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What a great story, I really enjoyed this one. It was strange at first how things were happening but as you were drawn further into the story you started to hope that things would stay back in time and then it all changes. Quite a good ending not the usual just wake up & its all a dream type thing. Definately recommend this book

It was good

In this intelligent and cleverly crafted time travel romance the heroine, local newspaper reporter Rosie Harford, finds that she has travelled back fifty years from early 21st century Britain to the same town in the 1950s.

The back cover suggests this as enjoyable reading for fans of "Life on Mars" (Link:Life on Mars Complete Boxset Series 1 & 2 [DVD] [2006]), "The Time Traveler's Wife," and "The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets."

I'd broadly agree with that, but of these this book is much closer to "Life on Mars" or indeed the follow-up series "ASHES TO ASHES - THE COMPLETE COLLECTION SERIES 1 TO 3 [NON-USA Format / Import / Region 2 / PAL]" except that this book has a female reporter sent back to the fifties instead of a male or female cop sent back to the seventies or eighties.

There are a number of clever touches which make the book more plausible and interesting than might have been the case. Rosie's trip back to the 1950's coincides with an interview which she was was asked to carry out as part of the preparation for a reality TV programme, set locally, called "The 1950s house." When she first finds herself back fifty years in time Rosie rationalises what is happening to her by assuming that she is taking part in the filming of this series and that the rules require everyone around her to act in character for the series. But eventually she realises she is either hallucinating or really has gone back in time.

In that 1950's world she meets Billy West, who is almost exactly like her boyfriend Will West, with whom she had a blazing row about their future just before going back in time. But where Will has been living with her for years and does not appear to know whether he wants marriage and children, Billy has been happily married since his teens - and to Carol, who is exactly like Rosie's best friend in the 21st century, Caz. But where Caz "doesn't have a maternal bone in her body," Carol is a devoted mother who lives for her three children.

The novel presents 50's Britain in a light which is sympathetic in some ways and highly critical in others - for example, Rosie has great difficulty in adapting to the casual and pervasive sexism in that decade and to very different attitudes to what a woman can do. Rosie keeps challenging these assumptions without even realising that she is doing so. The other characters explain away her behaviour by assuming that she is an American visitor, an explanation which she finds it easier not to challenge.

But if the novel presents modern times as better than the 50's in many ways, many older readers will recognise an opposite point being made in one very memorable scene when Carol fearlessly challenges a gang of 13-year old boys who are misbehaving. Rosie thinks Carol has gone mad and expects catastrophic consequences, but to her astonishment the boys "looked abashed and ashamed," replied respectfully to Carol as "Mrs West" and obey Carol's instructions to run off home before they get into trouble. When Rosie says that she would have never have dared challenge the boys, Carol looks at her in astonishment and says "Surely you can deal with a bunch of kids?"

Some of the things about this novel which I most enjoyed cannot be described without "spoilers" giving away too much of the ending, beyond saying that the loose ends are tied off very cleverly and almost everything hangs together.

The prose of the novel flows smoothly and is easy to read, giving enough detail to paint a sometimes charming, sometimes harsh picture of the 50's without so much detail as to make the story turgid. The action of the story carries you along and makes it easy to suspend disbelief in the improbability of the premise.

This isn't a work of brilliance like "The Time Traveller's Wife" but it is a highly intelligent and imaginative romance which anyone with an interest in Time Travel fiction is likely to enjoy.

The back cover mentioned "Life on Mars" and "The Time Travellers Wife" and although it looked a bit chicklit for my middle aged male tastes, I picked this up.
Rosie is an English reporter in a small town and is in a relationship that seems to have stagnated, however when out on a story to cover the 50th anniversary of a house, she finds herself back in the mid 1950's - is it a trick, a TV show or an hallucination? Either way she picks up her job at the newspaper (no computers or mobiles and a very male dominated atmosphere) and is shocked to find that some of her friends from the present are also in the past, but they have different lives and don't know her. Her boyfriend also makes an appearance, married and with kids, but she finds herself falling in love with him again despite the fact he is 'off limits'.
So we have a fish out of water story with a lot of comparison between the life and style of England in the 50's and today's hectic 'instant' lifestyles. As Rosie starts to cope with the 50's she tries to figure out why she is there and how will she get back.
I quite enjoyed this which is obviously of concern given I am probably not the target audience, but the modern take on 1950's attitudes and culture was well done although our heroine Rosie does blurt out a bit when logic suggests she should keep quiet. There are some loose ends not quite tied up (who arranged for her clothes to be delivered and her salary etc?) and there are times where you can guess where the author is going with the story. Having said that, they do not detract and luckily for me the story does not have any overly romantic or slushy bits.
So not bad, just don't tell anyone I read it.

I wasn't sure when I started this book that the story would be believable enough but I was wrong. It is extremely well written with all sorts of twists and I absolutely loved it. I was very sad when it was all over. It really makes you think, not only about relationships but also makes you realise how much things have changed over really such a short space of time. I would definitely recommend this book.