Book Review: Here and Now

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Here and Now     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Constance O’Day-Flannery
Class/Genre:   Romance   Time Travel
Avon, Oct 2001, $6.99, 384 pp.

In 1926 at a New Jersey bridge, Mitch Davies points a gun at his partner Charles Garrity demanding he hand over the deed. Instead Charles jumps off the bridge taking his chances with the river.

In 2001 pregnant Suzanne McDermott sits near the same river pondering her future since her spouse left her to marry her best friend. Her musings end when Suzanne rescues a drowning person, but she begins bleeding as the baby is coming two weeks early. A confused Charles does not recognize a car's ignition, a clutch or her cell phone but drive her to the hospital in her vehicle. Matthew Charles is born and Charles becomes Suzanne's hero.

Charles explains to Suzanne that he leaped off a bridge in 1926. Though she doubts his story, she invites him to stay at her house, which he does. The next day he picks up Suzanne and the newborn and takes them to her home. Over the next few weeks, Charles realizes that he loves Suzanne, but will leave her because he has nothing to offer her. She pleads with him to stay because she loves him too, but his ego propels him to leave.

Award winning Constance O'Day-Flannery has written what may be the best time travel romance of the year in HERE AND NOW. The key is the reaction to the time differential by Charles with little things taken for granted by Suzanne seeming strange and almost magical to him. Augmented by a Twilight Zone twist on top of an exciting romance that leads readers to a fabulous one sitting plot.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner