Review: Time After Time by Louise Pentland

 Tabitha is stuck. She still lives in the small town she grew up in...the town she's barely ever left.

So, when her dad drops a bombshell over their weekly Sunday dinner, Tabitha takes a look at her own life. She lives firmly in her comfort zone and doesn't know how to break out. Sometimes she wishes she should go back and start it all again.

When she meets Bea, a free spirit like no one else she's ever known with an 'interesting' sense of style, Tabitha quickly befriends her, recognising in Bea the change she's been craving. But soon it becomes clear that more has changed than her new friend. Somehow Tabitha has been transported back to the 1980s.

With the chance to reinvent herself in another time, will Tabitha finally manage to move forward?

Review: Well this is a departure for Louise Pentland. I loved her Robin Wilde series and so I was intrigued to see what her next fiction novel would be like. I certainly didn’t expect time travel! The 1980s is such a hot time right now. It signifies such a time of social change and such a time of liberation for a lot of people and so it is certainly getting a lot of attention in all forms of media right now so I was pleased when I could read it in romcom form! I am the same age as Louise and so I think that it helps that we have a very similar outlook on the time period. I do sometimes struggle with fantastical elements in novels such as time travel but it really helped that this reminded me of ‘Who’s That Girl?’ by Alexandra Potter. 

Lpouise has said in interviews that she likes pretty names for the characters that she likes and Tabitha is a great character name for a very lovely character. Louise puts Tabitha through so much in this novel I am very surprised that she survived the book. She has the massive bombshell at the start of the book followed by many many revelations that she has to deal with throughout this narrative. She did such a great job coping with everything. It helps that she has some great characters to support her in the form of bestie Vivian and her new friend Bea. 

As mentioned, there are some major bombshells and big reveals throughout this book and a few of them were definitely predictable but some of them came out of the blue and can be fairly hard hitting. Tabitha does have to deal with a lot but she definitely has some gumption about her and some courage in her convictions. She deals with a rubbish boyfriend and some major family drama. I loved the Easter eggs dropped in throughout the book by Louise Pentland, there are all sorts of references in there for fans of the Robin Wilde series as well as viewers of Louise’s channel. I listened to the audio of this one and there were quite a few repeated phrases so hopefully audible does an update on this soon to remove those because they did interrupt the flow of the book somewhat. 

This is definitely something removed from what I would normally read but I enjoyed the humour and the heart that this novel has. I am definitely intrigued to see what Louise Pentland writes next!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US