Science Fiction Book Review - Anna Caltabianco - The Day Before Forever

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2016 Gollancz Orion Books – Spoiler alerts A time travelling young looking woman called Rebecca Hatfield is the 8th in a line of immortal women, all called Hatfield. In being given the waters of immortality she is compelled to travel through time and staying too long in any given period will drive her insane. She has fallen in love with a an early 19th century American called Henley and drawn him along on her adventures, using a clock which whisks them through the centuries, but Henley is not immortal. Rebecca is keen to get him to a source of the magical waters before he ages and dies leaving her alone and heartbroken. Worse, another time-traveller is in pursuit of her and she or he has killed the previous Hatfield ladies, so why has he not killed Rebecca even though he has had opportunities to do so? What is her mysterious attacker waiting for. This is the third novel in a trilogy that started with The Seventh Miss Hatfield, so it was a little tricky picking up on the back story but it is a charming, witty rather asexual romance rather than high adventure. Not having heard of Anna Caltabianco before I looked up her background and discovered that she is only eighteen years old as I write this. Her first book in the series came out when she was just fourteen. Perhaps she herself is a time traveller in disguise? Arthur Chappell