What a lovely story this was! I love stories with time travel and alternate or unusual timelines. I was a huge fan of The Time Traveler’s Wife – this one felt redolent of it for a while, although it wound up (much to my delight) traveling down a more original path than it suggested at first…

There’s a beautiful timeless love story, of course, but there’s also a fascinating exploration (although I don’t know how true – this is, after all, fiction) of Isaac Newton’s early years and a very original take on the inspiration for his major discoveries/theories. The characters really come alive in this one. Isaac himself is fascinating, of course – how could he not be, he’s Isaac Newton! But more interesting, I think, is Andrea. She’s a brilliant enigma, a girl of immense talent with immensely complicated relationships. She really brought the story to life for me. The ancillary characters (her father, Nate) were always present but were clearly set up in supporting roles (even though they were essential to the story)

There’s a twist – I will admit that I saw it coming, but that didn’t lessen the joy of the reveal for me at all. Instead it made it richer and feel like a coming-full-circle wrap up that tied things together nicely without feeling twee or too cozy. This was a very enjoyable and easy-going read, and I will definitely keep the author on my radar…

Wow. What a beautiful story. I had to grab tissues at the end. I will now count Samantha Sotto as one of my new favorite authors. I will definitely check out her other novel. 'Love and Gravity' is very reminiscent of Selden Edwards' 'The Little Book' which I also loved. Time travel and romance always make for great companions especially when combined by a talented storyteller such as Sotto.

This is such a beautifully written love story, but so much more than that!  I was overwhelmed with emotion while reading it.  I am so thankful for this opportunity to read it.  I can't wait to own my own copy!  Thank you!

3/5 Stars

Love and Gravity is a magical, romantic second novel from Samantha Sotto. A vocal fan of the sci-fi television phenomenon Dr. Who, Sotto weaves a thoughtful tale of romance across the great barrier of time. Much like her beloved Doctor, Sotto has found a way to traverse the gaping chasm cut by centuries of history to let a romance between two young lovers blossom.

We follow the life of a woman named Andrea Louviere, beginning in her childhood and continuing up into her mid-twenties. The daughter of an acclaimed cellist, Andrea was brought up in a musical world. She saw the color and smell in music, and often expressed herself through song when she was not filling up her journals. She was seven years old when the crack first opened in her bedroom wall. 

Andrea had stumbled upon a song that was able to weaken the fabric of reality and allowed her to peer through into another world. It just so happened that she was looking in upon another young child, this one in the 1660s and a budding scientist. Sir Isaac Newton and Andrea Louviere would see each other several times over the years this way, eventually learning to correspond with one another and even cross through the crack that Andrea created with her song.

Throughout their lives, Andrea and Isaac develop a sort of romance by mail. As she reaches adulthood, Andrea even begins to receive letters from the long dead scientist. It’s a bit like P.S. I Love You meets The Time Traveler’s Wife as Andrea decodes 300 year-old love letters that Isaac has arranged for her to receive at regular intervals throughout her life which offer clues to guide her back to the crack in her wall. However, Sotto throws a curveball into the mix.

Nate is the stereotypical boy (in more ways than one) next door that grew up with Andrea. Ultimately, he falls in love with Andrea, not realizing that he’s competing with one of the greatest intellects of all time for her affections. He probably doesn’t have too much of a chance… Nate proves to be a constant source of aggravation for Andrea, and is also the source of many of my frustrations with this novel. But I’ll get to that.

If this sounds suspiciously like an episode of Dr. Who (namely, the Girl in the Fireplace), you’re not wrong. Sotto is very clear about her love of the Doctor, even going so far as to have a pet named “Tennant” after the Doctor’s tenth incarnation, who is my favorite Doctor as well (incidentally, the Girl in the Fireplace took place during Tennant’s tenure). A separate plot line in the Dr. Who saga even includes glowing cracks in a young girl's bedroom wall. I wouldn’t call Love and Gravity a rip-off per se, but more of a fan fic turned original idea. And that’s not such a bad thing, Dr. Who has some of the greatest minds in storytelling who are absolutely worthy of emulation.

Inspirations aside, this was a touching and timeless story told in an interesting way with a modern voice. I’m not a huge fan of romances, but I have a background in physics and am a sucker for Newton. It was really interesting to see Sotto play with a piece of Newton that I haven’t seen before. She was able to take the impossible godlike figure and humanize him. However, throughout the novel I felt that the prose wavered a bit, flipping from profound and romantic into teenage angst. I recalled Stephanie Meyer on more than one occasion.

I am willing to put those criticisms on a shelf, however, as I am not a big fan of romance. I do enjoy literary fiction and powerful, emotional prose, but this often felt sappy to me. Alas, I felt as if there was a great story here trying desperately to be told if only the silly prose would get out of its way. There were bigger problems though.

The characters felt flat. Most of them. All of them. Take Andrea, for example. Sotto takes this great eternal love story for the ages, two star crossed lovers separated by time and physics, and tosses another into the mix to create the classic love triangle that seems to besiege all young lovers. Central to the plot is Andrea’s choice between Isaac and Nate. However, when push comes to shove, Andrea never makes that choice. Her ultimate decision is dictated more by circumstance than by her own will, which I think was a bit of a missed opportunity for character growth, one that ultimately weakened Andrea as a character. Nate is where I really take issue, though.

A major source of conflict in Love and Gravity is Nate’s outright refusal to believe Andrea regarding the crack in her wall. His feelings are due to his own history with his schizophrenic mother who claimed to see fairies, and they eventually poison his relationship with Andrea, ultimately pushing her further towards Isaac. 

I try to write my reviews so that one can read them and be motivated to read a book, and not be fearful of spoilers, but this next one might cross the line. So...



POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT. 



Suffice it to say, Nate’s refusal to believe Andrea is completely preposterous by the end of the book when all is revealed. I mean, the whole freaking point is that Nate doesn’t believe her but then, based off a half-remembered prediction from a mysterious man, Nate hops a plan to England and happens to run into Andrea. I’ve flown to England, and it takes a bit more planning than that. A bit more faith. Someone with that kind of faith might have believed in a magical crack in reality that plagued their best friend for their entire life. 

I want to take a moment and return to a comment I made earlier, which is that the prose and sappy romance kept getting in the way of what should have been a very interesting story. Some of the prose is quite good. Early on, Isaac remarks that Andrea is “the sin that he would commit over and over again,” and muses that “history is what men choose to remember,” and “truth is what man cannot forget”. These are powerful statements that conjure images of lost love and lamented heartbroken souls. Sometimes Sotto goes a bit too far and hits us with a more cringey B-movie line such as when Andrea was applying a balm to her fingertips after a particularly long cello session: “She slathered the thick salve over her fingertips, desperate to apply the same to her soul.” 

Again, I don’t want to take this as a major criticism, it might just be my dislike of romance. However, I did feel that the maturity of some of the romance was inconsistent. It was at times powerful and philosophical, while at others immature and fleeting, almost adolescent or whiney. And that’s fine, because the main characters feeling these things are in fact teenagers, but I would have liked more consistency in the voice of the narrator. Throughout the novel I felt that the writers of Dr. Who had simply done romance better.

My personal predilections aside, Sotto has an interesting story that’s certainly worth the quick read. If anything, I genuinely enjoyed seeing a side of Isaac Newton that’s largely been ignored throughout history. Nobody said iconoclastic literature was a cakewalk, but I do think Sotto has done a solid job of humanizing Newton, and empathizing with his lonely life. 

-jackpwns

I reviewed LOVE AND GRAVITY on 2/16/17 for the Dear Author review site. (Link is below.)

This is a beautiful story weaving music, math, science, and time travel with love, family, and destiny. I am not sure my review could do it justice.

Andrea has cello music in her blood. At the age of 7 while playing, she opens a wall into the room of a young Isaac Newton. The song doesn't always work. Eventually, she is visited by a mysterious old man named Oscar Ian Westin. He bring her letters that Isaac wrote to her. These letters are riddles as to things that will happen. Interwoven is how Andrea is not living in the present as she chases the past and the heartbreak of her best friend, Nate, loving her.

A story that is both heartbreaking but full of hope.

Words fail me.  The currently popular love-found-while-time-traveling theme, combined with Isaac Newton, is surely a combination made for nerds AND romantics.  Combine a cellist who appears to have a bit of synesthesia (seeing and tasting sounds),  a loving father, and you have just about everything one could hope for, tied up with a ribbon made of historic tidbits.

This is almost a five, in my opinion.

"There were two things that Isaac had come to rely on in this world: numbers and Andrea. On the surface, they were polar opposites. The first existed in the universe of logic, the other in the realm of magic and dreams. But they shared the one thing that mattered. Together, they made the world make sense. Numbers gave life order. Andrea gave it meaning."

From the age of 7, cello prodigy Andrea Louviere has been trying to merge her modern-day existence with that of young Isaac Newton's. She discovers that, by playing a song she composed, a crack in the wall of whatever room she is in bursts open and gives her a glimpse of this brilliant young man living in the mid-1600s. They fall for one another as they exchange letters delivered back and forth by a mysterious elderly man, and toss gifts to one another through the crack.

In fascinating fragments, Andrea's past with Isaac/future in the 21st century unfold. But she is forced to make difficult choices, realizing that Isaac's love for her could have significant repercussions for the two of them, and for the world at large.

"Love and Gravity" was a departure from the norm in terms of what I typically read. I'm not much into the fantasy genre, but what hooked me on this book was the concept of time travel. Like many time travel stories, there is so much that hangs in the balance depending on the choices that are made.

My brain isn't wired to easily grasp mathematical and scientific concepts, and I knew even before starting this book that that would pose a challenge for me. At the same time, though, part of the fun of reading "Love and Gravity" was how it pushed me in terms of comprehension.

Without giving too much away, what I found irritating was the sappy dialogue and love scenes between Andrea and Isaac. But I suppose if I were in Isaac's position, having waited all those years to be together with a crack in a wall and letter-writing as the only ways to communicate, I might wax poetic and act a bit too clingy, myself.

I also felt sorry for/was exasperated with Nate, who's been Andrea's best friend since around the same time the crack first appeared in Andrea's wall. Even though he lashes out at her when he feels like she's taking advantage of him, he just keeps coming back even though she continually treats him like crap. I was never sure if she really loved him or just kept him around for her own selfish reasons.

Relational bugaboos aside, I really did enjoy "Love and Gravity." It's a unique story with an intricately-woven plot and tons of surprises.

3.5 stars

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Love and Gravity is a beautiful blend of prose and poetry, music and words and of course a love that defies the rules of time and space. In Ms. Sotto's newest book, fictional characters are interspersed with real figures. Here we meet a young Isaac Newton in the past and Andrea a musical prodigy who lives in the present day. When these two first meet, it was through a small crack in the wall, an anomaly of space. As they get older, their meetings becomes a bridge towards a love that defied logical explanation but is as eternal time.

I had hoped that this book would enthrall me as much as The Time Traveler's Wife did, unfortunately, I just couldn't find the book to be as good. I don't read much romance, but this time-travel romance between a modern girl and Isaac Newton caught my attention and as I just love time-travel stories did I feel the need to read this book. Also, the cover us absolutely stunning! 

As for the story, it has its ups and downs, it started off interesting, but somewhere around halfway through did I find myself losing interest in the story. The story started to drag on with the main characters Andrea and Isaac just pining after each other. I just wanted them to meet (not really a spoiler) since it's apparently clear when reading the first chapter, what would happen. And, it was sometimes just so saccharine that I felt like I was getting an overdose of sweetness. I wanted more passion, more drama, more surprises and stronger characters. It was a promising book that just failed to live up to my expectations. There is also a triangle drama in the story as Andrea from that she was young had a guy friend called Nate that she also loved. Yes sir, she loved them both and could not decide which one to choose. Thankfully, I quite liked Nate, he was a nice solid guy that steadfastly stood by her side. 

Love and Gravity were a book that in the end felt too much like a young adult novel that tries to be deep, but in the end, fails. The story could have been better if Andrea and Isaac's love-story had not been so predictable, saccharine and to be honest boring. I would have loved to have read more about Isaac Newton, the man, the scientist. But, all one get is his pining after Andrea. It gets too much in the end. Also, the happily ever after ending was almost too much for me. So, no this was not a book for me.

There is something about time travel books that hold a place near and dear to my heart!

I guess it’s because I love the thought of me myself being able to just fall into a new time period. I think it’s romantic and exciting so whenever new books come up with time travel as a theme, I am almost always on board with reviewing them.

I don’t know much about Isaac Newton but I thought this book sounded compelling and I was anxious to review it based on the time travel component.

Andrea Louviere is seven years old the first time he appears. While she’s alone in her bedroom, practicing her beloved cello, the light shivers and a crack forms in the wall. Through the crack, she sees a candle, a window, a desk—and a boy. Though no sound travels through the wall, the boy clearly sees Andrea, too. And then, just as quickly as it opened, the crack closes, and he vanishes.


Over the years, summoning the bright, magnetic boy becomes something of an obsession for Andrea. Then, on her seventeenth birthday, she receives a three-hundred-year-old love letter from Isaac Newton. Andrea knows that Isaac will change the world with his groundbreaking discoveries; the letter tells Andrea that she will change him.

As Isaac’s letters intensify in passion and intimacy, Andrea grows determined to follow his clues to their shared destiny—despite a burgeoning romance in the present. Only when she discovers the way into Isaac’s time does Andrea realize that she faces a heartbreaking decision: between what was . . . and what might be.

This book is marketed to fans of THE TIME TRAVELERS WIFE and I would agree, it is very similar plot description but I thought this book was uniquely it’s own. I think one of the things I liked best about this book was that it made me think about the mechanics of the story. I found myself wondering how the time travel elements worked in the story and the author did such a fantastic job explaining things and helping the reader navigate the story all around. The time travel elements were a huge complex part of the story and I absolutely loved that aspect!

I also loved the two character perspectives. Andrea and Isaac were well drawn and constructed and I couldn’t help but fell in love with their love story. I knew right away that I could relate to Andrea and I loved how their story unfolded. Isaac was charming and a great romantic male figure. I really really adored them as a couple and felt that their relationship was memorable and one that other readers will feel stands out in literature.

The only thing that I wasn’t really a fan of was the cover. I liked the violin and the writing on the cover but the couple on the cover just didn’t do anything for me. If I had seen this book in the store, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. I think the single violin and writing in the background on a navy cover would have been more eye catching and held a kind of mysteriousness for the book. Something about the cover just wasn’t working for me.

Overall I really loved this book and felt like it was a quick, absorbing read. And by quick I mean I could have read it in one sitting! It was catching right from the start and if I had had the time I would have read it in one sitting, but I was glad that I could stretch it out a little longer so I could truly enjoy each page. If you like time travel romance novels, this book will not disappoint and I would highly recommend it!

Challenge/Book Summary:

Book: Love and Gravity by Samantha Sotto

Kindle Edition
Expected publication: February 7th 2017 by Ballantine Books
ASIN B01DRXCPP4
Review copy provided by: Author/Publisher in exchange for an honest review
This book counts toward: NA

Hosted by: NA
Books for Challenge Completed: NA
Recommendation: 4.5 out of 5

Genre: Romance, time travel, historical fiction

Memorable lines/quotes: NA

LOVE AND GRAVITY is beautifully written. I was completely enchanted by the whimsical story-telling. This is, in the true essence of the word, a romance. Not just of love, but of life and passion. It's reminiscent of The Time Traveler's Wife novel, but with a voice of its own.

The story is fictional, but I almost believed, or hoped really, that Isaac Newton was capable of such fierce passion. All the characters have so much depth and emotion. I experienced so many feelings and emotions as well. What Isaac and Andrea shared was an all-consuming love that defied space and time. I can't tell you how many times Ms. Sotto had me tearing up.

I'm more of a conventional happily ever after type of girl so I don't normally read this type of story, but I'm glad I took a chance. I'd definitely recommend LOVE AND GRAVITY to all readers. While reading, however, I do suggest you have plenty of tissues handy. This one's a tear-jerker!

***I want to thank the publisher for generously offering me a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All conclusions reached are my own***

Ever since I watched the movie "Somewhere in Time" I have been intrigued by the concept of time travel. I was excited to be given an ARC copy of this book through Net Galley and was not disappointed.

Andrea first encounters Isaac while playing her cello... a crack appears in the wall of her room and she spies him sitting in his room. Their encounters happen similarly through the years and their fascination for each other grows with each encounter. The author did a great job of moving from the past into the present and of keeping the mystery and the nuances of time travel at the forefront.

Samantha Sotto obviously did her research on Isaac Newton as the details of his life and accomplishments were included seamlessly. I enjoyed the book but have to admit,when it ended, I was left shaking my head and muttering " how can that be?" Time travel is still a mystery but certainly fun to read about.

Andrea Louviere was destined to play the cello.  Her father, a celebrated concert cellist, made sure of that.  He taught her how focus her exceptional talent and about just how much power that music really has.
Even he couldn’t have imagined just how true his lesson would prove to be.
One day while practicing, her music opens a crack in her wall to reveal a beautiful boy with a smile that she can never forget.  And so begins her desperate search for a way to see him again.

A mysterious man suddenly appears on her doorstep carrying letters from the boy beyond the wall.  In his words, she finds strength to overcome her fears and a love that dares to transcend time.

"Andrea, stop. Pray, take a breath. I swear to you, this is real. I am the boy behind your wall and you are the girl behind mine. Do not cast my words away. 
Her heart lurched. If this was a trick, it was a cruel one. Tears burned behind her eyelids. 
You are seventeen and the time has come at last to tell you how everything began, how I have come to love you above all else, and how you will come to love me."

Isaac Newton was historically known for being a loner.  He never married and never committed to anything – other than science.  But what history doesn’t know is that his heart belonged to a girl that he could never really have.  The brief glimpses that he had of Andrea kept him going through a lifetime of solitude and sadness.  

He would find a way to cross all barriers to tell her what was in his heart and maybe that would be enough to hold on to when even reason failed him.

But laws and hearts are meant to be broken and it’s a price that he will gladly pay for the beautiful girl made of magic and music.

"There were two things that Isaac had come to rely on in this world: numbers and Andrea. On the surface, they were polar opposites. The first existed in the universe of logic, the other in the realm of magic and dreams. But they shared the one thing that mattered. Together, they made the world make sense. Numbers gave life order. Andrea gave it meaning."

I expected a sweet and simple love story when I began to read Love and Gravity.  And what I experienced was something far different.  Samantha has created a wildly passionate tale filled with such longing and heartbreak that I couldn’t hold back the tears. She blended the new and the old with poetic precision and I was completely swept away by the music, the adventure and the infinite tenderness. It’s a feeling that I know I won’t forget for a very long time…

I read the last page and my feelings were all over the place.  Never once did I feel like I had a good grasp of what I thought and felt of this book.  Guess that comes with the territory when one is dealing with a story of this nature that crosses the genre lines.

So what to say…

Let’s start with the summary.  Andrea Louviere is a gifted cellist and was a child prodigy of sorts though her social anxiety kept her from the usual path of training and performance.  A much more incredible reason also influences the direction of her life.  Andrea grows up with her father and new family after he remarried, her music, and her friend from childhood, Nate, being her enter world.  At least her entire world on this side of the wall.

When playing Isaac’s song that she created in a low time of her life, Andrea’s music opens a seam in time to a world on the other side of her wall where she gets glimpses of first a boy, then her friend growing older as a brilliant young man.  The mysterious connection is unbelievable, but the friendship and later the deeper emotion of love make her believe in the magic and hold tight to it when others would beg her to live in the real world and take the love offered that she can see, hear, and touch all the time.

On the other side of the wall, young Isaac Newton is first curious about this friend who takes away the loneliness and inspires him to search out how their connection is possible.  His mathematical and scientific genius finds a way to broaden the connection across time and a romance is born that he will do anything to have and keep.  But can even he break the laws of science to bring about his heart’s desire?

So, this story that twisted me around and around makes for a difficult review.  In essence, I both liked and disliked it, loved and hated it, and- you get the idea.  Let’s just say I had rather mixed feelings.  I think one of the reasons is because I couldn’t figure out what type of story it was.  It doesn’t read like straight-up any one thing so it was hard to get a pulse.  Was it a time travel romance?  Yes.  But, did it feel like historical or general fiction?  Also yes.  Now, let’s not forget the young adult and romance elements…

The story starts with Andrea and Isaac as children.  I found this background and introduction interesting, but I also felt it opened the story in a way that didn’t sustain my interest.  I had to wait a third of the book for things to really start happening.  If I hadn’t already known that I was getting a time travel romance involving Sir Isaac Newton, I probably would have set the book aside before the more interesting part kicked in.

And then, I nearly put it down again when I discovered there was to be a love triangle and I do mean a true triangle.  Andrea was in love with two men- one in the past and one in the present.  This love triangle stuff isn’t fair to anyone involved and creates an unrequited love situation that is just not my idea of a good time.   But, yes… mitigating circumstances happened.  My own curiosity kept me reading along with my need to see which of two very worthy men would get their happiness.  See?  Hate the triangles.  Someone is always hurt.  Ugh.

There was Nate.  Nate was Andrea’s childhood friend and later the boy and then man who fell in love with her and waited for her to see this and love him back.  They share an early love of music and understanding.  Nate knows what they have together.  Andrea doesn’t see it because she is blinded by the magical connection she has with Isaac through their brief glimpses across time and then Isaac’s mysteriously delivered letters so she pushes Nate away sometimes cruelly.  I get it, how can she tell him the truth.  Though she does learn from how she dealt with Nate and told Isaac the truth that her heart is split between two loves.

Later on, I really connected with Isaac.  Isaac got his wish of having Andrea with him and then must set his brilliant mind to finding a way to keep her.  There is a surprise twist in Isaac’s story.  Wow, didn’t see that coming.  The author took known facts of Newton’s life and created a secret life that would fit within that which I thought well done.  Though tissues… I required a few tissues before all was said and done.

So yes, this book had me wanted to set it aside a few times, but also pulled me in and grabbed me emotionally at other moments.  From this end of the book, I am glad to have read it.  I do think those who enjoy a historical fiction-feel to an emotional time travel romance will want to read this one.

My thanks to Penguin-Random House for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

What is great love? 
Is it a thunderous storm in your heart? 
Or a gentle whisper to soothe your soul?
How much love is one heart capable of?
I don't have the answers to these questions but this book goes a long way to shining a light on the possibilities of love; of opening your heart and believing in the endlessness of love.  

If you can let yourself believe for an instant that it could be possible to fall in love across the centuries, to fall in love through moments and through letters, then this book is for you. 
Love and Gravity follows the story of modern day Andrea, a girl who loves music, and a boy from history.... A young Sir Isaac Newton. A boy of maths and science. 
This is the ultimate tale of love against the odds. Of rigidity of fact meeting the fluidity of soul. Music and maths are forever intermingled. As intermingled as the paths of these two characters who fall in love despite the perceived barriers of time. 

I loved everything about this book. 
I loved the writing and the exquisitely flawed characters. 
I loved the heart of this story; its beauty and innocence all muddled up with confusion and despair. 

At times my heart soared as high as a kite reading this and then at times it was crushed and smashed so ruthlessly. 
I swooned. 
I giggled.
And then I cried rivers. 
It was everything I could have wanted from a romantic read. 

I rooted for Isaac and Andrea to be together and yet I was conflicted. I loved them both as characters but they were also utterly human, and therefore, fatally flawed which just added greater poignancy to the story. This book gave me ALL the feels that I could ever want from a story and has made me want to seek out more of this author's work. 

'Love and Gravity' truly touched my soul and it is a book that I would recommend to any reader who loves a good romantic, bittersweet story with a touch of magic. 

Beautiful. 
Enchanting.
Timeless. 

*A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

DNF after three chapters. I found it hard to connect with this book due to the author's prose and wordy descriptions. I skimmed most of the first three chapters since nothing held my interest. Time and time again I tried  to pick this one up again, but I never enjoyed reading it.

This book was definitely a roller coaster ride.

This was an enjoyable time travel story. Musical prodigy falls for Isaac Newton. Ms. Sotto created an amazing world where a modern heroine falls in love with one of the most acclaimed and influential scientists of all time. There’s something magical and fresh about this plot. Cant wait to read more from this author.

Eminent 17th-century scientist Sir Isaac Newton never married, and he reportedly wasn’t romantically involved with anyone. What if that wasn’t true? Sotto, author of Before Ever After, delivers another time-bending romantic adventure with her latest, which imagines a love story between Newton and a modern woman, a gifted cellist, who manages to bridge the 300-plus years through music. The premise is fanciful, but Sotto is reliably good at traveling along life’s offbeat paths.

Andrea Louviere first sees Newton when she’s seven, after a crack in her bedroom wall opens wide enough for her to glimpse a boy about her age. The only person she dares tell is her school friend, Nate, who doesn’t believe her. As Andrea grows up, and her relationship with Nate turns romantic, she and Isaac develop a mysterious bond. When Andrea is seventeen, she begins receiving Isaac’s letters via an elderly messenger who somehow has contact with them both. She determines to unlock the mystery of the shared future Isaac speaks of, but this seems impossible, since the objects they exchange through the time-portal all turn to dust.

Most of the novel is set in the present, with lengthy sections showing Newton’s childhood in Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire and his later years at grammar school and at Cambridge. The novel isn’t as substantive historically as it could be, and the secondary characters are mostly vague shadows. Someone like Nate deserves better than the second place to which he’s relegated, too. The time-travel mechanism is clever, though, one that takes into account both parties’ talents, and the story grows significantly poignant in the last third or so. This isn’t The Time Traveler’s Wife, which it clearly emulates, but it’s an entertaining diversion for romance fans open to something different.