Kindle is opening my horizons and Out of Time is a great example of the wonderful treasures you can find if you get lucky. Despite the 'paranormal romance' subtitle, Out of Time is really more of a time travel romance with a paranormal complication as part of the conflict than an actual paranormal romance, since neither of the leads go bump in the night, but it is a really good time travel romance.
An accidental trip to the past, lands Professor Simon Cross and his graduate Assistant Elizabeth West in New York during the summer of 1929. Being stranded out of time with only each other to rely on, allows the unacknowledged attraction between the pair to come to light and I enjoyed the way their relationship slowly -and steamily - builds into something more. (For those concerned with sensuality level, Simon and Elizabeth's relationship does become physical and the first love scene is descriptive but not as detailed as most main stream paranormal romance and nowhere near the paint-by-numbers descriptions of the more erotic stuff.)
All of the characters in Out of Time are interesting and fully fleshed with interesting back stories - even the supporting characters. But I really loved Simon and Elizabeth. The pair couldn't be more different. From a moneyed background, Simon is a man who has held himself back from life and relationships with all of their messy complications, so the accidental trip to the past pulls him way out of his comfort zone. Elizabeth's upbringing was almost on the opposite end of the spectrum, but she genuinely likes people and has a talent for relating to others, so she approaches their `ordeal' as an adventure and an opportunity to experience first hand all that this era has to offer.
Simon of course wants to be careful not to make ripples in time. But since they have to survive until they hopefully will be returned home, Elizabeth wins and they both find jobs and end up immersed in 1920's life - the trials and entertainments of the prohibition era itself add an interesting flavor to their story. But survival is going to be more than just making ends meet until it's time to go home. Simon's prescient nightmares and a more than human monster who has set his sights on Elizabeth, add an element of peril to the tale and provide the means to bring about an ending that takes the whole time travel part of the story full circle, which I always enjoy - it just ties things off so neatly.
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