A review by si0bhan
Time's Echo by Pamela Hartshorne

4.0

Wow, just wow.

I’m going to be completely honest and say that this is not my usual kind of book. If the truth is to be known, I only own the book because I bought a pack of books which contained The Silver Linings Playbook and this was in it. Usually I’m really tentative about these historical period and modern day time slip novels, yet this one blew my mind. If I am to be one hundred percent honest with you, I enjoyed this more than The Silver Linings Playbook (and that book is the only reason I bought the pack). So yeah, you could say I’ve been blown away by this one.

From the get-go I was hooked. Within mere pages my tentatively had been blown out of the window and I was jumping into the book. I have the bad habit of sitting up until stupid hours of the night to finish a book I am enjoying and this one shocked me by falling into that category. I told myself I would read just one more chapter and the next thing I knew I was almost finished and decided it was not worth holding off the suspense and finished the book.

So shocked by how enjoyable the book was and I almost gave it five stars. Sadly, a couple of things let me down (and they are only tiny things, yet I tend to be too careful with my five stars).

First, however, I shall point out the good parts. The characters – both past and present – are amazing. I’d expected to be unable to connect with anyone due to the time slips and yet I was in love with both stories, on the edge of my seat to find out what happened in each period. All characters that appeared were brilliant, nobody being thrown in for the sake of it. I came to love (or hate, in some necessary cases) each and every character we meet. Throughout there is so much character development of both main and side characters that it is impossible not to fall into their worlds. And the stories – oh wow! Both past and present kept me entertained, leaving me curious as to what was to come next.

As for what let me down – and they really are tiny things. Mainly what lost the star was that certain things did not ring true. Don’t get me wrong, the research was brilliant, but certain speech patterns of people from the past caught me off guard. I found myself questioning whether they would really say such a thing, as to my ears it sounded a little bit too much like modern day speech. It is an easy enough thing to overlook but it did catch me off guard at first. The other thing, and this is completely personal and I’m sure others will disagree with my view, is the modern day love interest. I’m not sure how I feel about him being a historian. It is certainly interesting given the context but… I’m not sure, I simply found myself wishing he had a different occupation. It played in well with the story – I cannot fault that – but it seemed a bit too much for me. Of course, the fact that I’m not usually a fan of time slip novels probably influenced that small detail.

Nevertheless, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I’m glad I pushed aside my usual views and gave it a try!