Book Review: Time After Time by Wendy Godding

Time after time, I tell myself I’m done with science fiction and bad puns. Of course, then I realize that I’m not the type of girl who can just cut something out altogether. In other words, the reading of science fiction continues. As for the bad puns, from now on I promise they will be amazing puns. Yeah, you’re right. Not going to happen. If you’re going to take anything out of this introductory paragraph, it’s that you should read Time After Time no matter what the reviews say. Trust me, you do not want to read some of the sh-t people have said about this book.

The keyword that describes the plot of Time After Time is reincarnation. Abbie Harper always gets killed right before her eighteenth birthday by the same guy. To make matters worse, she dreams about those past lives too. When her past life as Penelope Broadhurst begins interfering with her present life, Abbie knows that things are changing. As Penelope falls for Heath Lockwood, Abbie meets Marcus and Rem Knight. One will love her, and one will kill her. So much is happening, but Abbie knows she has to save her future before anything else happens.

I will concede that I’ve seen similar plots before. However, Time After Time‘s plot is still pretty unique. There are gorgeous brothers, for heaven’s sake! And there’s death and reincarnation and romance too! That’s truly all a reader ever needs. What stood out most to me was the role of memory. Memory is something of a slippery element is this book – Abbie learns about Penelope, yet she also learns memories can lie or omit important details. The fact that her dreams are also her memories from past lives only further emphasizes the idea of memory. Yes, some parts of the plot are a bit confusing, but in my humble opinion, Wendy Godding is off to a solid start. She knows how to make a somewhat well-known plot her own.

I don’t think I’d get along with Abbie Harper if I knew her in real life. She’s hypocritical when it comes to her opinions of people. Additionally, I just couldn’t relate to her. It isn’t that she’s particularly dumb or anything. It’s probably the fact that she’s portrayed as what the author thinks a regular teen is like. As for the other characters, they’re also reminiscent of Abby. All the characters seem to blur into each other. Believe me, I tried to find a distinguishing characteristic for them all.

Time After Time is a solid debut. I think that Wendy Godding is still developing as a writer. While I didn’t particularly enjoy this novel, I guarantee you that a few novels from now, Wendy Godding’s writing will be spectacular. So I’ll keep reading her novels until that point.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Publisher: Escape Publishing (April 1st, 2014)

ISBN #: 9780857991485

Length: 247 pages (ebook)

Source: Netgalley