Blog tour: Running Behind Time

By

Welcome to the blog tour for Running Behind Time by Jan Turk Petrie.

About the book…

It’s the Summer of 1982, and Beth Sawyer is thrilled to have landed the title role in a play. It may only be in a fringe theatre in Shepherd’s Bush, but it’s the start she’s always dreamed of.  

It’s the Summer of 2020, amid the global pandemic, Tom Brookes is furloughed. Unable to face lockdown in a tiny city flat, he moves back to his mother’s cottage in the sleepy Cotswold village of Stoatsfield-under-Ridge. 

Neither of them expects an everyday train journey to throw their normal lives so spectacularly off-course.  

This is the story of an extraordinary encounter between two people who should never have met. 

About the author…

Jan Turk Petrie lives in the Cotswolds area of England. She is the proud author of the future-world, fast-paced thriller series The Eldísvík Trilogy.

A former English teacher with an MA in creative writing from the University of Gloucestershire, Jan has also written numerous, prize-winning short stories.

My impressions…

How did this book end up in my hands? I was gifted a copy of the book so that I could join this blog tour.

Was it a page-turner? As it’s always the case with dual timeline narratives, I couldn’t read fast enough. This, combined with having two main characters that I started to care for, made it hard for me to put the book down when I needed to get on with my day, or sleep!

Did the book meet my expectations? I was expecting more details about the technicalities of time travel but I’m glad to say that the author didn’t delve in explanations that I would have probably found hard to understand. Time travel is an element of the story but the characters, with their lives and feelings, are the focus of the narrative. I found it interesting to see how different the 1982 reality was from the 2020 reality. Less than 40 years apart, and yet a lot has changed. It was also strange (in a good way) to read about people living in these pandemic times. I mean, sometimes I feel like I could easily be Beth, struggling to make sense of this new world. Running Behind Time was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Three words to describe it. Intriguing. Contemporary. Relatable.

Do I like the cover? It is sadly not one of my favourite covers. Or, to be precise, I like the artwork in itself but it suggests - to me at least - a book that is more about science than feelings, while I found it to be the other way around.

Have I read any other books by the same author? I haven’t yet read any of her other novels but I have had the pleasure to host a Q&A with the author last year, when The Truth in a Lie was published.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Italy in books” - reading challenge 2011

By
Image
Why this challenge? This year I’ve decided to host a reading challenge because I think that they are a brilliant idea. They help to make reading a more collective experience and are a great way to find out more about any particular author / genre / topic and get to know about books you might never have come across. I chose this topic because - as an Italian who has been living abroad for many years now - I feel the need to learn more about my home country and I’m curious to see the difference between the way it is portrayed by native Italians and others. The details of the challenge The challenge will run from January, 1st 2011 to December, 31st 2011 . The aim of the challenge is to read at least 12 books that are set in Italy. Whether written by Italian authors or not, it doesn’t matter. They don’t have to be set exclusively in Italy but this country needs to play a significant role in the book. The challenge can include non-fiction books about Italy. You can also review Italian lea
Read more

Book review: She’s Never Coming Back

By
Image
By Hans Koppel Translated by Kari Dickson Published by Sphere It is safe to say that my choice of reading material is not usually truculent. That’s why I surprised myself when I decided to read a novel whose front cover prominently displays a quote describing it as a ‘terrifying crime novel’. I started to read expecting the worse and - it being impossible to put the book down - a few hours later I was trying to understand what had hit me. Let’s be clear: I loved this book and I’m grateful to Sphere for publishing this Swedish novel by author Karl Petter Lidbeck who, being a children’s literature author, decided to have it published under the pen name of Hans Koppel. I can see why he doesn’t want to have the two genres mixing on the bookshelves! The plot is simple enough: one day after work, Ylva does not return home. When she hasn’t returned 24 hours later, her husband Mike starts to worry and calls the police. Ylva seems to have disappeared without a trace and, month after month, Mike
Read more

Blog tour: Forgotten Women

By
Image
Welcome to the blog tour for Forgotten Women by Zing Tsjeng! More about the book…  A compendium of women who shaped and were erased from our history. Forgotten Women  reaches around the world and its history to rediscover, retell and reinstate the lives of over 190 important and significant women. From Neolithic times to modernity, Zing Tsjeng has traced the women who have shaped their age and revolutionised society. In this book lies the strength, lives and sacrifices of women who have refused to accept the hand they’ve been dealt and have changed the course of our futures accordingly. More about the author… Zing Tsjeng is the editor in chief of VICE UK and the author of the Forgotten Women book series. She specialises in women’s and LGBTQ rights, politics, culture and lifestyle. She is also a documentary host and podcaster, her recent podcast for the BBC was entitled Forgotten Zingdom and she interviews for publications such as Vogue, Dazed, and The Guardian. My impressions… What a
Read more