Time will Tell by M. Ullrich

Book received from both Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review

My greatest problem with this book is one of preconceived notions, of presumptions about what the book would be about. I thought it would be a time travel book - and while it, ultimately, became one, I expected it to become one much sooner - like 10 to 15% into the story. Especially with that prologue.

But that isn't even the real issue - no, it's that this is a tragic love story, a tragedy. And I had expected a romance, or, baring that, a time travel story. And got a tragedy.

It's one thing to enter a story like 'Romeo & Juliet' knowing that it is a tragic love story. It's quite another entering thinking you are reading a romance.

I've grown up with science fiction - the first 'things' I read were science fiction stories. I've seen many variations over time - variations on just what time travel means, and what is or isn't possible. I've also grown up with the concept of multiple universes, multiple time lines. And the only way this story works, is by using multiple time lines/universes. It's inherent in the story structure. Hence my seeing this as a tragic love story. I'm not blind to the epilogue. Now insert here a long spoiler section that I can't actually include on my blog as I can't seem to make spoiler work correctly. Though it does work on GoodReads.

Remove the time travel aspect from the book description. Remove the time travel aspect from the book itself - and there would be a rather interesting book here. One filled with tragedy and abuse - and ultimately, one would hope in this altered book, redemption and happiness. Though, of course, it wouldn't have been 'perfect'.

The foregoing is why I had trouble enjoying the book as much as I might have otherwise. First off I was zooming along, awaiting the appearance of time travel plot - and not paying as much attention to the actual plot as I should have. Second off . . . well, all that stuff I wrote in that spoiler section above.

Rating: 3.33

November 6 2017