A review by oashackelford
When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer

5.0

Libby was born with an unusual birthmark over her heart. In her family, having that birthmark makes you a time-crosser, and she will live in two timelines, until her 21st birthday when she will be forced to choose one and give up the other.

Her first timeline is in Colonial Williamsburg in 1774 running the local public print shop with her mother. In this timeline she has a mother who loves her, a boy that she loves, and a cause near and dear to her heart.

Her second timeline is New York in 1914 before the start of the Great War. In this timeline she has a cruel mother, all the servants and money she could want, and no purpose in life. Libby is determined to stay in 1774, but ultimately the decision might not be up to her.


I liked this book so much. I like that there were romantic elements to the book, but it exists primarily as a historical fiction that serves to show the place of the same woman in two different classes of society and with different sets of challenges that would be presented to her in both. I love the care and attention to detail that was paid to both timelines and that she had things in both timelines that connected both of her lives.

Spoiler

I love love loved! that she got to be with Henry at the end of the book. I am so excited to see what happens to their daughter in the next book, and I am dying to know more about Hollingsworth's life in the 1500s. I will be honest, even though the stuff with the Marital rape was awful, I am glad it only happened twice and she was able to escape most of her torment, and then he died. I have said it once, and I'll say it again, better to be a powerful widow than just married woman in that time. But I am still incredibly glad that she got her happy ending.