While we sit in the space between, where there’s neither Outlander or Blood of My Blood (a spinoff show I was surprised to actually really like!), let’s explore some other books in the category that a particular two-hearted alien coined “timey wimey”—a literary space that includes the familiar type of time travel that was made popular by Outlander, Kate & Leopold, and, of course, Somewhere In Time, but also includes those other time-related phenomena that invoke shows like Quantum Leap and Timeless, movies like Groundhog Day and Palm Springs, and other pop culture spaces that I can’t particularly think up right now.
These can invoke the time traveler, who is capable of moving backwards and forwards through time with the help of either science or magic, or time loops, in which a person is living through the same period of time over and over. There’s the time slip, when someone unintentionally ends up in a different time period, and of course, there are the random ones that just…don’t have a name yet. Since Alex talked about time travel romance just a few months ago, I’ve tried to make sure to expand upon that list instead of repeating things. If you want more, I have written multiple times about time travel, including why there aren’t many time travel romances centering Black characters.
So here are some romances that veer away from the familiar “person winds up in a different, unfamiliar time period and stays there until they can get home” variety.
The Redemption of Philip Thane by Lisa Berne
A historical time loop story! Philip Thane is a pretty terrible person. When he’s voluntold by a family elder for a speech at a small town’s bizarre fall festival, he winds up in the last place he wants to be. But at least he’s met a lovely young woman on the way, and she’s there to see the festival for herself. After mucking up the speech and getting trapped in town because of a snowstorm, he wakes up the next morning…except it’s the previous one again. And again. And again. His only hope is Margaret, the clever, curious woman who inspires him to try to make each day a better version of the previous one, and maybe even become a better person for it.
Rewind by Eva Vaughn
Amina gets a second chance at life after a violent end to the first time around. Waking up five years in the past, she thinks she’s dreamed up the whole thing, but she remembers things that haven’t happened yet. What will she do with the opportunity to escape the neglect and abuse from her husband, and also the chance to confess her interest to her crush, the doctor she works for as an office manager? Having five years’ worth of unlived memories can cause issues (and does), but it can also make life work out for the better.
Remember Me Tomorrow by Farah Heron
What do you call the kind of time-weirdness where you might be sharing the same space, but not at the same time? Aleeza has been transferred to a new dorm room, which turns out to be the room that belonged to a missing student. Studying to be an investigative journalist, Aleeza sets out to discover the mystery of the missing Jay. But in a weird turn of events, she can talk to Jay through their residential student app—at least when they’re both in the room. But not Jay right now—that would be too easy. She’s talking to Jay several months ago, before he went missing. Between the two of them, they might be able to figure out what happened, and stop it from happening this time around.
A Swift and Sudden Exit by Nico Vicenty
In a future where humanity has essentially been wiped out, Zera is part of a team exploring the scorched remains of Earth to discover what happened and how they might reverse it. When the organization she works for comes up with time travel, she is picked to be on the first exploratory mission, where she meets Katherine at the literal end of the world. In a very “hello Sweetie” moment, Katherine asks if this is the first time they meet, and so begins an exploration of the storms leading up to the big bad one, and meeting Katherine across decades in the 20th and 21st centuries.
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