Overseas

Title: Overseas

Author: Beatriz Williams

Genre: Romance, Fantasy

Time: 6.6 hours

I’ve read a couple of Beatriz Williams books and usually the format was two sets of characters from two time periods (present day and sometime during the past) and the chapters go back and forth between the two time periods.  This one still had 2 time periods but involved more or less the same major characters.

How, you ask?  Well, this particular Williams book has a fantastical twist to it where time travel is possible.  I know this was supposed to be a love story and it started out with me drawn in to their budding romance but eventually I lost interest on that as I really just wanted to find out how the time travel happened.  I thought there was this sinister, experimental group kinda like in Lost orchestrating the whole thing but it turned out that it was just a guy who had some sort of X-Men superpower of transporting people to the past or future. 

The iffy thing with using time travel in a storyline is that you have to consider the ramifications of going back to the past.  The slightest change in the past could cause a ripple effect that can drastically change the future.  By Kate going back, wouldn’t she have somehow have changed something, something inane at that time, that would have an effect to the “future” she would then return to?  Would it not create 2 versions of the future? And which one is the “real” one?  I can go on and on about the “realistic-ness” of using the time travel plot, but it can never be realistic, though, can it? ..because time travel is not real in the first place >.<

Another iffy thing about the story was when Kate was finally made to believe that time travel is real, why couldn’t Julian just then tell the whole truth that she went back to the past to warn him that he’s gonna die?  So that if they fail to stop that in the current time, Kate would be more prepared when she goes back in time, like hoarding all the jewels she can find, maybe read up on the 1916 time period (god knows what would have happened if she boarded that boat) and Julian would have told her a few things to help convince “past Julian” into believing her,  They could’ve saved a lot of heartache if Julian would have been just like, “Hey Kate, now that you don’t think I’m crazy, here’s the thing… you're gonna back to the past to warn me that I’m gonna die in the future, crazy right?  I don’t know who’s after me coz you weren’t exactly brimming with info when you told me… but in case that happens sometime soon, let’s prepare for that… you’re gonna need lots of jewelries coz that cash and credit card you’re carrying ain’t gonna work there.. so you can now stop bitching about you being a gold digger coz you’re gonna need that shit..” But instead, he was all like, we’ll take about that later, let’s have dinner first.. When I read that, I was like, really?!  That shit ain’t gonna fly with me.  We’re not eating ‘til you tell me everything. That happened a lot in the book... dragging things out like, we’ll talk about it later after you’re rested.. we’ll discuss it at dinner after I’m done with the military thing I’m doing… I’ll tell you everything in a week.  I’m like just get to the point and spill.. ugh!

Edit: And that I've thought about it even more, why didn't Kate just go back in time to a week before Julian "died"?  Why go all the way to 1916 and make it complicated... It would have been much easier for her to go back a week and tell him, "Hey, you know that Arthur guy who seems totally harmless?  Well, our wedding will make him snap as he has some weird love affair thing going on with you that you have no idea about... so he might try to kill me and you'll end up sacrificing yourself.. so you know, inviting to our wedding might not be a good idea..."