Time After Time by Tamara Ireland Stone

Posted 14 November, 2013 by Nikki Wang in 2013, Book Review, sequel / 4 Comments

TIme After Time by Tamara Ireland Stone
Series: Time Between Us #2
Published by Macmillan on October 8, 2013
Genres: Contemporary, Love & Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Pages: 352

Calling Anna and Bennett’s romance long distance is an understatement: she’s from 1995 Chicago and he’s a time traveler from 2012 San Francisco. The two of them never should have met, but they did. They fell in love, even though they knew they shouldn't. And they found a way to stay together, against all odds.

It’s not a perfect arrangement, though, with Bennett unable to stay in the past for more than brief visits, skipping out on big chunks of his present in order to be with Anna in hers. They each are confident that they’ll find a way to make things work...until Bennett witnesses a single event he never should have seen (and certainly never expected to). Will the decisions he makes from that point on cement a future he doesn't want?

Oh Anna and Bennett, our time torn couple. How I love your sweet and adorable and heart rendering romance.I love Time After Time so much more than Time Between Us (although you have to love Anna’s POV!). I have no idea why, but I just did and their romance makes me want to cuddle them both, then live in a hole because I will never have as sweet a relationship as them.

Then again, I’ll never have one as complicated either, so there’s that.

Obviously the romance is the focus point of the book, and it’s complexity. Bennett’s been breaking a few of his rules and he may have seen something that makes reality crash down. And when it does, and what he did…my heart sort of (read: really) broke apart. Time After Time is one of those books that leads you on, makes you think everything is fine and dandy, before it gives you a blow to the chest that absolutely kills you. There were so many times I worried over the question “What if he can’t go back again?” and there was just a lump in my throat. That’s how much I loved the couple.

They were both so cute together and they understood each other so well too. Anna rarely got angry over the fact that Bennett couldn’t always be there. She accepted it and fought for him, loving him for being him. And Bennett just…well, he loved Anna and it was as simple as that. It’s that typical-not-so-typical teenage romance you have to love.

Stone does a wonderful job with character building and we can definitely relate to a few of our characters. Anna, Bennett, Brooke, even Justin with his crush. They’re each complex characters and seeing how each of them have changed, even subtly, was great! We meet Brooke as a person for the first time instead of just a missing sister, and I loved how she interacted with her parents and Bennett, even Anna. She was a fabulous sister, and now I totally want to steal her!

Time After Time is a brilliant sequel that, while has a sci-fi element, has that contemporary feel to it that brings out a nostalgic side of you. It’ll make you love the characters more than you did before and break your heart a few times before delivering the perfect ending.