I think you could go two ways with this. If you’re a massive time travel fan a la Outlander or Chronicles of St Mary’s, the sparser world building, the lack of minute attention to historical detail and the fudging of mind sets which have 150 years of distance between them might irk you. The emphasis is very much on the romance (it’s in the title guys) and the time travel/ slip stream element providing a speculative frame work. And I’m ok with that. I thought the adventure side was gripping enough to make up for lack of rigorous detail and the romance was supercute. I believed the chemistry between the two boys. Plus bi –rep. I am all about good bisexual rep in books. So I really liked this one, even though I’m not really much of a romance reader.

ADORABLE. This is a super quick read, and it's super adorable, and there's really hardly any conflict, so if you're looking for a fun, quick read, this is the book for you.

Elias and Tyler are the cutest ever and it was really fun watching someone from the 1880s in the modern world, learning to love openly and without fear. These two kids are the absolute best and their story is really cute <3

Esse livro foi bem fofo de se ler. Não é um livro espetacular sobre viagem no tempo, mas o que a autora conta é simples e plausível, nada tão elaborado ou esquisito de ser entendido. Claro que tem uns furos aqui e ali sobre o que pode ser mudado quando o Eli viaja no tempo; tirando isso a parte da viagem no tempo é ok.
O romance é gostosinho, achei muito fofo. Os dois personagens são bem construídos, com suas próprias características, seus próprios dilemas que eles têm que viver na sua época. Pra quem procura um romance M/M, esse livro pode satisfazer o leitor.
Muitas coisas chamaram atenção nesse livro, por exemplo: a pintura do Peter e o livro sobre a família do Elias. A autora deixa claro que ele consertou as besteiras que ele fez no passado, mas não explicou como as ações dele mudariam o curso das coisas no futuro. Tipos, só foi ele voltar para a época dele e tudo se resolveria, a mancha na pintura e o livro sumiriam? Claro que para poder explicar tudo isso teria que acrescentar mais páginas ao livro e apresentar um explicação bem coesa como as coisas mudam no futuro quando o Elias faz tudo certo no passado.

Para um livro com um casal fofo e romance gostosinho, o livro é muito bom nesse quesito, mas na questão da viagem no tempo o livro deixa a desejar.

Although this book is relatively short (I went through it all in one 3 hour sitting) it packs quite the punch, emotionally speaking. From the synopsis, I knew that I just had to read this book. Despite how short in length, this doesn't take away from the fact that it feels as though it was a fully-lengthed story, with high stakes and things to lose, like any other typical story.
This book is well paced, the feelings the boys start to develop for each other never feels like it's being rushed, despite having to come through in such a short timeframe. I liked how well the chemistry was written between the characters, it was all too believable, and easily attributed to great pacing and even better writing.
Any time anything remotely romantic happened or was hinted at, my stomach fluttered. It's the feeling one gets while reading OTP fanfiction, I wanted these two to be together so bad. Despite both characters being vastly different people, I like how the story embraced their differences but gravitated them both by the ways in which they were similar, I felt as though we had a good mixture of both.
There's great bisexual representation in this book, I always jump for joy when we get bisexuality portrayed in a non-toxic way through a male character, as there is still so much bias that needs serious debunking about bisexual men. And I loved Tyler as a character, from his descriptions he sounded amazingly adorable. Basically, I need fanart of this pair right this moment and give Tyler freckles.
This book pulled so much emotion from me despite me devouring it all in one sitting, there was always something interesting happening, not to the point to where the book was too exciting but enthralling enough that I was never bored. This is relatively easier given the length of the book than a fuller length novel, but this book seemed to pack comfortability and familiarity as well as stakes all in the story and I found it to be a great balance, I was never on the edge of my seat, but I could just not stop reading.
Basically, this book totally lives up to the hype, at least the hype that was in my mind. If you think the synopsis sounds too good to be true, it isn't, please read this wondrous book.

I had been expecting this book for a long time and I was not disappointed. It was so sweet.
It was a little less mature than I thought it would be but once I got used to it I really enjoyed myself.
here's my review online: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2208596524

When I read the description of this book, I immediately requested it on NetGalley. A cute time travel LGBT YA romance? Sign me up!

Unfortunately, this book didn’t live up to the expectations.

The Time Traveler’s Guide to Modern Romance tells the love story of Elias and Tyler, two teens separated by 200 years in time. Elias lives in Victorian London and has some problems fitting into society and with what his family expects of him. So his grandad gives him a pocket watch that allows him to time travel. He then meets Tyler, an American bisexual boy that lives in present time. Cuteness ensues.

Since the moment I picked up this book, the writing style didn’t speak to me. It was too flat, especially taking into account that the first chapter happens in Victorian London and everything about the writing was similar to the second chapter, that occurs in present time.

The dialogue sounds stilted and awkward at times, and there’s this moment where Tyler has the same conversation with two different characters back to back. There’s barely any intrigue and the more angsty section of the book, which is usually my favorite, didn’t work for me.

There’s this small plot twist, about 70% in, that could be REALLY dramatic, but it's solved way too quickly, and it barely has any repercussions. And that’s an ongoing theme on this book. Every time something that can change the pace and the direction of the story happens it is solved within 10 pages, and everything moves on swiftly. Including the time travel, that should have much more strict rules.

For a book about time travel, this story has no sense of time. Almost from the beginning, Elias and Tyler agree that they will set a time limit of two weeks to see if Elias adjusts to present America. However, time isn’t mentioned again during the book. So you have no idea if the book takes place in 4 days, 2 weeks, a month or a year.

In this book, we follow Tyler and Elias POVs. Even so, every character in this book felt flat and two dimensional. I couldn’t connect to any of them, but they also didn’t get on my nerves, so at least it was meh.

📚 Tyler was a little weird. I wasn’t sold on his relationship with his friends, it seemed that he only hang out with them because he didn’t want to be alone. And, apart from him wanting to be a filmmaker and having two crushes on a couple that is dating, I don’t know anything else about him.

📚 Elias was cute at times, especially when he was amazed by everything that happened around him. But I can’t fathom how he could just disconnect from his family. Yes, he was angry with his parents and he wanted to run. Okay, I get being impulsive. But of course there were going to be repercussions. And, although they were solved, it was so lightly done that I couldn’t feel anything.

I won’t mention anyone else because I honestly don’t care about any other character.

Beware, this is insta love. Finding someone cute when you meet them? Okay. Attraction? I can bear. Feeling safe holding someone’s hand 30 minutes after meeting them? Too much.

Elias and Tyler fall in love way too quickly and actually get codependent at times. Their first kiss can be seen in a slightly problematic light, and it’s that trope of “can you show me how to kiss?” Nope. I’m not here for insta love.

Sadly, I can’t recommend this book. It was not bad, I don’t hate it. But it’s meh. And I don’t want to recommend meh books to anyone.

DNF

I'm going to have to pass on this one. The premises was very much a gay Kate and Leopold (yes that movie) but where the movie's charm worked, this book lacked. The writing was awkward and I felt no chemistry between the Tyler and Elias; our main characters in The Time Travelers Guide to Modern Romance.

***Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing for the chance to read this book.***

3.5 stars

"The Time Traveler's Guide to Modern Romance" is a light, fluffy read that follows Elias Caldwell from the 1800s and Tyler Forrester in the present. After a series of mistakes, Elias's parents are not going to let him attend college- the time he was very much looking forward to- and instead want to send him to a reformatory school. When he goes to his grandfather, his grandfather reveals that he has a special watch which can allow one to travel through space and time (a hand-held Tardis). Elias is skeptical, but gives it a try and ends up in the present.

Tyler is an aspiring filmmaker, and is currently filming when a boy appears in front of him. Having seen the remarkable appearance, he believes Elias is from a different time/place and tries to help him while he is there. Their attraction grows very quickly as they spend time together. Although there are some awkward or difficult moments, they find themselves falling in love. However, as Elias learns more about what happened when he left, he finds himself pulled across time and has some difficult choices to make.

While this was an, at times, funny, and at other times, sweet story, it moved too quickly, and I did not feel the relationship grow between Elias and Tyler. It felt a bit insta-love which is not uncommon in YA fiction, and I could get there for this couple as they do seem well-suited (and the circumstances probably force a quicker romance due to the amount of time they spend together and the different traditions of the eras). It is also a relatively short book overall, so everything happens pretty quickly- I actually would have liked more in the story and to have it drawn out a bit more.

The main thing that lowered my rating was thinking about time travel and how this would go versus the way things play out. I don't want to say too much about the story specifics to avoid spoilers, but this does not seem to follow the general theories about time travel (e.g. not cyclic or linear), and I got caught up in this a bit. I admit, I like to consider time travel and potential consequences in general, so if you don't think about it too much/only surface-level, this probably won't bother you.

Overall, I think it's a fun, quick read (don't think too much about the time travel). I loved the inclusion of gay main characters and the comical moments that occur due to being out of time. Please note that I received an ARC from the publisher through netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Going in to The Time Traveler’s Guide to Romance, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I don’t read a lot of romance or sci-if but I was pleasantly surprised.

The story of Elias and Tyler is sugary sweet and completely adorable. I really loved the author’s ability to craft a dialogue between these two people. All of the best moments in this book are those where the characters are being vulnerable with each other. The story really soars when we get to take in the intricacies of falling in love with someone ripped from time.

The only issue I had with the book is essentially a non-issues. The central conflict begins very quickly. I only wish that I would have had more time to sit with the stakes of why Elias wanted to leave. I would’ve like to see more of his interactions with his family and others in his time to really drive why he was so miserable.

On the whole, I really did enjoy this book for so many reasons. It was a very nice and quick read that just made me feel good and, honestly, sometimes that’s all you really need.

The Time Traveler’s Guide to Modern Romance was probably up there among my most anticipated reads for this year. I mean, what’s not to love about the premise – gay characters, time travel. Unfortunately, it more than disappointed me.

I’ll start with a quick overview of the plot: Elias’ grandfather hands him a watch that lets him travel back in time. Elias uses said watch, thinking only of wanting to get as far away as possible from his family, because he thinks they all hate him. Elias ends up in modern day New York. The end. (Or it might as well be for what little actually happens between this and the big angsty climax, which is then resolved so easily.)

I thought for a moment I would include a section of what I liked about this book, but actually, I’m not sure anything really stood out. I mean. It’s gay? It has a bi character who very much emphasises that he’s bi? That’s honestly about it.

So what made me dislike it? Well, firstly, and kind of least importantly given everything, the writing was completely not my style. It felt so clunky and I just couldn’t read it easily. And then I couldn’t particularly get into the characters (don’t even get me started on their relationship, ha!). So it was an inauspicious start. Top that off with the fact that I genuinely couldn’t tell which of the two characters was supposed to be from the Victorian Era. Three chapters in, I had to go back and read the blurb to check that Elias was supposed to be the time traveller because I hadn’t been able to get that from his first chapter (no, seriously. There was nothing in it that made me think oh this is him. Besides the attempt at putting on some posh speech for the characters or something, but to be honest, I just thought that was another American screw-up with writing an English accent.

So, I just wanna back up a little, briefly, and talk language (and by extension, research/historical worldbuilding). (This is why I did a linguistics degree, let’s be real.) Firstly, there’s 140 years (give or take) and a whole ocean between what Elias thinks of as English and what Tyler thinks of as English. Languages evolve, kids. Just think about the number of neologisms that pop up all over the place (and that’s just in the lexicon, to say nothing of syntax). Think about what’s happened to the word ‘gay’ (as this book does for a moment, I’ll give it that). And also think about things like vowel shifts. In America, there’s this big one called the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, which basically undoes the Great Vowel Shift post-Chaucer in England. And not to be nitpick-y, but for Elias, who has no idea of what New York Americans speak like, that’s got to be a problem. And yet, besides some words (most of which relate to technologies), Elias seems perfectly comfortable with New York English. And all the American characters just shake their heads and go, ah, he’s English. So language would be part of the worldbuilding for the historical setting (but all it really seemed to consist of is removing any contractions from Elias’ speech). Honestly, the worldbuilding was poor. Like I said before, I couldn’t even tell which of the two POVs was supposed to be Victorian first up. I think maybe it could have done with a few more chapters before the time travelling happens, to set up Elias’ position in his world (because there’s not a lot of that, and it does just seem like he’s a selfish brat albeit with awful parents), and to properly describe the setting.

Anyway, nitpicking like that aside, there were some genuine issues I had with this book, which I have labelled for myself as “We Need to Talk About Lesbians” and “We Need to Talk About Oscar”. Let’s start with the lesbians, because they’ll take less time. These lesbians, Trissa and Kat, appear once (though are mentioned once more). When they appear, they do so as a litmus test for whether Elias is homophobic, essentially. They also at this point serve the purpose of highlighting Tyler’s lesbophobia (though clearly unintentionally). Essentially, he’s at a party with Elias, and they’re talking sexuality. And, post litmus test of Trissa and Kat, Tyler kisses Elias. What happens is that everyone starts staring at them. And, I kid you not, Elias thinks this:

"Anger formed like a pit in Tyler’s core. It seemed unfair that everyone was super cool around Trissa and Kat, but then as soon as “Ty” kissed someone, they let their homophobia show."

Lesbians are less oppressed than gay men, folks! Then we get the next line, which suggests that maybe they think it’s gross because they believe Tyler and Elias are cousins. But does Tyler retract this above statement? Have an oh shit that’s not it moment? No, he does not. Tyler, you ever hear about this little bit of homophobia that has people assume women are just being affectionate because they’re friends? Clearly not.

Anyway, our handy lesbian litmus test also gets an earlier run-out. In which Tyler says that, although these are the only other two LGBT people in the school (I doubt that, but okay Tyler we’ll run with it), he’s still lonely:

"It would be a little less lonely if either of the other two were interested in guys, but unfortunately both Trissa and Kat were lesbians."

But, don’t worry! Here’s Oscar:

"That said, Oscar was good at empathising, being one of only a handful of black students at the school."

So. Our mate Tyler doesn’t even bother trying to connect with them. He’s just looking for someone who can connect with him. Or who at least tries to. I mean, obviously all bigotry and oppression is the same anyway.

This leads my nicely onto my next point. Oscar. As stated in the above line, he’s one of the only non-white pupils at this school. In fact, he is the only non-white character in the whole book (or, I assume, because none of the rest of them get their race or ethnicity specifically pointed out in the same way). Now, Oscar at least doesn’t just show up to talk about oppression or be a litmus test for racism (although he does serve these two functions as well). The talk about oppression is what I mean by the above bit really. (A little context: the line before the first quote is "It was lonely being one of only three out qu**r kids at a prep school in Jersey.")

The second time Oscar shows up, he’s being used as a litmus test for whether Elias is racist. No, seriously.

"[He knew] virtually nothing about Eli’s family or upbringing; if he was sheltered or had been raised in a more progressive household. Would he say something racist to Oscar?"

But, no worries folks, he doesn’t.

Oscar then disappears for a bit, but shows up later on as a background character for their trip into New York City. And then again, after Tyler fesses up about where Elias is from. At this point, we stumble a bit again. Oscar sneaks into Tyler’s bedroom and asks to borrow his laptop (Tyler is not there), ostensibly to get some footage for a birthday video. And then the video of Elias’ arrival gets uploaded to twitter and goes viral. What the narrative suggests then, is that Oscar broke Tyler’s trust and stole the video from him (he doesn’t actually, don’t worry. We (and Tyler) are just led to believe that’s the case). But that it goes in that direction didn’t feel so good.

Some small, final, little pet peeves:

Elias apparently got into both Oxford and Cambridge when you cannot actually apply to the both of them. They don’t let you.

Describing Elias’ accent as firstly “a British accent”. What? All of them at once? And then saying it’s adorable. Now, I don’t know about you, but posh Southern English accents? One of the most grating things I’ve heard in my life. Nothing adorable about it.

Why would you have them pretend to be cousins and then kiss? Why? What does it actually add to the story?

This isn’t even instalove in terms of lacking development of Elias and Tyler’s relationship. It’s just like, one day they’re friendly, then they kiss, and the next they’re deciding they don’t mind if people call them boyfriends (they don’t even know anything about one another). Instalove has more relationship development than this. Do they even like each other as more than friends? Are they even attracted to one another? Who knows, but at the end Elias said “I love you” and my genuine reaction was SINCE WHEN.

So… who actually leaked that video? Are we supposed to believe it’s just some rando hacker?

Anyway. This was a long review, so thanks for reading all my ramblings. TL;DR yeah, not worth it.

I'm very very very sad that i didnt like it because hey! It's a time travel story! I have been stanning doctor who for 13 years now, if something has time travel in it? IM IN. Not only it's time travel but it's also GAY time travel which instantly gets more points from me

My biggest problem with this is that it was kind of insta-lovey. We have two main characters and one of their earliest reaction is to say how they're attracted to the opposite character when you know...... one of them just time travelled 150+ years into the future and the other witnessed a dude appearing from the thin air. I dont know, i get instant attraction and stuff, but this one just doesnt feel real. Also they started dating in like. A week. I dont remember ever forming a close relationship with someone (friendship included) in a WEEK. Their relationship wasn't believable for me, it lacked chemistry. Like i genuinely cringed when they exchanged i love yous because it felt like nothing had lead to that.
I didnt enjoy the writing either. There was something awkward about it, that made it impossible to connect to the story.
Personally, I also didnt like how low stakes was the whole time travel business, how the whole "devastatic consequences" stuff was resolved in like 15% of the book. Maybe its my own fault for wanting to be more focused on time travel than it is, who knows, but the book was not fun to me.

One of the main characters is an out and proud bisexual, jsyk.

Sadly i'm yet to find a perfect time travel book that i would really love. I'm giving it 2.5 out of 5.

This book is so innocently sweet! Is that a thing? I don’t know.

“The Time Traveler’s Guide to Modern Romance” sees Elias who is a hot mess and on the verge of being sent away to a reform school where he can no longer embarrass his parents when his grandfather gives him a pocket watch that allows him to travel through time. In present day Tyler is a normal student who wants nothing more than to feel like he belongs and more importantly to share his life with someone when Elias drops into his lap, but things don’t stay happy for long when the past catches up to them and threatens to upset their future.

I’ve read a previous book by this author and I didn’t really care for it so I was nervous when starting this but thankfully all of my problems with the writing were much better handled with this story. We get to see it from both Tyler and Elias’s point of view as one struggles to deal with the time traveler sharing his dorm room and the other tries to fit in to a world that is vastly different from his own.

We never figure out how the watch works or where the grandfather obtained it which is fine because for the most part this is a story that focuses on these two young men and their shared experiences centuries apart and how fate, chance or whatever you believe in brought them together in the end.

It’s a very simple story with not a lot of angst which is nice because I don’t think it could have supported too much drama but the characters are sweet enough to carry this light romance from beginning to end without you really looking too deeply at some of the more basic plot points making it all around a nice novel.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!**

A sweet YA time travel romance. Predictable but a nice read. Told from both Eli and Tyler's perspectives, it was a light fast read.

NOTE: This is my first review here, and it seems to be the first review for this book. Such a responsibility!

You need to know that I picked this book for review without knowing much about its plot. I simply saw a gorgeous cover and "time travel" (one of my favourite things in the fiction world), and hit request. What I'm
saying here is: I had no idea this was a romance. I don't typically read romance novels. As such, I admit I am about 99% inexperienced in the genre. My opinion on the book is definitely influenced by that lack of genre knowledge. I cannot tell you, dear reader, whether this book is a great representative of YA romances. I cannot tell you whether it is something you've read a thousands of times or a new and unexplored idea.

But I can tell you this: It is sweet. It is cute. A bit of a Kate & Leopold sweet and cute, if you are into that. It explores a "fish out of water" scenario for our time traveler, and those chapters were probably my fav.

Also - in case this is not obvious from the blurb - this is a m/m romance. This gives a new look into some of the old tropes (at least it did for me.) Now, I am not a gay man (or a man, period) so it is not for me to judge this aspect in terms of representation. However, there is a definite effort in discussing these themes. I particularly liked that the book openly uses the word "bisexual". It openly (if shortly) talks about issues of same-sex relationships in the past and today. Do not be mistaken, though: this is not an "issue" book. Actually, this is probably what I liked about it: this is a sweet romance novel that just happens to be between two guys.

What I didn't like? As I said earlier, I am not familiar with the genre. The book seemed too short for my taste. If you are looking for a plot that focuses on complexities of time travel, this is not a story for you. Some things do rely on coincidences way too much. Also, I found romance to be a bit on the "insta love" side, although this could be due to the word count.

In general, this is a cute book for someone looking for a sweet m/m romance with a dash of time travel.