Time after Time: A Novel Set in Maine

Last week’s posting announced the publication of the historical novel—The Reluctant Spy. This week, I’m doing a 180° flip-flop into contemporary times to write a review of a novel by a fellow blogger: Rian.

She has written a wonderfully warm and gentle novel—Time afterTime—that became a page-turner for me. It is so delightful that it totally took my mind away from physical discomfort as I iced my left knee each morning and evening the past couple of weeks.

The setting of the novel is Maine—specifically a lighthouse there which Annie, the main character, has bought after the death of her husband. His death draws her into a reassessment of her life and her hopes for the future. Putting aside the concern of her extended family, she moves to Maine to discover who she is now that she is no longer a wife.

In Maine, Annie meets a cast of characters who bring new interests and excitement into her life. There’s Abner who introduces her to the cove and beach, the winds and tides. There’s Jimmie who brings laughter and . . . delicious meals . . . into the lighthouse. And perhaps, just perhaps, there’s a ghost or two from the maritime past of Maine.

There’s the Bed and Breakfast nearby, the Bookstore in town, the remodeler who values the history of the lighthouse. And . . . there’s the diary, hidden for decades.

What drew me into this novel is the humanity of the characters. I normally read mysteries, by writers such as Louise Penny, Julia Spencer-Fleming, Deborah Crombie, Anne Perry, Charles Todd, Charles Finch, P. J. Tracy, Alan Bradley, and the list goes on. All these writers draw me into their stories with suspenseful plots and finely drawn characters, but often the characters may be just a little eccentric, just a little different from my next-door neighbor.

But in Time after Time, the characters are ones I’ve met throughout my life. They are warm, interesting people whose lives have the same ups and downs I’m experiencing. They remind me of characters in Anna Quindlen’s novels.

The story is what publishers call a cozy. It takes place in a small community in which the inhabitants care about and enjoy one another. In this, it reminds of a book that Arkansas Patti, another blogger, reviewed a few years back: Out to Pasture by Effie Leland Wilder.

On the basis of Patti’s review, I read that book and the four that followed. That book made me feel good. Made me feel that all works out to good in the end and that just around the next corner there is an enjoyable surprise waiting for us.

Time after Time did the same thing for me. It made me smile, laugh, cry, and know the deep, down goodness of humanity. I highly recommend it to you.

If you do decide to read the novel and enjoy it as much as I did, please leave a comment for Rian to read. That’s such a delightful part of publishing a book: reading readers’ comments!

Peace.