| Title | : | Timeless |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 235 |
| Publication | : | First published April 13, 2014 |
Stevie Geller doesn't do conflict. She likes her job as a successful novelist and playwright because it allows her to peacefully ensconce herself in her New York City loft, avoid human interactions, and leave personal drama for the page and stage. When her agent asks her to return to her hometown of Darlington, Illinois, to accept an award, she agrees only because he promises the process will be quick and easy. One panic attack and concussion later, Stevie is forced to confront her past in ways that seem to defy reality. As if befriending a social outcast and confronting high school bullies weren't enough, she also finds herself falling for a closeted teacher. Along the way, Stevie must decide if some things are worth fighting for. In her rush to escape the past, will she leave behind a better future, or are some conflicts really timeless?
Timeless Reviews
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Spangler’s best book by far! It’s a wonderful read ! Forget about the fact that it’s such a romantic book, with amazing characters and storyline. The reason why this is an incredible story is the fact that it makes u think a lot on how you deal with people and especially touches a very important topic which is “bullying”.
Don’t miss this one! -
I can’t believe I waited so long to read Timeless, because it’s SUCH a wonderful book. Close to Home might be Rachel Spangler’s best book, but Timeless is my favourite by her and I know I’ll be coming back to this one again and again.
Full review:
http://www.thelesbianreview.com/timel... -
This is my first Spangler book since August 24 2015 when I read a short story that caused me to erupt in rage and had me rating it 0.5 stars. Mostly because I do not actually have a rating lower than 0.5. It was a ‘fun exciting story of lesbian rape instigated by a ‘friend’’ that I am in the minority about in terms of hating it – the story (heck, I gave it 1 star, and it is still all the way up at 3.68 overall rating on GoodReads; hmm – I was going to say that all my friends that read it loved it, but none of them have even read it. heh).
It’s funny, in its way that I used to write reviews for a website. I had it all figured out – I did a kind of teaser paragraph or mini-review (depending) because I knew people could see that teaser then would have to click a link. Here on Goodreads, people see a paragraph (or a little more) and have to decide to click or not. Yet here I am almost constantly filling up my first paragraphs with nonsense. Or paragraphs talking about reviews.
This is one of Spangler’s Darlington Illinois romances (lesbian romances set in Darlington). I’ve read two of the four that have been linked together under that tag – ‘Darlington Romances’. Those two, at least, follow a pattern. Relatively successful (though could do better) out lesbian returns home to Darlington (reluctantly). They find themselves a closeted lesbian who they may or may not have noticed when they used to live in Darlington, and they latch onto them. I worded that badly – one of the two characters in the book (Rory in Long Way Home, and Stevie in Timeless) flee Darlington, then, when they returned, hook up with women who grew up and remained in Darlington (Beth in Long Way Home, and Jody in Timeless (technically Jody is form a nearby town, and still lives there, though works in Darlington).
Rory ‘came home’ because she needed to – she got an offer at the local college, and she didn’t have much in the way of other offers. Stevie ‘came home’ because she was offered an ‘award’ by her old high school, and her publicist pushed her into accepting it because Stevie needed publicity.
The books are by no means carbon copies, though. One is a straight forward ‘return home, find love’ book. Then there’s this one. Which involves a ‘Pretty in Pink’ type situation. Bah, no, I mean “Peggy Sue Got Married’ – the one wherein ‘Peggy Sue Bodell faints at her high school reunion. When she wakes up, she finds herself in her own past, just before she finished high school.’ Stevie is Peggy Sue. She fainted in her old high school gym while on stage, and when she woke up she was 18 again and finishing up high school as a senior. Peggy Sue also fainted while in her old high school gym while on stage.
So yeah, that’s the plot. Peggy Sue Got Married. Starring a lesbian. And set in 2002, instead of in 1960. Add in a deep plot line about how Stevie is very anti-social and would prefer to never leave her apartment – just write, sell what she writes, and write more; lust for teacher plot line; bullies, both adult authority figures and teenage students; death of a classmate.
The book started slowly and I almost regretted attempting to read it. But it picked up steam and rather enjoyed the book. And it’s many plot-lines.
Of note: Rory and Beth from ‘Long Way Home’ have cameos in this book. I looked at the two books in the series that I have not yet read, and did not recognize the names listed in the descriptions.
Rating: 4.29
October 28 2016 -
Seriously, i cant decide if i should rate this 4 stars or 5 stars.
I learned alot from this book. It showed a lots of deep meaningful things of life. The choice we made will always have an impact on something or someone around us that might turn out to be a good or bad outcome. Life is not easy, some people gone through alot, some of them might survive and some might not. That is where they need support, someone to push them forward. The words we say might mean nothing to us, but mean a great deal to others. Like in this book, when Stevie snapped, stepped in to help Kelsey and confront Drew about her sexuality. It help Kelsey to survive and move on.
The romance, i think it gone well. But not really well. Both main characters are suit each other well, dont get me wrong. But the thing that they decided while Stevie stucks in the past doesnt really convincing to me. They knew each other about 2 months and things happened, than they kiss and than Jody willing to sacrifice her job, the job that she loves, and follow Stevie to New York. . I feel like it just too fast. Well, i dont have personal experience in that romance part. So, i dont know for sure. Thats just what i think, so, again, i dont know.
All in all, i enjoyed the book. -
When I read such amazing books, I'm just thankful for all the events in my life leading upto this. I kept procrastinating on reading this novel, mostly because I haven't read anything by this author. I'm not the greatest at trying new things, so I am deeply pleased that I finally got around to reading it.
Firstly, I have so much respect for the author. I adore her writing. Some of the quotes in this book were beautiful. Like this:
" Because you unravel me. Because you affect me in ways no book ever has. Because you override my fear and compel me to speak truth through my pain and confusion. "
The words just hit you in the right spots. There were so many other quotes that just had me in awe. And I haven't crushed on two main leads as much as I have crushed on Stevie and Jody. They're both amazing women in their own right, but together, the way they stand up for each other made me cry. The whole high school part of the story was just something else.
So long story short, I've found a new author to obsess over and now I need to get some sleep after reading this for 6 hours straight. -
This is a really hard one to mark - enjoyed it though it reaches the edge of credibility and reason - and that, I suppose as I read, is the point. But no, the author speaks of bullying in her prologue & the "weirdness" of the story sort of blocks that out for me. An experience.
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Starting this book, I had no idea it involved a time travel plot. Clearly I should've paid more attention to the genres, where it's listed as "Science Fiction > Time Travel", but instead I just thought she was going to stay in Darlington longer than expected and remember her high school years. So this book sure threw me for a loop when Stevie suddenly woke up in 2002.
At first I thought it was weird. Books like this don't usually veer into science fiction territory so casually. It's still a romance book at its finest, though — there are a couple of discussions at most about the actual details of time travel. It's not about the "how it happened" so much as it is about the "why" as Stevie struggles to figure out the reason for her sudden jump back in time. The chapters set in the past make up the majority of the book, and also the very best of it. Most of the scenes set in present time before and after Stevie's time travel can't even compare to what happens in between. This period where she gets a second shot at being a senior in high school is centered around three main issues: her own existencial crisis over being 18 years old again, her relationship with Jody, and a new friendship with someone who really needed a friend.
This someone, Kelsey Patel, deserves her own paragraph here for being such a brilliant character. The reason why she's so important? Stevie knows for a fact that Kelsey committed suicide before graduation. And since Stevie hadn't paid attention to her until it was too late the first time around, now she can do better. If you ask me, even though it's a romance book, Stevie's friendship with Kelsey is the most important thing about her time in the past. In between all the bullying and rampant racism making Kelsey suicidal, and the gym coach and future principal of the school only making things worse, it turns into a story that is a lot about bullying, racism and homophobia, and the rage that all of this stirs in Stevie is what moves her story. And besides, Kelsey also happens to be super smart, open-minded and educated, interested in both science and science fiction, and really good at motivational speeches when Stevie is in way over her head.
The story in the past deserves the full 5-stars. But this is a 4-star review, so you can guess my problems with this book were set in the present time. Here's the thing: back when Stevie actually was an 18-year-old in high school, Miss Hadland was her first lesbian crush, but they never had any sort of relationship beyond Stevie's admiration and loving stares during classes. When they see each other again as adults, it's only for one day before Stevie has a concussion and goes back in time, but it feels like she's already assuming Jody is the love of her life and they're meant to be together... based on a school crush and a day's worth of interactions. At the point Stevie goes back to in the past, they've only known each other for a month, and she stays there for about a month or two at most. And then, back to the future (she made that reference first, I'm just stealing it),
The past was still amazingly written, though. I was so in awe of pretty much everything. All the conversations, the class discussions, Stevie's doubts and conflicts, the funny moments where she forgot to pretend she wasn't her adult self stuck in her past. Stevie and Jody bonding over lesbian fiction! God, how awesome was that. The way Stevie described how she felt when she arrived at the bookstore was one of the nicest moments of the book.
As Rachel Spangler said in her acknowledgements: "Suddenly, a fun story about getting a do-over turned into an examination of what we owe ourselves and those who cross our paths." That's the best way I could describe this book. You don't think much of it at first and it's barely even a good book and then suddenly it picks up the pace and from there on you can't put it down. A really interesting read. -
Nice romantic story with a happy ending that touches important subjects like bullying, suicide and homophobia.
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Stevie Geller is an introverted novelist and playwright who has made a life for herself in New York. When she reluctantly returns to her hometown in rural Illinois to receive an award from her high school, she's reminded of many of the reasons she left, mostly relating to the atmosphere of racism and homophobia that's still very present. While in town she reconnects with Jody, the student teacher she had a crush on ten years earlier. That all becomes very relevant when Stevie has an accident and finds herself ten years back in time as her teenage self and with an opportunity to change things that left her teenage self traumatized.
This was terrific. In Stevie's future Jody is a strongly motivated teacher who sees her role as to protect the minorities that her authoritarian school and conservative community damage, but there's a high personal cost associated with that. Stevie sees an opportunity to try to "fix" that, but she also gets to strike up a friendship with a fellow student that she knows commits suicide in only a few months time because of bullying.
Overall I thought this was very satisfying for "back to the Future" plot, and the romance is fairly well handled, particularly skirting around the teacher-student thing in interesting ways. -
Stevie Gallaher has created a safe world for herself based around her New York life and her apartment. She doesn’t do conflict and she doesn’t put herself out there. She hides in the bubble she has created and writes novels about the world she observes.
When her publicist and manager, Edmond, forces her to choose between visiting her old school to accept an award or speaking at a fundraising dinner she resentfully returns to Darlington as the lesser of two evils. More than the little overwhelmed by meeting the teacher who was her first crush and the thought of exposure at her old high school she forgets to eat and collapses on stage.
Now, rather than hiding in the shadows, Stevie must confront her past and decide who she wants to be in the future.
———-
“Timeless” is unusual. On the one hand it is a sweet romantic tale of girl going home to find that thing she didn’t know she wanted was there all the time. But it is much more than a simple romance and the twist in the plot will surprise you.
Like Spangler’s earlier novel set in Darlington, ”The Long Way Home”, this is partly a tale about how small town America and high school experiences shape our lives, those of us who have run away to escape and those who choose, instead, to stand and fight. It is also a story about how good people give up their own dreams to protect others who are different in one way or another.
This story should make us stop and think; reassess our own behavior as teenagers who kept silent or perhaps even those who were guilty of bullying. It should also make us look at our own life choices as the adults we’ve become and reconsider whether we could be doing more to protect those more vulnerable than ourselves.
Ms Spangler’s characters are deep and multidimensional. Here we get a unique opportunity to see how they develop. From student teacher Jody, trying to find her way, and Stevie, the closeted and scared intellectual who can’t wait to escape, to the wonderfully drawn ‘other’ Kelsey Patel, we see inside their hopes and fears. We are shown how popularity can lead to abuse of power while obscurity can bury us under fear and despair.
Rachel Spangler bioMore than anything “Timeless” made me think about the choices we have made and the people we’ve become. This is a story about how much of our teenage decision-making has impacted our lives – forced us away from being everything we could have been. It is an exploration of how bullying can make us live our lives in fear – those bullied and those who stand by and do nothing.
There are lessons here. Not least is that time is finite and that we need to make the most of it. As the adorable Beth reminds us when asked what she would change if she could ‘do it over’: “I’d live every minute in present tense instead of always planning for some future I had no guarantee of.”
I love books that make me think and stories that make me feel. This one does both. I really enjoyed Ms Spangler's earlier novels, particularly "The Long Way home", but "Timeless" is at a different level. Rachel Spangler goes from strength to strength and I look forward to following her growing talent. -
This is a YA/NA story and the blurb should have described it as such. I almost DNF’d this book at the 35% mark, especially because I wasn’t expecting so much high school drama. I didn’t like how bullying was addressed, the whole thing didn’t seem natural to me. You know when you read something and hear the author, not the character? Some dialogues are similar to short educational lectures or speeches.
Suicide is not an easy topic, but the author was able to show the tension between Stevie and her friend Kelsey, and I admire her for that. Stevie feels helpless in her effort to make Kelsey change her mind and their friendship adds depth to the plot. That moment when Stevie sees Kelsey at the hospital was touchingly portrayed.
Jody, the closeted teacher, is my favorite character. Her slow-burn romance with Stevie was cute, but easily forgettable, just like this story.
*ARC provided by Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.* -
I loved this book. It was a lot of fun, and begged to be read in one sitting. It started out as a standard romance, with the lead character shy and unwilling to change. Throw her into her old town and a visit to her old school and she is in for enough problems to kick off the story. Add a gorgeous teacher for whom she had the hots and I thought standard, but fun. Except, that’s where Spangler really throws us for a loop and the story becomes something deeper and much richer. She took me on a ride I wasn’t expecting, but she writes so well that it all worked really seamlessly. I liked the characters, enjoyed the story and highly recommend this book.
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I would have rated this as a 3-star romance, but I loved the time travel element so I kicked it up to 4 stars. It's very unusual for what begins as a fairly standard romance to segue into a Groundhog Day- style reliving of the horrors of high school. I thought it was a clever twist and really enriched the story. There was a little too much detail about Stevie's actual high school classes but getting to know her high school friends and enemies made me care more about her as an adult. Spangler has written some excellent WLW novels and I'm a fan.
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When I started this book I didn't know what to expect because I didn't read the description. Then when I got to that whole time-travelling part I just wanted to stop reading, the only reason I carried on was because this is a book by Rachel Spangler. And I am so happy I did because this book was wonderful and I have no regrets.
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Oh my ! This book is sometimes seriously serious and also seriously fun. I don't know how she pulled it of. I was not expecting the main twist.
But it worked very well for me. -
Oh Rachel Spangler. I don't know what to do about this author. Something about her has wormed its way into my affections, and there's little she can do wrong. There's so much about this book that I shouldn't like, and in the hands of many other writers I probably wouldn't like. It flirts with the line between reality and ... well, supernatural's not really the right word, so I'll say non scientific reality. Some things about the love story feel too easy or too quick. And yet, even though those two problems are high on the list of "things that will make me dislike a book," I couldn't help but enjoy Timeless.
Some of it is her characters, who are right in that sweet spot of me wondering if I identify with them or if I want to be friends with them in real life. A lot of it is her prose, which is so delicately beautiful. There were phrases and paragraphs that just had me pausing and taking a deep breath. In those moments sometimes I would try to insert myself in to the story, just to feel what the characters must be feeling. Overall, though, I think it's because I could set aside my normal disdain for stories that don't quite fit into reality by pulling an actual idea from this text. I can read this book and in the moment accept that what's real and what's true don't have to overlap. I can crawl into those spaces where they don't meet up and revel in the possibilities. -
I cannot stand any type of power imbalance "romantic" stories, and even less student/teacher relationships. I gave this book the benefit of the doubt because of the explicitly stated "ten years later" argument. So getting snuck up on by a 18yo-student/22yo-teacher time-travel-via-flashback-in-the-same-body story made me really mad. Add the poorly justified "science" and the simplistic and casually racist bullying story, and I hated the whole thing.
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𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐒: 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐑𝐘. 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐋𝐈𝐏. 𝐀𝐆𝐄-𝐆𝐀𝐏.
𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐈 𝐒𝐀𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐄, 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐋'𝐒 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐔𝐋𝐔𝐌.
I loved this book. I could see this happening to me. Sometimes I read books because of their covers and I had seen this book for some time but I couldn't understand what the cover was meant to mean. A part of me still doesn't understand it, but that's irrelevant now. I have approximately read 455 books year and 95% of those were lesbian fiction and I tell you this book is in the top 15. All because of how the story was written.
There is one major point, had it not happened, I would have been profoundly heartbroken and disappointed. This has to do with a scene from Chapter twelve, "I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Doctor Patel." Bitch don't touch because I was so emotionally fucking happy when this happened. My whole existance of loving this book hang onto that moment happening when I realised that the events could be connected. Because had that not happened, that would have been the most selfish and worthless use of time-travelling ever.
This is not even just about Doctor Patel, but also the damage that those other students, even Stevie and Jody. That moment in class when they talked about "finding a reason to survive" girl, I was in tears. My baby, Kelsey, seemed so tired. It was heartbreaking.
Everything else seemed trifle, but not irrelevant of course. -
it’s such a pleasant surprise!
I gotta admit i picked it up without much of expectation (mostly because most of the books in the genre i’ve been reading lately were pretty bland, predictable and one dimension)
The first few chapters got me thinking this’d be one of those too but then BAM! time traveling & a do-over? (imagine ‘13 going on 30’ ,’back to the future’ or ‘17 again’ but well lesbian style) i did not see that coming! and I LOVED IT!! and i also loved how dedicated the author clearly was about her work and how it gave me lots of food for thought.
in short, a quick and fun read. yet deep and memorable. i literally can’t put it down (and skipped gym and homework in the process but no regret nope!) -
This was my first time with Rachel Spangler's work, and it has lesbians and time travel? ok, I'm in! Such an excellent writer; Rachel, or, her characters, talk like we talk. They agonize over things we agonize over, and they make mistakes, fly off the handle, get stupid and mad, and they feel like friends. Its not easy to create emotions that are real, both in the people on the page and for the people holding the page. I enjoyed these characters so much that I went on to read two other Darlington romances (hoping there are more to come!)
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My first book by this author and I was blown away. Stevie Geller is an reclusive, but accomplished author who returns to her hometown reluctantly to accept an award. In the tale spun by the author, she confronts her history in a totally creative way. How would you change what you did if faced with a decade of new knowledge after finding yourself back in High School? In a very well written story with thought provoking themes relevant to today's teenage issues this love story shines. I can't wait to read more of Rachel Spangler.
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It would be easy to class this book as a lesbian romance, but it is much, much more.
The author examines the limits of parochialism, the need for the liberals to make their preference know and stand up to bullies in defense of the marginalized and to always be true to oneself.
Really loved the characterization and the smooth flow of the book. -
I have 5 f/f authors that I really love. And Rachel Spangler is in that list. So when I read the reviews, I was impressed about some people saying that it was her best book and etc, I couldn't believe that I haven´t read yet.
And now that I finished, I can say: totally overrated.
I didn´t like any of it. Not the plot, not the writing... But I think my real problem was with the main catacther. She´s boring; she don´t do (in her present) anything for the reader to like her; she´s selfish and as I read I understand more and more that everything that se was doing it was only for her light awareness.
But I still love u Rach! Don´t hate me! -
what if time travel,,, but not? ,,but actually yea?,, but not??
kept thinking about the pizza we had at grimaldi’s for reyna’s birthday yesterday night (it’s 1:22 am)
that dinner has reaffirmed my insistence that i will never get drunk -
This was a good book, plot was totally different than the usual lesbian romance, thank god!
