Review: Time travel writing is hard. This book gets it all right.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 14, 2014
There's one very good reason there aren't a lot of really good time travel romance books out there. Time travel is hard. There are all these rules (or should be). Remember Back to the Future? Marty McFly had this photo of him and his siblings and when he changed history by arriving in 1955, messing up his parents' first meeting, the people in the photo started disappearing.  We won't even get into the whole questions of killing (or otherwise stopping) Hitler or warning a country's government of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.When you write time travel, you have to concern yourself with all sorts of things like alternate timelines, changing the future so much that the world ends, or staying in the past so long you end up living along side your other self. Time travel is hard.Time and Forever is the story of Sherry and Lorena. They're two older women in their sixties, both living alone, who are just a little less than thrilled with their lives. Lorena lost her husband Dave to lung cancer. Sherry's husband cheated on her with a younger woman and they divorced. Both women are happy and well off, but they both want love in their lives. Sherry wants the love of a man she met in a London Tube in 1969. They shared a single passionate kiss and then never saw each other again. Lorena just wants Dave back.Over dinner one night, Lorena suggests to Sherry that they take a virtual reality trip back to younger days. When Sherry agrees, there's only one place she wants to go. London in 1969. When they arrive, looking young and beautiful again as women in their twenties, they go to a pub and Sherry runs right into her mystery man from the London tube. She and Jeremy pick up right where they left off.The romance is sweet, sexy, and satisfying. But what's more satisfying is how the story progresses. There were a few times where I wondered where the story was going. How in the world was the author going to resolve this story in a way that didn't leave me bawling at the inequality? Sherry and Jeremy are perfect together. Sherry doesn't want to leave. But what about her children?Lorena, who for the first half of the book is only Sherry's companion, in the second half, gets her own delicious and satisfying storyline.I loved this book. Loved it. Honestly, I considered leaving this review at those four words. "I loved this book." But that doesn't make for a very interesting review. So let me tell you that the threads of science, science fiction, romance, friendship, and family are all interwoven into a complex and delightful tale that has absolutely no faults at all. The editing is perfect, the characters are complex and fun, and when the book comes to it's conclusion, you'll be surprised and delighted.5 Unequivocal stars.