Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

About the book

Time Between Us is the debut YA novel by Tamara Ireland Stone. It was published by Doubleday on 25^th October and the book is 384 pages long.

Synopsis

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett’s unique ability to travel through time and space brings him into Anna’s life, and with him, a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, they face the reality that time might knock Bennett back 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—and what consequences they can bear in order to stay together.

(Taken from Goodreads.com)

What I thought

Before I started this book, I was a little nervous. The first book that I read about time travel was Julie Cross’ Tempest and I loved that book. I didn’t want this one to be too similar. Luckily, once I started it, I realised I was going to be reading something completely different.

Anna and Bennett were both fantastic protagonists and I loved them both. It made me so happy to see that they both have normal names. Instead of being thrown together and having an instant fall in love moment, Anna and Bennett have the kind of relationship that takes time. They have to get to know each other and to understand each other before there can even be a relationship. I really loved the build-up and the exploration of Anna and Bennett’s feelings for each other. Both characters are extremely down to earth and quite normal for the most part which is part of what made them so likeable to me.

Bennett is in fact the one who is only quite normal due to the fact that he can jump around the world as and when he likes and time travel. Unlike a straight forward time travel story, Bennett’s ability has quite a few restrictions and this made him even more fascinating to me. The way that his ability is revealed and explained was great as it allows readers to really get their heads around what is going on slowly, exactly like things are for Anna. The travelling aspect to this book was a huge plus for me as it made for some very interesting reading.

Anna has a fantastic relationship with her British best friend Emma. A lot of girls in YA novels are bitchy towards one another and there is often a sense of jealousy or love triangle rivalry going on but that is not the case in this book. It was refreshing to see two girls so close and stay that way throughout the story. As much as I liked Emma as a character, I wish that British-isms had been used more. Emma could have become a bit of a quirkier character that would have provided a bigger contrast with Anna, which would have been nice.

The thing about this book is that it’s a stand-alone which is a nice change compared with how many series there are at the minute. However, while this was a nice change, the ending wasn’t perfect enough for me. While I was happy with how certain things were wrapped up, it all seemed a bit rushed. The build up to this part is quite exciting and intense at times so to have the ending rushed was a slight let down. I wanted to know more about what happened but this wasn’t what I got.

Even though the ending wasn’t really what I wanted to read, this is an amazing book. Characters, plot and pacing are all spot on and I couldn’t put it down as I was so fully invested in Anna and Bennett’s relationship. Time Between Us is thrilling, romantic and daring – the things which make a great YA novel!