Between Now and Then by Adam Fitzroy

Title:  Between Now and Then

Series: N/A

 Author: Adam Fitzroy         

 Genre: Contemporary/Time Travel

Length: Novel (182 pages)

Publisher: Manifold Press (February 1st, 2013)

Heat Level: Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts

Blurb:  It’s 1991, and a group of English football fans are driving across Belgium; their trip takes them through the site of a former battle, and that’s when a strange sequence of events begins. For Dennis and Allan, colleagues who cordially dislike each other, this means journeying further still – into what appears to be the past, and into the lives of two men who travelled this way seventy-five years earlier, whose unfinished love-affair remains to be played out in full. As they move backwards and forwards in time Dennis and Allan have only themselves to rely on, no markers to show them where they’re going, and no real certainty of ever finding their way home again.

Product Link:  http://www.manifoldpress.co.uk/2013/01/between-now-and-then/

Reviewer:   Artemis

Review:   This story starts out in a rather lighthearted way with an interesting collection of friends, coworkers and acquaintances heading out on a journey to watch a sports game.  They bicker, tease, nag and argue but everyone seems to be getting along okay.  The journey home poses some problem when the ferry company they used goes belly up and they are forced to find an alternate route home.  The route they choose takes them into a rather isolated area on a long stretch of empty road.  Pitch black with an eerie mist rolling in; the author does a great job of portraying the slightly spooky surroundings just as Allen starts acting very strangely. As he dives out of the car with Dennis fast on his heals they seem to cross a barrier of sorts that leads them back in time.  In ‘real life’ Dennis and Allen have a sort of casual dislike for each other.  As they are thrust back in time they begin to replay a 75-year-old love affair between two World War 1 soldiers.

I found it interesting how the author had Dennis and Allen essentially living two lives each.  While they had the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of their current selves they also had those same things floating around in their heads from their 75-year-old counterparts. It created quite a bit of tension within the characters minds as they tried to decide whether they liked each other or not. 

I enjoyed this story.  Not only the main characters but the secondary characters were very well written as well.  It is written with a very heavy British influence in terms of the writing style and some of the phrases were totally new to me but I had no problem understanding them in the context of the story.  Overall, a very well written story with a nice time travel twist.