I read this book over the course of a few days.

I enjoyed this book, but really it was okay. I don't feel touched by it, and as someone who cries at tv shows, movies, and books (heck, even sometimes songs) it is telling that this book did not make me cry. I did have dreams about it, though, so that's something. The book interested me right from the beginning. Sometimes it takes a few chapters to get into the characters, but they were right there and easy to grasp on page one or two.

This book was recommended to me several times, partly because I really enjoyed another set of books that had to do with people having past and future lives. I'm not sure why people thought that if I enjoyed that, I would enjoy this. It is different. Henry's time travel is somewhat the same, but not really. Honestly, I found this book very straightforward and not at all confusing in the lives of Henry and Clare. The author dictates their ages and dates right at the beginning of each section.

The writing itself was very good. The story was a bit of a mixed up love story. I do have a few complaints. First, about 3/4 of the way through the book, I found myself wondering if the author is truly a woman. She used the word "cunt" a couple different times. I never hear women use that word, and I never read it in books written by women (with the exception of Nora Roberts once when a man was using the term). However, she had her female character use it twice and one that fits the profile of a woman unlikely to use it. It was jarring to read that word and there are several other appropriate words that could have taken its place.

Another reason I wondered about the author's gender is she has clearly not birthed a child after 1995. Her lack of research into the topic was frustrating to me. I had children in 1999 and 2001 (actually about 6 months prior to when her character had her child). I birthed both my children in Omaha, Nebraska which I can only imagine is more conservative in health and delivery care than Chicago, Illinois. As far as I can tell, it is standard practice in most hospitals to have the labor room and the delivery room to be the same room. There is not transport of mother unless into a surgery room for a Cesarean section, which is not what Clare had. They also have not shaved women in years and years. All she had to do was ask somebody who had birthed a child in a hospital around the year 2000 to get a more accurate portrayal of birth, let alone call a hospital maternity ward. My opinion of the author's research and writing went down the drain after reading that scene.

Finally, I was wondering why you would send an infant or toddler out and about with a father who is known to disappear with little warning without somebody else around. It seems like a bit of parenting common sense that Henry normally would have thought through. Since nothing actually happened, it did not affect the story, but it also jarred me.

Overall, this is an interesting story, but it is not something I would recommend fondly.