A new year means a new challenge and in 2022, Ariel and I are exploring the romance genre. Welcome to our first post of the Romance Throughout the Year challenge! January’s prompt was time-travel romance, giving us the opportunity to experience different time periods through our characters. Let’s take a look at what we thought of the prompt, our shortlist of books and what we read.
January Prompt: Time-Travel Romance
Discussion of the Prompt:
One of my close friends, Heather, loves romance and I mentioned this challenge to her. She said time-travel romance is a sad prompt and that was the first time when that clicked for me. I have only read The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger which would have fit this prompt too and it is indeed a sad book. I learned with Time After Time that ‘sad’ does not mean there is no hope. Some of my favorites books are those that take me on a roller coaster of emotions and you know a book is well written when it can convey sorrow to the reader. Ariel, what did you think of the prompt and the kind of stories/endings it would more likely have?
Not being familiar with time travel romances at all, I wasn’t entirely sure what to pick! It was difficult finding a book that was both interesting to me and available at my library. I ended up with A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong. I saw that many time travel romances were historically based, and I was thinking it would be fun to find a sci-fi romance with time travel, like in This is How You Lose the Time War. However, I found that there were not very many books in that niche!
Some other books we considered for this prompt (see all potentials on Storygraph January Prompt page):
| Kriti | Ariel |
| What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon | Mary, Everything by Cassandra Yorke |
Ariel’s January Romance Pick
A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong
(Find it on Storygraph and Goodreads)
Synopsis:
Thorne Manor has always been haunted…and it has always haunted Bronwyn Dale. As a young girl, Bronwyn could pass through a time slip in her great-aunt’s house, where she visited William Thorne, a boy her own age, born two centuries earlier. After a family tragedy, the house was shuttered and Bronwyn was convinced that William existed only in her imagination.
Now, twenty years later Bronwyn inherits Thorne Manor. And when she returns, William is waiting.
William Thorne is no longer the boy she remembers. He’s a difficult and tempestuous man, his own life marred by tragedy and a scandal that had him retreating to self-imposed exile in his beloved moors. He’s also none too pleased with Bronwyn for abandoning him all those years ago.
As their friendship rekindles and sparks into something more, Bronwyn must also deal with ghosts in the present version of the house. Soon she realizes they are linked to William and the secret scandal that drove him back to Thorne Manor. To build a future, Bronwyn must confront the past.
General Thoughts of Book
What really brought me to this book was the horror elements of the synopsis. I liked the idea of hauntings mixed with time travel mixed with a murder mystery romance. Overall, it was a quick read and there were some plot elements that I felt weren’t mind-blowing, but all in all it was a solid read! There’s a sequel that looks like it would be also very fun, and I may consider it for future prompts.
Kriti’s January Romance Read
Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
(Find it on Storygraph and Goodreads)
Synopsis:
A magical love story, inspired by the legend of a woman who vanished from Grand Central Terminal, sweeps readers from the 1920s to World War II and beyond, in the spirit of The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
On a clear December morning in 1937, at the famous gold clock in Grand Central Terminal, Joe Reynolds, a hardworking railroad man from Queens, meets a vibrant young woman who seems mysteriously out of place. Nora Lansing is a Manhattan socialite whose flapper clothing, pearl earrings, and talk of the Roaring Twenties don’t seem to match the bleak mood of Depression-era New York. Captivated by Nora from her first electric touch, Joe despairs when he tries to walk her home and she disappears. Finding her again—and again—will become the focus of his love and his life.
Nora, an aspiring artist and fiercely independent, is shocked to find she’s somehow been trapped, her presence in the terminal governed by rules she cannot fathom. It isn’t until she meets Joe that she begins to understand the effect that time is having on her, and the possible connections to the workings of Grand Central and the solar phenomenon known as Manhattanhenge, when the sun rises or sets between the city’s skyscrapers, aligned perfectly with the streets below.
As thousands of visitors pass under the famous celestial blue ceiling each day, Joe and Nora create a life unlike any they could have imagined. With infinite love in a finite space, they take full advantage of the “Terminal City” within a city, dining at the Oyster Bar, visiting the Whispering Gallery, and making a home at the Biltmore Hotel. But when the construction of another landmark threatens their future, Nora and Joe are forced to test the limits of freedom and love.
Delving into Grand Central Terminal’s rich past, Lisa Grunwald crafts a masterful historical novel about a love affair that defies age, class, place, and even time.
General Thoughts of Book
Time After Time is a touching tale about a girl stuck in time. Nora Lansing died in an accident at Grand Central station in the 1920s but something about the station and Manhattan seems to bring her back. She meets and falls in love with a leverman at the station named Joe. What follows is a poignant yet heartwarming story about love that transcends time, set in the backdrop of the Second World War and the rustic and amazing world of Grand Central station.
I enjoyed this book for many reasons. One of them was Nora herself. As a girl from the 1920s, after the Great War, her perspective allows the reader to contrast the role and attitudes of young women from 1920s to the end of the 1940s. The love for travel and art is deeply ingrained into this book. Nora is an ambitious young woman and her eye for natural beauty and keen observations helps depict a rich world. She may not be able to go far but she takes full advantage of the place she inhabits. To me, she symbolises passion, the pursuit to live with freedom even if it is within some constraints. Her love for travel and art and her unique situation allows her to connect with Joe in an emotional manner in the last part of the book that I don’t think he would ever completely understand, having always had the choice to live and do what he pleases.
Joe is a loving character. I enjoyed the relationships around him in his roles as a brother, brother-in-law, uncle and lover. Since time for Joe moves like it does for everyone else, I learned a lot through his perspective of the story. The struggles of living through the Great Depression, the tug of war around whether America was going to be able to enter the Second World War, the aftermath of Pearl Harbour, the responsibilities of taking care of family, picking up the pieces and rebuilding life when the war was over. I loved reading about the changes that happen to Grand Central through both the characters, particularly through Nora’s multi-decade experience.
Nora loves Joe dearly for who he is and he loves her because she is unique, kind and refreshing. What a beautiful tale with a spark of life that is unforgettable! I will reread this book time after time.
What’s a time-travel romance that you love or would like to read?
February prompt is Regency Romance. Will you be joining us for that? Check out the challenge page here or follow along on Storygraph!
Cover image: Photo by Osman Rana on Unsplash
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