Review: If the characters were a straight couple, this would be a national best seller.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2014
Libby Drew has added a wonderfully written, grippingly fast-paced addition to the time-travel genre (one I particularly value when well done, as this is).  If the characters were a straight couple, this would be a national best seller.If I don't enjoy the writing for its beauty, I don't want to be aware of the writing at all: I want to get caught up in the plot, in the characters, in the emotional connection of the central relationship.  And Libby Drew delivers. The writing is crisp and journalistic. It moves you forward and sets the scene.  This is a fascinating take on the idea of time travel as tourism, and on the notion of falling in love across time barriers (Jack FInney did this beautifully in his classic "Time and Again").Both of the main characters get a rich, in-depth treatment; the sad and lonely Saul Kildaire, and the complex but haunted Reegan McNamara.  The secondary characters are less fully drawn, but vivid enough to capture your attention and your interest.  The development of the emotional connection between the two men is choreographed elegantly, building in layers as the plot unfolds (or, rather, collapses) around them.Drew's development of the sci-fi aspect, crucial to the interest of the book, is well done: just enough detail to make it fascinating, not so technical as to make it tedious or implausible.  The core premise of time-travel here is essential to the plot, and makes this an edge-of-the-seat experience.  I can't say more without ruining it.My only very minor quibble is that no one ever says "I love you."  Men really do say that to each other.  I hope women writers don't think that they'll be thought inauthentic if they do that.  Not everyone needs to read the three little words: I do.I have to be grateful for gay men and straight women who write and read and love these m/m books in all their various sub-genres.  This would make a fabulous movie, but since the majority of straight folk won't read about gay men in love, it's up to us to keep the faith.  With books like this, it's an easy job.