Title: Steam
Author: Jean Johnson
In: The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance (Trisha Telep)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Romance, Time travel
Dates read: 29th December 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: Heat suffused his face.

David has just inherited his family’s mysterious uncles estate. What he finds is a trip through time and the woman of his dreams.

I loved the premise of this story. Actually, a lot of it reminded me of The Alchemist’s Key by Traci Harding. Same idea of a modern setting and time travel. An eccentric family member bequeathing an estate to an unsuspecting young man. And ultimately, the guy finding true love as an aspect of all his time travelling activities. It was just quite sweet.

However, there are a series of letters throughout this romance to the two leads, from themselves. Which tells them that they end up together. Which, quite honestly, took a lot of the romance out of it. The excitement of finding out how they were going together and what barriers would be in the way were just completely removed. Which was a little bit frustrating.

I did love the loop effect of time though. The idea that what they are doing has been done before so that they know what to expect. But then I wonder where the loop starts. It all becomes very confusing. Does that mean that life is preordained and they don’t get any choices? Is everything in their lives outlined in these letters? Time travel is confusing.

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Image source: Goodreads