences the freedom to pursue her dreams without fear of reprisal, and is raised with love. But Joel is constantly able to track her down and let her know he is watching her, so she is often afraid to be out in public.

She also grows more obsessed with learning about Nathaniel Hawthorne, the man whose words continue to speak to her soul even after she is able to flee the Community. And then, through the magic and elasticity of time, she travels to the past, where she is both inspired and inspires, loves and is loved.

I enjoyed the early parts of the story, and felt the poignancy and desperation. I also really enjoyed Mia’s life once she escaped the Community. However, I felt that Joel was a very one-dimensional character, and his ability to constantly find Mia (even through time travel) was ludicrous.

And as much as I love a good time travel story, this portion of the book absolutely didn’t work for me. Sure, I had to suspend my disbelief, which wasn’t a problem, but the whole storyline felt very disjointed. I’m an enormous Alice Hoffman fan, but this book was sadly disappointing for me.

Book Review: "New Adult" by Timothy Janovsky

Nolan has dreamed of a career in stand-up comedy for years; he’s just waiting for his big break to come along. But despite waiting tables at a famous comedy club and getting the chance to perform onstage, his chance at fame keeps eluding him.

Barely able to make ends meet, his family keeps urging him to pursue a “real” career. And that’s not the only place where he’s stuck: he’s also totally in love with his best friend and roommate, Drew, but he’s afraid to tell him how he feels in the event he messes up their relationship.

When Nolan’s sister–clearly his parents’ favorite–is getting ready for a picture-perfect wedding, Nolan decides to bite the bullet and ask Drew to be his date. (And maybe it’s time to hang up his dreams of comedy success.) But during the wedding, he finally gets his big chance to fill in for a famous comedian. Does he follow his dream or stay at the wedding? Needless to say, his leaving mid-wedding and standing Drew up doesn’t sit well with his family or his roommate, and he has horrible, blow-out fights with all of them.

Left alone, Drew wishes on a set of magical healing crystals–a wedding favor–to skip to the good part of his life. When he wakes up, it’s seven years later, and his dreams have come true. He’s now a tremendously successful comedian who has made a fortune bashing romantic relationships. He has everything he wants, except a relationship with his family. And what about Drew? Drew is gorgeous, successful, and can’t stand the sight of him.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Nolan discovers that success isn’t all it’s cracked up to be without the people you love. But how can he convince Drew and his family that he deserves another chance after so much time has passed? Is he willing to give up his dreams to be the person they wish he could be?

I’ve enjoyed Timothy Janovsky’s earlier books, and this was a fun and moving read, definitely more emotional than I expected. Sure, it’s predictable and a little silly, but it may make you think twice about wishing on magic crystals anytime soon.

Book Review: "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

What would you change if you could travel back in time?⁣

⁣ I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this in bookstores. I’ve always wondered whether it was worthy of all the attention, but I never actually knew what it was about. Once I saw there was an element of time travel in the plot, I decided to take the plunge.⁣

⁣ There is a cafe called Funiculi Funicula located in a back alley in Tokyo. The cafe isn’t much to look at, but somehow it’s been serving coffee for more than 100 years. What’s the secret to its success? In addition to coffee, the cafe serves up a chance for people to travel back in time.⁣

⁣ Of course, there are a lot of rules to time travel. Some make complete sense and some seem unfair, but the cafe’s employees don’t have any flexibility. Above all, the trip back in time has to be short—travelers need to return to the cafe before the coffee gets cold.⁣

⁣ This book follows four different sets of travelers as they seek to revisit a point in their past. Essentially it’s like four interconnected short stories, but there’s a lot of repetition, because the rules have to be explained every time. I was hoping this would be a bit more inspirational for me, but I’m still intrigued by the concept of getting to travel back into your past. ⁣

Book Review: "Sea of Tranquility" by Emily St. John Mandel

A slow burn, but a mesmerizing, powerful story about connection, regret, love, music, and time travel.

Did you ever read a book and wonder how you might review it? Not because you aren’t sure how you feel about it, but because it’s so hard to describe? That’s the way I felt while reading this. I loved it, but describing it won’t be easy.

In 1912, a young Englishman has been exiled to Canada by his family after an awkward and inappropriate rant at a dinner party. After many stops and starts, he winds up in a remote town surrounded by a forest. When exploring one day, he looks up into a tree and hears the notes of a violin with the sound of an airship taking off. He doesn’t know what the sounds are or what they mean, but they shake him to his core.

Nearly 300 years later, a writer is on tour of Earth when one of her books about a pandemic is being adapted into a movie. The book contains a scene in which a man plays the violin in an airship terminal while ships depart. At the same time, there are concerns another plague may affect Earth.

Meanwhile, in 2401, a bored hotel detective living in a colony on the moon becomes obsessed with the question of whether life is real or a simulation. He volunteers for time travel and meets a young Englishman who thinks he’s losing his mind, a writer away from her family at the start of a plague, and a friend he’s seen at different stages of his life. Can he simply observe or will he change the course of time?

This is a gorgeous, thought-provoking book but it definitely won’t be for everyone. I love time travel and I love the way Emily St. John Mandel writes, so I was completely hooked.

Book Review: "One Italian Summer" by Rebecca Serle

This utterly bellissima book (look at me, speaking Italian) left me a giant puddle of emotions!

I don’t know why, but Rebecca Serle’s books hit me in a place that few others do. She deals with grief and love and choices and desires, and bends the concept of reality slightly, which might not work for everyone, but it definitely works for me. I loved her last two books, The Dinner List and In Five Years, and both had me in tears.

Katy’s mother Carol was her everything—best friend, confidante, advisor. To Katy, Carol knew everything about everything, and was always quick with a gift, some advice, a drink, food, a hug, whatever. Carol’s death has shaken Katy to her core, so much so that she’s not sure what she wants from the rest of her life, or even her marriage, now that her mother is gone.

Carol and Katy were supposed to take a trip to Positano, a place Carol had immensely fond memories of from her youth. Katy decides to take the trip—alone—in the hope that her mother’s memories will buoy her, point her in the right direction for the rest of her life. And there, Katy finds Carol—the Carol of 30 years earlier, at the crossroads of her own decisions. Katy learns things about her mother that she never knew, as well as herself.

Maybe it’s because I’ve experienced a lot of loss in my life, but Serle’s books resonate so much with me. In addition to the gorgeous imagery (not to mention all the food!), Serle imbues this book with love, regret, passion, grief, uncertainty—all such real, palpable emotions.

To Ariele Stewart and Atria Books, I say molto grazie for the advance copy of One Italian Summer in exchange for an unbiased review. You'll want to get your hands on it when it publishes on 3/1. (And for audiobook lovers, Lauren Graham narrates the audio version.)

Book Review: "She Wouldn't Change a Thing" by Sarah Adlakha

Would you change fate—even if it means losing what you love?

She Wouldn't Change a Thing was an intriguing story with a little bit of a Sliding Doors-esque feel, but it was very different at the same time.

Maria is a psychiatrist who never seems to have enough time—the demands of marriage, motherhood to two young girls, her third pregnancy, and her career leave her at wits’ end more often than not. Her husband wouldn’t mind if she didn’t go back to work after the baby is born, but she can’t imagine that.

One day Maria sees a new client who is clearly quite mentally ill. The woman fixates on a number of events, including a recent hurricane, but then makes claims about Maria’s life that disturb her. Shortly thereafter, the woman takes her own life, leaving a letter for Maria. But the police won’t let her see it until after the investigation is done.

And then Maria wakes up in her 17-year-old body. She wants to get back to her real life, but soon she realizes that she’s stuck in a time period just before a tragedy befalls her husband’s family. Should she stop it from happening, even though that could change the course of the rest of her life?

I’m always intrigued by books that involve time travel of some sort. I love the dilemma of wanting to change something without the butterfly effect occurring. My challenge with She Wouldn't Change a Thing, however, is that I found the plot a little too confusing at times and a bit meandering—there are a few threads that had to come together for it all to make sense for me.

Still, I love unique stories and if time travel intrigues you, definitely pick this up! (Other great time travel stories include Time and Again by Jack Finney, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and How to Stop Time by Matt Haig.)

Book Review: "Spin Me Right Round" by David Valdes

A gay, YA twist on Back to the Future? Yes, please, give me David Valdes' Spin Me Right Round! (Oh, and you'll probably find yourself singing the song, either the original 80s version or Flo Rida's.)

Luis’ high school is supposed to be “progressive,” but students aren’t encouraged to be out, so the thing Luis wants more than anything, to take his boyfriend to prom, isn’t allowed. And while his mother is fully supportive of his being gay, she worries about him making a big issue of this at school because when she was a student there, Chaz, a gay classmate, was found dead on the night of the prom.

As the student-body president and a favorite of many of the faculty, Luis thinks he might be able to find a way to trick the school into allowing same-sex couples to go to prom. But his hopes are quickly dashed, and he's not sure how to handle his disappointment and anger, or his mother's resistance to his speaking up.

When a bump on the head sends him back to 1985, he finds himself in his very same high school—and his parents are students. Luis is determined to let Chaz know it’s ok to be who he is, and hopefully save his life in the process. But a super-conservative school isn’t the best place to stand out, and if he changes the course of the past, how will it affect the future?

I loved Spin Me Right Round so much! It was fun and silly and sweet and thought-provoking and a reminder of how far things have come but also a reminder of how far they still have to go.

Thanks to Storygram Tours and Bloomsbury YA for inviting me on the tour and providing a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!

The book publishes 12/7.

Book Review: "One Last Stop" by Casey McQuiston

Casey McQuiston's upcoming novel, One Last Stop, proves that love can flourish in even the most mundane of places, like the Q train on the NYC subway.

For the longest time it was just August and her mother against the world. But helping her mother with her obsessive need to find her brother, who went missing in 1973, became too much to bear, so she left New Orleans to go to college.

She bounced from place to place, school to school, and finally lands in Brooklyn. She figures it’s a big enough place to be on your own and not connect with anyone. But she soon finds an apartment and a job, and becomes part of a circle of friends for the first time.

After a disastrous start to her morning on her first day of school, she sees her on the Q train. Jane is everything August is not—sexy, brash, outgoing, helpful, and utterly confident, the type of person who could start a dance party on a crowded subway train. August starts planning her morning commute in the hopes of seeing Jane—and she invariably always does.

But little by little, she realizes Jane isn’t your typical subway encounter. And it’s up to August, with a lot of help from her friends, to see if they can fix Jane’s “situation.” But what would that do to the potential of a relationship with August?

You can get more information if you read the plot synopsis, but I didn’t know anything about One Last Stop when I started it. It’s a very unique twist on a love story which will require suspension of your disbelief. (Or maybe this happens all the time on the subway, lol?)

I liked the chemistry between August and Jane, and I loved the diverse supporting characters. I just felt the whole concept of the story took so long to unfold and solve, and at times it dragged the pace of the story down for me a bit. But that’s not to say I didn’t get teary-eyed at times, because, well, I’m me.

McQuiston's first book, Red, White and Royal Blue was my favorite book of 2019, so certainly my expectations were high for this one. But I wasn't expecting her to write the same book, and that wasn't my challenge with this. I just felt that the whole wasn't as great as the sum of its parts.

NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin provided me with a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!!

One Last Stop publishes 6/1.

Book Review: "If She Had Stayed" by Diane Byington

If you had the chance to do something over from your past, would you?

Kaley has always felt a connection to Nikola Tesla, because her grandfather once worked for the famous inventor. Now she’s the acting director of a soon-to-be-opened Tesla Museum in Colorado Springs, a job she hopes will become permanent. (Only if she can raise enough money.)

After meeting with a potential donor, she is given an antique safe, in which she finds some long-lost papers which appear to be written by Tesla himself. She can’t believe what she reads. Was he delusional or did he really time travel? Imagine how this discovery could impact the world!

Even though her mind is telling her that time travel isn't possible, Kaley’s curiosity gets the best of her, so she builds Tesla’s time machine in order to see whether his words are true. She plans to go back to her college days to change her actions around one major decision in her life.

Will she get to her past? Will she kill herself in the process? What she doesn’t count on is someone less-than-honest from her past hiding things from her.

I’m a fan of anything time travel-related so this was an interesting read, meshing science and action and character development. At times it got a little confusing, but the story definitely hooked me, and I love the nuances Diane Byington brought to the story.

I was pleased to be part of the blog tour for this book. Kate Rock Blog Tours and Diane Byington provided me with a complimentary copy in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!!

Book Review: "Oona Out of Order" by Margarita Montimore

As if life isn’t complicated enough without time travel?

“How long ‘til my soul gets it right?”
—Indigo Girls, “Galileo”

NYC, 1982. It’s New Year’s Eve. At midnight, Oona will turn 19. She’s exactly where she wants to be—at a party with her beloved boyfriend and friends, and their band is about to perform. She has a tough decision to make: should she go study economics in London or should she stay and perform with the band? But regardless of what she chooses to do, she knows it’s going to be a great year.

Then the clock strikes midnight...and when she wakes up she’s 51 years old. She’s told by a friendly stranger that she has a condition where on the cusp of the new year every year, she leaps either forward or backward in time.

This discovery is bewildering for Oona. She tries to understand all that has changed in her world and the world around her, and as she connects with the constants in her life she tries to figure out how to spend the time until she can hopefully make it back to that night in 1982.

Oona Out of Order follows Oona as she travels back and forth through her life. Guided by advice from her previous self, advice she sometimes takes and sometimes ignores, she makes some big mistakes and some shocking discoveries. Ultimately she realizes the things she can and cannot change, and is buoyed by a series of loves.

This is a poignant, moving, tremendously thought-provoking book that is so beautifully written. I love books about time travel, especially those which deal with the emotional aspects rather than the scientific. There were so many wondrous moments to be found here.

I really enjoyed this and loved the characters, including the supporting characters, so much. I felt like it dragged a bit in the middle (maybe one too many leaps through time, even though each one added more depth to her story), but I couldn’t stop reading because I needed to know how Margarita Montimore would tie things up.

This is one I won’t soon forget.

Book Review: "The Ten Thousand Doors of January" by Alix R. Harrow

"There's only one way to run away from your own story, and that's to sneak into someone else's."

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a wild, magical, fascinating story about incredible journeys, love, family, loss, and loyalty.

At the turn of the 20th century January Scaller is a young, curious girl whose father travels for business, hunting the world for antiquities and oddities, so he leaves her in the care of his employer, the eccentric collector of artifacts, Mr. Locke. Locke treats January with some indulgence until he realizes she has a wild spirit that requires taming.

One day she finds a door in the middle of an abandoned field. When she steps through the door she finds herself in an entirely different world, a phenomenon she can hardly explain. Yet when she does try to share her find with Locke, she doesn’t understand the vehemence of his reaction or the punishment that follows.

Of course, when you are forbidden to act or think a certain way, it only exacerbates your need to do so. January starts to find that she has inexplicable skills that help her when needed.

One day she finds a strange book which talks of journeys between different worlds, mysterious doors, and ultimately, a love story, and she starts to see some similarities to things in her own life. But the more she tries to pursue these worlds, and find these doors, the more she is pursued, putting herself and those she cares about in grave danger.

This is a pretty magical story about the ability to travel through time and different worlds. It’s the story of finding courage when you are at your most vulnerable, and realizing that our assumptions about how people feel about us can often be wrong.

But as crazy as this story is, at its core it’s a love story, an adventure, a story of friendship, family, and how easy it is to fear the things we cannot understand. This book has memorable characters and is beautifully written. One trigger warning: there is some animal cruelty in the book, but it’s not a significant part of the book.

I enjoyed The Ten Thousand Doors of January, although I found it a bit confusing from time to time. It definitely requires you to suspend your disbelief. But if this type of book appeals to you it’s definitely worth the journey.

Book Review: "The Opposite of Always" by Justin A. Reynolds

Do you believe that there is one person out there for each of us? If so, should we do everything we can to find that person, and once we do, never let them go, no matter what it takes?

Jack King has spent most of his life pining for his best friend, Jillian. (Come on, their names are Jack and Jill. How could that not work?) She's everything he's ever wanted. But she's in love with Jack's other best friend, Franny (short for Francisco), and he can see how happy they make each other. So instead of finally working up the nerve to tell Jillian how he feels, he figures he'll live a lonely life, forever a third wheel instead.

One night at a party at the college he and Jillian will be attending in the fall, he meets Kate. She is beautiful, quirky, hysterically funny, and claims to be as awkward as he is. And suddenly, it's like, Jillian who? He falls quickly and totally for Kate, and even though she tries to resist him a little bit, he can tell she feels the same way.

"You're moving along life, doing your thing, managing your priorities and commitments—And then suddenly you meet THE ONE. And you fall completely out of the orbit you've been spinning in. And now you're doing laps around this new world. And you're hoping gravity can sustain you. But there's no way of knowing if it can until you realize it can't. Guess it's all an orbit of faith."

As the last few months of his high school days fly by, Jack's relationship with Kate grows more intense. And then one night, everything changes when she doesn't show up for an important occasion. He finds out that she's in the hospital, suffering from a genetic disease. She tries to push him away, saying she doesn't want his pity, but he wins her over. Victory, however, is short-lived, because she dies not long after, and his true love is gone.

But somehow Jack finds himself back at the moment he and Kate met. He can't explain it but he doesn't care if it doesn't make sense. All he knows is he wants to spend as much time as possible with Kate, which is, of course, hard to explain to someone he's just met. Armed with the knowledge that Kate's life may be short, Jack is determined to save her. But he quickly learns that altering the way life is supposed to flow has consequences, not just for Kate, but for his relationships with Jillian, Franny, and his parents.

Yet no matter how hard Jack tries, he keeps failing and Kate keeps dying. But even worse, he can't figure out what he's supposed to learn by having to live the same few months over and over again. And when he tries to make even more drastic changes, he winds up causing more hurt and anger in others' lives, and even putting those he loves at risk.

The Opposite of Always is a fascinating, thought-provoking, poignant book, one I enjoyed tremendously. Justin A. Reynolds has created a group of memorable characters and dropped them into the middle of an inexplicable situation, and then each time, it's like he shakes the dice a bit and a whole new scenario reveals itself, giving his characters even more to deal with. Jack and Kate are adorable, even if they're not always completely sympathetic characters.

I love YA rom-coms, and throwing a little time travel into the mix certainly took this book to a different dimension. As if the teenage years aren't confusing enough without time travel! Obviously this book requires a healthy dose of suspending your disbelief, but if you're a sucker for love stories, even tragic ones, and you like time travel, The Opposite of Always is one for you. It's a powerful reminder that sometimes the person most in need of saving is ourselves.

Book Review: "Here and Now and Then" by Mike Chen

I know I'm not the only one who finds novels about time travel utterly irresistible. It's not the science of time travel that fascinates me, although I'm always drawn in by the possible paradox of running into yourself somewhere in time. For me, it's more the thought that one single action, even the smallest gesture, can set off a chain of events that could change the world as we (or the characters) know it.

In Mike Chen's new novel, Here and Now and Then, Kin (short for Quinoa—when he was born the world was obsessed with naming babies after food) is a special agent for the Temporal Correction Bureau (TCB), in the year 2142. When a simple mission back in time to the 1990s gets botched, Kin finds himself stranded in the San Francisco suburbs—for 18 years.

After his initial panic gave way to acceptance, Kin realizes that he must live his life in the here and now of the 1990s, even if it isn't quite his real here and now. So he finds himself building a life—working in IT; keeping his marriage to Heather, a driven, science fiction-obsessed attorney, on track; and trying to maintain his relationship with their teenage daughter, Miranda. It's not all that difficult, but through the years he struggles with memory loss, debilitating headaches, and blackouts—evidence his brain is destabilizing due to all of the time travel.

Kin tries to write off his episodes as PTSD, but as they increase in frequency and intensity, they take their toll on his marriage and his relationship with Miranda. When the TCB's retrieval agent finally locates Kin, and readies to bring him back to 2142, Kin isn't sure he wants to leave the life he has known, even if he knows he never should have had it in the first place. And when he returns to his present-day, Kin is shocked to find he had a completely different life he left behind. How can he return to his "old" life when his wife and daughter are back in the past?

"Did a missing past even matter anymore compared to human touch in the here and now?"

As Kin tries to re-acclimate to his life and those in it, he longs for his daughter. When his efforts to keep in touch with her across the years inadvertently put her in danger, Kin realizes the only thing he can do is travel back in time to save her, even if it means the end of his life and the end of his relationships in current time. It will take courage and strength he's not sure he has anymore, and the luck of time, which he hopes is on his side one last time.

I thought this was a fun, poignant book, full of suspense and emotion. At times it got a little too technical for me (science is so not my thing, even if it's fictional science), but the story had so much heart, and you wanted to root for everyone, even if that meant not everyone would get what they wanted. Kin is a terrific character, even if you wanted to smack him sometimes so he'd just say what he was feeling.

Here and Now and Then is an enjoyable addition to the time travel genre. But even if you're not a time travel fan, there's enough emotion, heart, and character development to sink your teeth into. And who knows? Maybe it will even get you thinking about who you'd travel through time for!

NetGalley and MIRA provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Do You Realize?" by Kevin Kuhn

George just needs a break. He hates his middle-management job, his teenage kids are a hassle, and he feels as if he and his wife just aren't connecting anymore. Why can't he return to the less-complicated days, when he and his wife were in the flush of love, and his whole life seemed ripe with promise?

One day, on his train ride to work (the timing of which he has down to the second), the seat next to him is taken by a sloppy, jovial, headphones-wearing, bearded guy named Shiloh. But rather than exchange small talk, Shiloh asks George an interesting question—"What is love?" What ensues is a fairly philosophical and scientific conversation, far more intriguing than a typical conversation you'd have on the train.

As strange as the conversation was, George hopes he sees Shiloh again. When he does, another philosophical and scientific conversation ensues, which leaves him wondering just what Shiloh is trying to tell him. And then one day, Shiloh asks him for a favor: would George be willing to beta-test an app he has developed for the soon-to-be-released Apple Watch? At first, George wonders whether this request is some sort of scam, but when Shiloh gives him the watch, he figures, what can he lose?

When George's family experiences a traumatic event, he discovers that Shiloh's app is actually a time-adjustment app, which allows George to travel back in time. But there are restrictions on this travel—he can't go back further than 25 years, and he can't do this more than 10 times in total—and he also learns that he's traveling to alternate versions of the past, so any changes he tries to make may have a ripple effect down the road, but it might not change what actually happened.

Shiloh and George's friendship deepens, and he tries to get George to realize how important it is not to take life for granted. And as his family is further tested, George must make a decision about whether the past is worth changing, or if life is worth living no matter what happens.

Do You Realize? was tremendously thought-provoking and intriguing. How many of us have wished we could have done one thing differently in our past, wondered about the ripple effect of one event or one action? George is definitely an everyman-type character; the challenges and frustrations he has are felt by so many on a daily basis. But as always, it is how we respond to adversity that characterizes us.

With great power comes great responsibility, and with Shiloh's app, he suddenly has the power to change things. But how do you know what to change? Do you risk altering the course of a tragedy at the risk of something else occurring? Do we focus too strongly on one crisis at the expense of allowing another to happen? These are the intriguing questions Kevin Kuhn raises in this book.

I found this story to be very engaging and compelling, and Kuhn did a great job getting me hooked almost instantaneously. He definitely tells a really enjoyable story. My one criticism of the book—and it's a minor one—is it's a little more science-y than I could handle, and Shiloh's explanations and diatribes tended to run a little long for me. It was a little more telling than showing, but it didn't affect my overall enjoyment of the book.

This type of book may not appeal to everyone, but don't be put off by the time-adjustment element. While it does add another dimension to the story, at the same time, the core of the book is more about dealing with the challenges that life throws at us, and how we need to pay attention to what's in front of us.

The author and Beaver's Pond Press provided me a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "Invictus" by Ryan Graudin

Looking to take a bit of a rollicking ride, meshing time travel, history, and science fiction? Check out Ryan Graudin's Invictus, and get ready to head into the future—and back into the past.

Farway ("Far") Gaius McCarthy is the son of a time traveler from 2354 AD and a gladiator from ancient Rome. For all intents and purposes, he shouldn't have even been born, since his existence challenges the laws of time. Growing up hearing of his mother's exploits throughout time, there is nothing he has wanted more than to follow in her footsteps.

When Far fails the final exam he needs to be admitted into the government's time travel program, he insists that someone hacked into the system, but his dreams are crushed. So when he is offered the opportunity to captain his own ship and lead his own crew, he jumps at the chance, even if it means being under the thumb of a criminal, who forces Far to travel throughout time, stealing valuable antiquities and black market delicacies.

As captain, Far hits his stride, and he and his crew travel through time, sometimes barely escaping danger, but never missing an adventure. And then on a journey to steal a valuable book from the Titanic before it sinks, Far encounters Eliot, a mysterious young woman whom he believes he's seen before, and who always seems to be just a step or two ahead of him, throwing his missions into chaos.

It turns out Eliot is more connected to Far than anyone knows, and has secrets that have major ramifications for his future and those of his crew—not to mention their pasts. Yet as much as they don't know whether to trust her or fear her, they have to decide whether her warnings about the imminent danger to time are true, and if so, what they can do to change things before everything changes around them.

Invictus is a fun adventure, one which raises interesting theories of time and how the slightest moves can impact the world and history. Graudin has created a fascinating cast of characters, full of quirky personalities, and you find yourself rooting for them to get out of the scrapes in which they find themselves, even though in many cases they're technically committing crimes.

The plot gets a little bogged down and confusing at times, borrowing elements from Blake Crouch's Dark Matter and other sci-fi novels that touch on the concept of multiple universes. I felt like things could have been tightened up a bit, because it took a while to resolve everything. But Graudin's storytelling is really entertaining, and I think this could be a fun movie, kind of a Firefly with a little less bad-ass attitude.

NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

Book Review: "All Our Wrong Todays" by Elan Mastai

If Back to the Future and Dark Matter had a baby, the end result would be Elan Mastai's slightly crazy, tremendously compelling All Our Wrong Todays. While it's not as zany as the former, or as heart-pounding as the latter, it's a really creative, thought-provoking book with a lot more heart than you'd expect from a novel about time travel.

Tom Barren lives in 2016, but it's not quite the 2016 we all know—it's more like the vision of the future we all had when we were growing up, the vision that science fiction and fantasy novels we might have read or movies we might have watched made us believe was a possibility. You know, flying cars, a world where your needs for sustenance, grooming, fashion, and activities are fulfilled with the touch of a button.

"Today, in the year 2016, humanity lives in a techno-utopian paradise of abundance, purpose, and wonder."

But given this paradisaical existence, why isn't Tom happy? His father is the leading authority on time travel, who can barely hide his disdain for his ne'er-do-well son, and he's about to unveil a major advance in that field, one that could further change the world for the better. Yet Tom destroys every professional opportunity, every personal relationship, every situation he gets involved in. And he couldn't care less.

One night, Tom suddenly thinks he gets what he has always wanted. Yet his actions have unexpected consequences, consequences which lead him to recklessly travel back in time 50 years, when the discovery which set the world on the path to utopia it currently enjoys. But much as everything Tom touches, this, too, goes awry, and while Tom is able to return to 2016, it's no longer the world he knows—it's our 2016 instead. And Tom (whose name is apparently John in this alternate version of 2016) finds a new version of his family, which actually seems more appealing than the one he left, and another version of the woman of his dreams, who is apparently smitten with him as well.

Should he stay in this version of 2016, even though he knows it is wrong, and that his actions have utterly changed the course of history, or should he try and figure out how to set things right and return the world back to the utopia it has known, even if his life kinda sucks? Given the fact that almost no one believes his stories about the world he's from, it's going to require a lot of convincing, a lot of fighting the alternate versions of himself, and tracking down the original genius who started it all.

"So, how do you go about changing the last five decades of history in a world where time travel is considered an amusing thought experiment? Even if the science existed, in the absence of crucial advances in related fields—teleportation, immateriality, invisibility, even simple component manufacturing—the whole endeavor is futile."

While at times the book got a little too technical and/or confusing, All Our Wrong Todays really made me think. How would you deal with a reunion with a loved one you've lost, even if they're not the exact person you knew? If the world around you seems happy, why do you have to put aside your own happiness—something you've never truly felt—to restore a different kind of happiness? (It's amazing the questions you ponder in a book about time travel.)

I found this really entertaining and utterly fascinating. I think this book would make one hell of a movie, and it really is an interesting book to read after Dark Matter, because it confronts some of the same themes. If you like books about time travel, saving the world, and a good, healthy dose of personal and family dysfunction, this is one for you. It definitely was for me!

NetGalley and Dutton provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!