December 3, 2012

Time Between Us - Tamara Ireland Stone

Time Between Us Tamara Ireland Stone book cover
Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone
Publisher: Hyperion
Publication Date: October 9, 2012
Source/Format: BEA 2012 || ARC
[I received this book from the publisher. This in no way affects the opinions expressed in my review.]

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet. After all, he's from 2012, and she's from 1995. But when Bennett's ability to travel through space and time allows him to be a part of Anna's world, they fall in love.

Sweet. Whenever I think about Time Between Us, this is instinctively the first descriptive word that comes to mind. It was such a lovely little novel, especially as Anna and Bennett meet, form a friendship and then fall in love. While the time travel aspect lends an air of light science fiction, this book mostly came across as a story of a boy with this mysterious ability and the girl he fell in love with who loved him back.

It took me a while to get warmed up to the novel, but once I did, I ended up really enjoying it. The best part of this novel, to me, is the romance. I absolutely adored the relationship that developed between these two. Though the circumstances under which they first meet are a little strange, I quickly got over my weird feelings and embraced the friendship and love. There's just something beautiful and magical about falling in love with someone, and the author does a clever job of making what would have been an ordinary teenage relationship into something that's a little bit different (and not just because of the time travel!). There's a lot of push and pull, a lot of "go for it" versus "I can't, I shouldn't, I won't", and that tension made reading the moments between them unbearable at some points.

The time traveling simply became a part of their reality. There would, in other novels, be more of an explanation as to why Bennett possesses this ability. In this case, though it would have been interesting to find out why he can do it, it was not actually necessary. The book was primarily focused on his relationship with Anna, and how they would manage to overcome the barrier that this time travel presented to them.

Time Between Us comes across as more contemporary, than science fiction - and that's a good thing. The beautiful complexity that characterizes any budding relationship comes across quite clearly, all while being out of the ordinary because of what Bennett can do. The author did a wonderful job making Anna and Bennett easy to fall in love with, and the end product is this book that's sweet, enjoyable and very unique.

19 Comments:

  1. Yay! I was already really excited about reading this soonish and now you've made me even MORE excited! :) I love cute romances and this sounds like just the kind of book I want to be reading around Christmas time :)
    Also: I'm reading Scent of Magic right now as well :D

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    1. The romance is so, so sweet. I absolutely loved reading about their relationship!

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  2. I'm really happy it comes off as more contemporary than sci-f! The only thing that's stopping me from reading this was the time travel, but it sounds like that's not a huge part of the book.

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    1. It's in the book, and there are certainly some rad moments related to it. But this primarily came across as a contemporary novel to me!

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  3. That's how I felt when I read this book too! The romance was definitely my favorite part and I didn't mind that it was "light" on the sci-fi/time traveling aspect. Glad you enjoyed it!

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  4. I've seen this book on a number of blogs and have already fallen in love with the cover -- but then I'm told TIME TRAVEL is part of the story. Of course it must be good! Seriously, though, this book looks awesome! I will definitely have to check it out. :)

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    1. You should read it! The romance is so cute. There's this one particular moment that made me so, so happy when I read it.

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  5. I actually liked that we didn't get bogged down in the hows and the whys of why Bennett was able to time travel. It was just kind of accepted as an ability and we got to focus more on the love story.
    I really enjoyed this one!! Glad you did too :)

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    1. Agreed. Sometimes, I like knowing the logic behind things like time travel. Other times, like in this book, I didn't mind that it was just accepted as a fact!

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  6. I think it's nice to sometimes not question the 'why' behind something (like time travel), especially when primarily dealing with a more romantic plotline. I just don't think the sci-fi stuff would've fit as well had Stone gone with it. Every once in awhile I can use a good "sweet" story, so I'll keep this one in mind for when one of those moments pops up.

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  7. I really adored this book and glad you did, too. I agree, the best part about this book is the romance. It's so heartbreaking yet beautiful and well told.

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    1. I was rooting for them to be together in the end, though Bennett is such a creeper at the start, haha.

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  8. I don't read many books like this but I am so intrigued by this story, everyone seems to be raving about it. Your review has made me really want to read it, thanks for posting, Alexa! :)

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  9. Great review. I bought the book but haven't read it yet.

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  10. I'm ashamed that this book has been sitting on my shelf since June :( I really need to get on this, especially since I'm in the mood for a good YA contemp.

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    1. Ooh Tara, definitely read this! It's really cute, plus it's a fairly fast read.

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  11. This is a very sweet book! Something perfect for a light read and romantic.

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  12. Oh this sounds so great, Alexa! I actually have been looking at this one for awhile because the cover caught my eye. It DOES look contemporary - but I love that there is a little sci-fi component to it. Sounds so perfect for me. I'm so excited to read it (one of these days)! Great review!!

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