Worth A Read Yes
Length 416
Quick Review A love story conquering time and obstacles set in 1940’s Grand Central Station. A great light read for summer vacation.
Lisa Grunwald is a beloved author of six novels. She returns with her latest novel Time After Time. Grand Central Station is the setting for a fantastical love story beginning in the 1920’s and lasting through World War II and after.
Nora Lansing and Joe Reynolds meet under the gold clock in the main concourse of Grand Central Station on a crisp winter morning of 1937. They come from very different backgrounds but are drawn to each other anyways. Nora is an early 20s socialite in a dress that doesn’t quite befit her class. Joe is a leverman from a working class family in Queens. They don’t meet again until 1938, but Nora disappears suddenly. Joe is intrigued by the mysterious woman in the unusual dress. It’s not until two years later Nora reappears and they fall in love.
Lisa Grunwald narrates Time After Time in the third person told mostly from Joe’s perspective but Nora’s as well. In the beginning, the book jumps from their present to their pasts, but it is mostly chronological for the majority. The book consists of five parts.
I liked Nora as a character. She’s strong, vibrant, and determined during a time women were not allowed to be quite as free. Joe is a traditional man from Queens. I don’t like him much. He’s old fashioned and controlling. I can’t imagine a woman like Nora falling in love with a man like that under any other circumstances than set in the plot. She’s trapped and Joe is kind of the only option as far as relationships go.
The plot is slow but not boring. Time After Time is littered with clues, so I found the plot incredibly easy to guess. It’s not a bad book. Just a bit slow.
Memorable Quotes
“…Nora had come to understand the difference between infatuation and love. Infatuation was weather. Love was climate.”
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Title: Time After Time
Author: Lisa Grunwald
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 2019
ISBN: 9780812993431
