This was an interesting premise. I enjoyed the book as a whole, but it took me a bit to get into it. Some of the early chapters seemed immature and silly, like it should be youth fiction. I'm sure I rolled my eyes a few times. As we get to know the main characters, Clementine and Iwan, I found it more interesting. Clementine travels back in time by 7 years one day after entering her aunt's apartment (that was willed to her after her aunt's death six months previously). Her aunt had always told her that there was a magical component to the apartment, and Clementine believed her aunt on some level, but had never experienced anything magical herself.
So, Clementine meets Iwan in her own apartment, with Clementine being her current age and Iwan being 7 years younger. It's pretty obvious who Iwan is in Clementine's current time, but of course it doesn't occur to Clementine for far too long. Eye roll. Clementine's aunt had told her to never fall in love with someone she meets in a different time, but she does, of course.
You are probably wondering what I liked about the book by now! I actually liked the character development. We oftentimes think we want something when we are younger, and maybe even succeed at what we thought we wanted - or what was important to us at the time. But people change. Priorities change. We don't always have to stay the same. The cliche "life is a journey" applies here. A person's life doesn't have to follow a straight path. More often than not, it's more rewarding to following a winding path through life with some switchbacks included.
Clementine doesn't initially like the current day Iwan when she figures out who he is. Or she thinks that he has "lost" some of the charming, innocent, idealist goals he had 7 years previously. She thinks he has "sold out". I love how she came to terms with her own unrealistic perceptions about Iwan, as well as herself and both of their goals, past and present.
Wendy's Rating: ****
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