Helpful Score: 1
I want to start this review off by saying that "Time After Time" is not a bad book. Boring at times, yes, but not bad. If I had not already read the first book in this series "Time Between Us," I might even say this is a pretty good book. The main problem with "Time After Time", is that it is the second book in a series but offers next to nothing new or different from the first book. The main focus is still the relationship between Bennett and Anna, but I felt the book lacked the urgency and drama I would expect for a couple living years and thousands of miles apart. And the problems that do arise were all previously introduced in the first book.
The new elements we do get (various time-traveling sidekicks and attempts to "save" people) could have been really fun, exciting, and suspenseful, but even they fall flat due to dull execution. Someone is about to die, and you are traveling back in time to save them. This situation should be wrought with stress and anticipation, but the writing does not convey these feelings. Combine this with the fact that there are next to no repercussions to the timeline when Bennett goes into the past and messes around with people's lives, and you find yourself with an unbelievably disappointed reader.
I think overall there are a lot of things the author could have done with the second installment of this series. Unfortunately, what we are given is, at its heart, a rehashing of the first book from a different point of view. Even a retelling could have been really interesting and fun (think "Midnight Sun" by Stephanie Meyer), but somehow the plot managed to take an exciting concept like time travel and make it horribly boring. The only really exciting, suspenseful thing in the entire book happens about 60% of the way through, and even then it is only suspenseful for about a chapter, and then brushed aside completely.
I just kept finding myself reading page after page hoping for more, waiting for something good to happen, and getting more and more nothing. The ending was even too neat and left no questions or cliff hangers at all. I have no interest to read any more books in this series because I have literally no questions or "what ifs" that I need answered.
I would only recommend reading this book in two situations: 1. You have not already read "Time Between Us", since this book is basically a re-do of the first book from Bennett's perspective. And even in this case I would suggest you read the first book as it is overall a much better read. 2. You are unbelievably head-over-heels obsessed with time travel romance books, in which case you might really enjoy this even if you have read the first book. This was overall a very disappointing sequel and, unfortunately, has turned me off to the remaining books in the series (assuming there are additional books, although I have no idea where the plot could go from here honestly).
The new elements we do get (various time-traveling sidekicks and attempts to "save" people) could have been really fun, exciting, and suspenseful, but even they fall flat due to dull execution. Someone is about to die, and you are traveling back in time to save them. This situation should be wrought with stress and anticipation, but the writing does not convey these feelings. Combine this with the fact that there are next to no repercussions to the timeline when Bennett goes into the past and messes around with people's lives, and you find yourself with an unbelievably disappointed reader.
I think overall there are a lot of things the author could have done with the second installment of this series. Unfortunately, what we are given is, at its heart, a rehashing of the first book from a different point of view. Even a retelling could have been really interesting and fun (think "Midnight Sun" by Stephanie Meyer), but somehow the plot managed to take an exciting concept like time travel and make it horribly boring. The only really exciting, suspenseful thing in the entire book happens about 60% of the way through, and even then it is only suspenseful for about a chapter, and then brushed aside completely.
I just kept finding myself reading page after page hoping for more, waiting for something good to happen, and getting more and more nothing. The ending was even too neat and left no questions or cliff hangers at all. I have no interest to read any more books in this series because I have literally no questions or "what ifs" that I need answered.
I would only recommend reading this book in two situations: 1. You have not already read "Time Between Us", since this book is basically a re-do of the first book from Bennett's perspective. And even in this case I would suggest you read the first book as it is overall a much better read. 2. You are unbelievably head-over-heels obsessed with time travel romance books, in which case you might really enjoy this even if you have read the first book. This was overall a very disappointing sequel and, unfortunately, has turned me off to the remaining books in the series (assuming there are additional books, although I have no idea where the plot could go from here honestly).
