Book Spotlight- A Question of Time

Title: A Question of Time

Author: Joanne Renaud

Genre: Time Travel Romance

            If you could go back in time to save the man you loved, knowing it might cost you your life, would you do it?

            When I read Joanne Renaud’s A Question of Time, this was essentially the main crux of the heroine’s problem. I was instantly sucked in by the dilemma.

Here’s the official blurb: Years later, successful author Celia Cavalotti is still mourning the death of her favorite teacher, who died in a car crash in 1989. But when a car accident of her own hurtles her back in time to the week of his death, she has a chance to change the future.
Finding herself in the 1980s is a shock to the extremely modern Celia-- but even more shocking is seeing her dead English teacher, Alan Forrest, alive and well before her very eyes. Alan is far more handsome than she remembers, and she can't resist the urge to flirt. After all, they have so much in common, like writing and a shared love of science fiction. Celia knows she's falling in love with him-- but can she use this opportunity to prevent his tragic death? What is happening to her? And why can't she seem to stay in one place and time?

My Review:

The story appealed to me from the beginning. I was in love with the concept of a teenager loving her teacher from afar and then years later having the chance to go back in time and save his life. Celia’s character is easy to identify with as a reader. I readily enjoyed her internal monologues about how she became a science fiction writer and how it was her former teacher, Alan who had shown her the path. There is something to be said about losing an influential figure of in your life at a young age. The tragedy of the loss can affect your future decisions. I think Renaud did an amazing job making me, as the reader, sympathize with Celia about losing Alan when she was a student. By that point, I was desperate for her to go back in time to save him.

When Celia and Alan first meet in the past after she goes back into time, I found myself captivated by the budding love affair of the older, wiser, more jaded Celia as she meets Alan again as an adult. He doesn’t know she’s his former student from the future, and the emotional and physical chemistry is instant. I felt so involved in the relationship as I read, watching their new love affair and knowing it was going to end tragically. I wanted to stop reading, but couldn’t put it down because I had to know what happened!

           

I'm not going to lie. This book actually did make me cry. While the beginning reads pleasantly, almost nostalgically, I was completely unprepared for the ending. I mean that in the best possible way. I'd expected another delightful time traveling romance that swept me away on a sweet, sensual love story. I got that, certainly, but the ending was beyond my expectations. Renaud did an amazing job, stunning job, of creating the perfect scenario to wrench a reader's heart. I don't want to give any spoilers, but I was definitely wiping tears off my kindle screen by the time it was done.

Who wouldn't want to read a story about losing someone you cared about and being a second chance to change fate, even if it might mean you lose your own life in the process? Great sacrifice, great love and fantastic writing were all here and I can't wait to see what this author has in store next. I'll be there with bells on waiting for her next release.

Excerpt:

“That’s a great book,” a voice said behind her.
She was so startled she almost jumped. Whirling around, a bespectacled young man stood behind her.
Could it be? As her eyes grew huge, the blood drained from her face.
“Uh, miss,” he said, clearly concerned. “Is everything all right?”
“I—uh—yeah, sorry. I’m all right,” she managed to say, but still continued to stare. He was hardly as fashionable as the metrosexuals and neo-preppies back in New York. With his gray corduroy sports coat, pressed blue shirt, and belted brown high-cut trousers, he looked very much like a teacher from twenty-one years ago. He wore his dark blond hair mid-length and feathered, in a left side part; and he had a serious, earnest sort of face, narrow, but with a firm jaw, defined chin, and a long, straight nose.
But the most noticeable thing about him was his glasses. His huge brown-tinted plastic frames seemed to cover half his face. They looked ridiculous, but they somehow intensified his eyes, which were very blue.
It was him. It was definitely him. Mr. Forrest.


Check out more about the author here:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/suburbanbeatnik
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Joanne-Renaud/1240083950
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4379632.Joanne_Renaud
Portfolio: http://www.joannerenaud.com
Tumblr: http://suburbanbeatnik.tumblr.com/

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