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bookph1le 's review for:
Time Between Us
by Tamara Ireland Stone
Time Between Us has a very promising premise, but it take a long time to really get started, which made it difficult for me to get into the book. Once I got past the ho-hum high school psychodrama, though, the book did become more interesting and it posed some pretty fascinating questions about the implications of being given a chance to give your past a do-over. Some spoilers to follow.
I think my initial ambivalence of the book stems partially from the fact that I don't care much for Anna, and at some points I actively disliked her. She feels very sorry for herself because she leads a typical teenage life. She suffers from no real hardships to speak of, yet she mopes because she goes to school and doesn't have the life of a world-traveler. Cry me a river. She's lucky enough that she has parents who take on extra work so that they can send her to a swanky prep school, and though she's the least financially privileged kid there, she doesn't have to go without anything or suffer from any discernible financial difficulties. All this adds up to make her come across as a pretty whiny teenager, a situation that doesn't improve much once Bennett comes into the picture and she realizes the implications of his gift.
The romance fell flat for me as well. Anna doesn't really know Bennett yet she becomes pretty instantly infatuated with him, even though his initial encounters with her are, frankly, creepy. I wanted to see the two of them get to know one another and watch them fall in love, but I didn't feel this really happened. Bennett has more information about Anna than she does about him, so I could see why he didn't need much persuasion, but I thought Anna should have needed more. I'm always disappointed when I feel like an author doesn't delve into the psychology of why two people falls in love and, instead, they just kind of end up there.
Bennett is an okay character, though having the book told from Anna's point of view limits how much the reader really gets to know about him. His sister's disappearance is a complication, but one the characters seem to treat a little too casually. Bennett comes back in time looking for her but doesn't do much looking; instead, he's too busy dating Anna. I would have liked to see the two of them make a concerted effort to track his sister down. Later in the book, she magically reappears, and while that question may be answered in the follow-up to this book (because, of course, this simply must be a series--do any YA authors write stand-alones anymore?), it bothered me that it wasn't explained here. Bennett is decently developed, as far as the confines of the story will allow him to be, though, and he has the maturity that Anna lacks. I like that he thought about the implications of what he was doing instead of treating it like a carnival trick, as Anna seems to.
Later in the novel, things with Anna get worse, and I really disliked her when she threw a hissy fit over Bennett's reluctance to help her change a major event. I started to see Anna as selfish, and, indeed, there are several instances where she acts without thinking of how it'll affect other people. She does reflect on this at one point, but she can't bring herself to care much. Wow. I found her behavior hypocritical, because she doesn't mind exploiting Bennett's power to have a do over for something she's worried about, yet she's furious with him to discover that he's done things over. Granted, I think they're both wrong, but Bennett seems more aware of the wrongness than Anna.
So why did I give this book three stars after I've spent several paragraphs tearing it apart? It's because I do like Bennett, I do like the premise, and I think Anna shows some promising growth in the end. Being a teenager is difficult, and teenagers are given to a lot of impulsive behavior, so I can forgive Anna some of her foibles, but I was very relieved to find her maturing toward the end of the book. The very concept of time travel raises many, many interesting moral and ethical questions, and I get the sense that this is something that weighs heavily on Bennett's mind, which is good. I enjoyed the parts of the book that explored this territory and wish there were more of them. I was also satisfied that Anna begins to have an inkling of these later in the books, when she realizes that changes things could have profound effects on the course of the future. In all fairness, though, Bennett does seem happy to break his own rules in certain circumstances, so I have to take points away from him for that, but I can forgive him this flaw because he does have a sense that there are some lines he shouldn't cross.
Whether or not I'll read the sequel, I'm not really sure. Had this book started as strongly as it ended, I've have been racing to pick up the next, and while I am curious about what happens, I'm also worried that this will be a situation where the story drags out longer than it needs to. I think this book could have worked perfectly well as a one-off novel. It makes for an entertaining read, though, especially if you're not looking for anything too heavy.
I think my initial ambivalence of the book stems partially from the fact that I don't care much for Anna, and at some points I actively disliked her. She feels very sorry for herself because she leads a typical teenage life. She suffers from no real hardships to speak of, yet she mopes because she goes to school and doesn't have the life of a world-traveler. Cry me a river. She's lucky enough that she has parents who take on extra work so that they can send her to a swanky prep school, and though she's the least financially privileged kid there, she doesn't have to go without anything or suffer from any discernible financial difficulties. All this adds up to make her come across as a pretty whiny teenager, a situation that doesn't improve much once Bennett comes into the picture and she realizes the implications of his gift.
The romance fell flat for me as well. Anna doesn't really know Bennett yet she becomes pretty instantly infatuated with him, even though his initial encounters with her are, frankly, creepy. I wanted to see the two of them get to know one another and watch them fall in love, but I didn't feel this really happened. Bennett has more information about Anna than she does about him, so I could see why he didn't need much persuasion, but I thought Anna should have needed more. I'm always disappointed when I feel like an author doesn't delve into the psychology of why two people falls in love and, instead, they just kind of end up there.
Bennett is an okay character, though having the book told from Anna's point of view limits how much the reader really gets to know about him. His sister's disappearance is a complication, but one the characters seem to treat a little too casually. Bennett comes back in time looking for her but doesn't do much looking; instead, he's too busy dating Anna. I would have liked to see the two of them make a concerted effort to track his sister down. Later in the book, she magically reappears, and while that question may be answered in the follow-up to this book (because, of course, this simply must be a series--do any YA authors write stand-alones anymore?), it bothered me that it wasn't explained here. Bennett is decently developed, as far as the confines of the story will allow him to be, though, and he has the maturity that Anna lacks. I like that he thought about the implications of what he was doing instead of treating it like a carnival trick, as Anna seems to.
Later in the novel, things with Anna get worse, and I really disliked her when she threw a hissy fit over Bennett's reluctance to help her change a major event. I started to see Anna as selfish, and, indeed, there are several instances where she acts without thinking of how it'll affect other people. She does reflect on this at one point, but she can't bring herself to care much. Wow. I found her behavior hypocritical, because she doesn't mind exploiting Bennett's power to have a do over for something she's worried about, yet she's furious with him to discover that he's done things over. Granted, I think they're both wrong, but Bennett seems more aware of the wrongness than Anna.
So why did I give this book three stars after I've spent several paragraphs tearing it apart? It's because I do like Bennett, I do like the premise, and I think Anna shows some promising growth in the end. Being a teenager is difficult, and teenagers are given to a lot of impulsive behavior, so I can forgive Anna some of her foibles, but I was very relieved to find her maturing toward the end of the book. The very concept of time travel raises many, many interesting moral and ethical questions, and I get the sense that this is something that weighs heavily on Bennett's mind, which is good. I enjoyed the parts of the book that explored this territory and wish there were more of them. I was also satisfied that Anna begins to have an inkling of these later in the books, when she realizes that changes things could have profound effects on the course of the future. In all fairness, though, Bennett does seem happy to break his own rules in certain circumstances, so I have to take points away from him for that, but I can forgive him this flaw because he does have a sense that there are some lines he shouldn't cross.
Whether or not I'll read the sequel, I'm not really sure. Had this book started as strongly as it ended, I've have been racing to pick up the next, and while I am curious about what happens, I'm also worried that this will be a situation where the story drags out longer than it needs to. I think this book could have worked perfectly well as a one-off novel. It makes for an entertaining read, though, especially if you're not looking for anything too heavy.