Title: Time After Time

Author: Lisa Grunwald

Publisher: Random House 2019

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 401

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

On a clear December morning in 1937, at the famous gold clock in Grand Central Terminal, Joe Reynolds, a hardworking railroad man from Queens, meets a vibrant young woman who seems mysteriously out of place. Nora Lansing is a Manhattan socialite whose flapper clothing, pearl earrings, and talk of the Roaring Twenties don’t seem to match the bleak mood of Depression-era New York. Captivated by Nora from her first electric touch, Joe despairs when he tries to walk her home and she disappears. Finding her again—and again—will become the focus of his love and his life.

Nora, a fiercely independent aspiring artist, is shocked to find she’s somehow been trapped, her presence in the terminal governed by rules she cannot fathom. It isn’t until she meets Joe that she begins to understand the effect that time is having on her, and the possible connections to the workings of Grand Central and the solar phenomenon known as Manhattanhenge, when the sun rises or sets between the city’s skyscrapers, aligned perfectly with the streets below.

As thousands of visitors pass under the famous celestial blue ceiling each day, Joe and Nora create a life unlike any they could have imagined. With infinite love in a finite space, they take full advantage of the “Terminal City” within a city, dining at the Oyster Bar, visiting the Whispering Gallery, and making a home at the Biltmore Hotel. But when the construction of another landmark threatens their future, Nora and Joe are forced to test the limits of freedom and love.

I was a bit confused about this book at the beginning. I thought it was a straight-forward historical fiction novel, but nope, there’s was definitely a fantastical element to this novel. I immediately fell for Nora and Joe and wanted to watch them through the years. And overall, I really loved reading their story. I was not a huge fan of the second romance featured. If the book ended about 75 pages before it actually did, this one would have earned 5 stars from me. As it stands, I did enjoy this historical fiction.

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