Ana was meant to spend the summer before college visiting German castles and drinking in myths of saints and miracles. But when Ana attends a party in the sacred caves of Eadin forest, an earthquake strikes and the partygoers stumble out into a snowy landscape to find a furious battle raging. In the chaos, Ana is separated from the group and realizes she’s been transported to the 14th century with no evident way to return. Nothing is as it seems, and Ana finds herself caught in a power struggle between the church, the men of the North, and a magnetic young lord who is determined to use her as a bargaining chip.
Time travel is generally hard to wrap one’s head around and I like it best when it’s just magic—a magic phone, or an apartment with a weird relationship to time for instance—because I can accept magic more easily than I can conceive of a multiverse or even the most basic explanation of quantum physics. Stories about traveling through time help us remember that people from the past were just like us, and, probably, people from the future will be too. They also lead to the kinds of hijinks and misunderstandings that often make for the perfect meet-cute and heart-wrenching decisions about where in time we truly belong. Sometimes they connect us with earlier versions of ourselves and, as Joan Didion once warned, it is important not to lose touch with the people we used to be.
Time travel romances are also a great escape from the mundane present, and also for the complication of a star-crossed romance with all of its complications, but a guaranteed happy ending. We all deserve a little trip away from the right now. Pack your bags, we’re going time-traveling. Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle and beware of time slips, loops, and wrinkles in time.
Landline by Rainbow Rowell
A magic phone connects Georgie, a television writer who is considering leaving her marriage, to the version of her husband she met in college. She finds herself celebrating Christmas without her family, and she must figure out if her phone calls with her past are an opportunity to fix her marriage before it even began, or if she and her husband would have been better off if they’d never gotten married at all.
The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Ashley Poston is one of my favorite romance writers. In The Seven Year Slip, a woman named Clementine inherits her late aunt’s apartment. Mourning the loss of her favorite person, she comes home one day to discover a man standing in her kitchen—a man who exists seven years in the past. How can they pursue their connection when she, quite literally, exists in his future?
Time Loops & Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau
When Noelle Tom is given dumplings at a night market and is told that they will give her what she needs most, she doesn’t expect to end up in a time loop. Now she is living the same Friday over and over again, doing the same work at her job. Cam, a brewery owner, keeps appearing in multiple places in her Friday—is he the key to getting unstuck in time?
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
From the author of Red, White & Royal Blue, One Last Stop introduces us to August, who is 23 and believes that being alone is the best way to go through life. New to New York City, she lives with a bunch of roommates and works at a 24-hour pancake diner. She develops a subway crush on a woman named Jane—only to discover that she is literally displaced from the 1970s.
Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson
In this YA novel, Andre Cobb recently underwent a liver transplant and then, days later, awakens in 1969, where he meets a boy named Michael. Upon his unexpected return to present-day Boston, he meets his donor’s family and is told that his new liver came with a side effect—the ability to time travel. Blake, the family’s youngest son, is tasked with showing him how to control his newfound power. Andre is torn between the past and the present—and between Michael and Blake.
Time and Time Again by Chatham Greenfield
Here’s another YA novel. Here, Phoebe has been stuck in August 6th for nearly a month. Every day is the same and is consumed with research on how she might finally reach tomorrow, and a long-awaited appointment with a doctor who might be able to help her with her IBS. A car crash brings someone else into this time loop: her childhood crush, Jess. Now Phoebe has something new to worry about—if the time loop ends, will Jess’s attentions end too?
This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
A love story spanning time and space, This is How You Lose the Time War tells the story of two agents on opposite sides of a conflict. Both are trying to ensure the best possible future for their faction, but if they’re found out, they will both be put to death. Can they change both the past and the future?
No matter which direction you choose to go from here, I hope you’ve enjoyed our trip through love stories that span years, decades, or more.