“Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

 Fresh, exciting, and deeply romantic, Time Between Us is a stunning, spellbinding debut from an extraordinary new voice in YA fiction.”

Title: Time Between Us

Author: Tamara Ireland Stone

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Publishing Date: October 9^th, 2012

ISBN:  9781423159568

 Special thanks to Disney-Hyperion and NetGalley for providing me with this eARC! You can get your own copy on October 9^th, 2012!

 Once you read the first chapter of Time Between Us, you will not want to put it down until you read the final chapter. The opening is so mysterious that I couldn’t wait until all the pieces fell together. The book opens in San Francisco in the year 2011 with an older Anna. She watching someone: a young Bennet, who she hands a letter to, saying that if she says the wrong thing at that moment, they may never meet at all. Bennet, realizing that she knows his time travel secret, takes the letter. Will Anna’s delivery of her letter change everything?

Back in Chicago in the year 1995, Anna sees a boy while out running. He smiles at her, but then he…Disappears? When Anna goes to school, she sees the boy again: he’s the new kid, Bennet. However, Bennet never remembers seeing Anna earlier that morning. It’s only when there’s a robbery at the store Anna works at, and Bennet uses his time travel ability to save her, does Anna begin to figure out the truth about Bennet. Bennet is from San Francisco in 2012, but is back in Anna’s time and place to look for something he lost while time traveling. But what will happen when Anna and Bennet start to fall in love with each other?

I loved the immediate intrigue at the beginning that left me wondering what the letter said and how it would affect Anna and Bennet. I also loved Anna’s British best friend Emma, who was strong, quirky, and such fun to read about. A great debut novel from new author Tamara Ireland Stone.

Cynical Cindy Says:

 I was really looking forward to a lot more adventure and time travel, but the pace of this book was surprisingly slow; time travel ended up taking a back seat to the romance between Anna and Bennet. I was also disappointed not to see more San Francisco, different time periods, or how Anna and Bennet dealt with the differences of living 17 years apart. I really wanted to see Anna and Bennet dealing with different popular culture, being curious about the differences between the 1990s and the 2000s, and struggling to see if they have a true future together. I never really felt that we fully explored how Bennet got his abilities, or the true risk of changing the future; instead of a romance that could span through time, I personally felt that it was just like any other romance story. All in all, I recommend this book if you’re looking for a romance with a slight twist; but if you’re looking for a story based on adventure and time travel, you might want to look elsewhere.

3 out of 5 teacups.