When the Day Comes (Timeless #1) by Gabrielle Meyer

  

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Christian Fiction
Genre: Romance, Clean romance, Historical Fiction, Historical Romance
Content: Marital rape, Abuse by a parent

 

How will she choose, knowing all she must sacrifice?

Libby has been given a powerful gift: to live one life in 1774 Colonial Williamsburg and the other in 1914 Gilded Age New York City. When she falls asleep in one life, she wakes up in the other. While she's the same person at her core in both times, she's leading two vastly different lives.

In Colonial Williamsburg, Libby is a public printer for the House of Burgesses and the Royal Governor, trying to provide for her family and support the Patriot cause. The man she loves, Henry Montgomery, has his own secrets. As the revolution draws near, both their lives--and any hope of love--are put in jeopardy.

Libby's life in 1914 New York is filled with wealth, drawing room conversations, and bachelors. But the only work she cares about--women's suffrage--is discouraged, and her mother is intent on marrying her off to an English marquess. The growing talk of war in Europe only complicates matters.

But Libby knows she's not destined to live two lives forever. On her twenty-first birthday, she must choose one path and forfeit the other--but how can she choose when she has so much to lose in each life?

  

I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite the fact that the a huge portion of the 1914 timeline infuriated me, but more on that in a minute. From almost the very beginning we know that the 1774 timeline is the timeline that our main character, Libby feels she belongs in and she is planning to choose that timeline to stay in permanently on her 21st birthday. I enjoyed reading about Colonial Williamsburg and I liked the way the author wove that part of history into the story. I enjoyed the characters from this timeline a lot. I loved how supportive Libby's mother in this timeline is, and the fact that she gave up a lot to live her life there with her children was admirable. 

As for the 1914 timeline, Mother Wells was a real piece of work, the complete opposite of the mother Libby has in 1774. The emotional, psychological, and physical abuse she perpetrated was bad on it's own, but the father in this timeline infuriated me just as much by totally failing to protect his daughter. He acted powerless in a time when men had all the power. As for the marriage contract, I'm not buying that a contract signed on his behalf by his wife would have been held as valid. Libby loves her father throughout the book and never comes to see that he could and should have done more to protect her. It bothered me that this was never addressed in the book. 

Having faith, following Gods will, and forgiving others were big themes in this book and I struggled with the way some of this was applied. Particularly on the subject of forgiveness. At one point in the book when Libby is writing letters to her family, we find out that she is writing to mother Wells. Why?! Forgiving someone doesn't mean you have to let them back into your life if they are a toxic and abusive person. I liked the way God's will played a part in some of the twists in the story, but not how it was portrayed all the time. At times I thought that got too heavy-handed. 

I did end up predicting pretty much every plot twist in this book but despite that I enjoyed how they enhanced this story. I found the end particularly impactful and it had me crying just a little bit. If some things had been addressed that weren't, like Libby's father; if some of the characters had been a bit more nuanced, instead of so black and white; and if the Christian themes had been presented slightly different, then I think I would have given this 5 stars. That being said, 4 stars means I really liked this and will be reading more in this series. Be sure to read the author's note at the end of the book where she tells about how she got the idea for this book and the inspiration for the main character in the colonial era.