Friday 1 November 2013

Review: Time After Time

Time After Time
Author:

Publication Date: October 24th 2013 by Corgi Childrens      
~A copy was provided by Random House Children’s UK, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.~



Calling Anna and Bennett’s romance long distance is an understatement: she’s from 1995 Chicago and he’s a time traveller 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?



 After reading  Time Between Us last year, I was kind of left with a bittersweet ending, though it somewhat, ended with a happy one. So I'm glad that Time  Between us wasn't the end, and was so excited to hear that the sequel was in Bennett's perspective. I think that was the best thing that could have happened, since it was Anna's perspective in Time Between Us and the experiences and her side of the relationship was already done,  and was there, so Time After Time would kind of be a repeat over.
It was really interesting reading from Bennett's perspective, since we knew how it affected Anna, and how she felt after he left, and now we know how he felt, and what he still feels. You can tell he really does love her, and despite how hard it is for them to be together, it could be so easy to give up, and for a while it felt like it was time to finally let go, but nothings ever that simple.

We also get to delve into Bennett's ability more, than what was in Time Between Us.
As Bennett's time travel becomes more obsessive, and with another experiment of changing little things to see if it was possible to advert something that kills innocent people, the aftershocks get worse. A high he's never felt before, headaches that seem nothing like the ones he used to get, and nose bleeds. But, Bennett feels good being able to do something useful with his abilities, and his father is looking at him like he's proud of him.

He's trying to see Anna as much as he can,  and for a while everything goes smoothly, until after going back in time to change something, and coming back on a high, he needs to see Anna, and suddenly he's knocked back with pain he's never experienced, and blacks out, only to awake...24 hours later. We never quite find out what happened there,  and for days he left Anna alone because he couldn't travel.

I thinks that's when he first realises that what he's doing, is truly dangerous.
Once tragedy strikes, Bennett, against Anna's will, catches a glimpse into the future, and he doesn't exactly like what he sees. You know what they say about eavesdropping, right? Well, Bennett, that applied right here. It has him wondering if all of this was worth it, and all he wants is for Anna to be happy, if it's with him, or without him.

I really enjoyed Time After Time, it was a perfect flipped perspective, the pacing was a little slow, but It was so addicting that it didn't bother me. With the same feeling of Time Between Us, we got more insight into Bennett, how much they really love each other by overcoming the obstacles.

 Rating: 4/5