Time travel + Jane Austin + mystery + history, seems an impossible combination but Pajer did it in The First Time.

My #1 Pick for 2016!

I couldn’t put down. I haven’t done that since the Harry Potter days. My urge to know what the main characters will do and if there will be a happily-ever-after overrode my biological needs. If I were a faster reader, I’d finish it in one shot.

Unlike many time travel tales, all the time-related rules/issues where intertwined with the story itself, not explained by breaking the flow of the story. (The other no-questions-left unanswered time-travel novels are Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis.)

I also like that there wasn’t any graphic scenes some romance novels have, it’s healthy to leave room for the imagination. Also, the ways Ivy and Harrison act and think (i.e. not jumping into bed the first chance they got) reinforces their backgrounds, eras, and personalities well.

Besides the romance, I learned some history of South Africa and what it would’ve been like in the early 1900s.

The story resolution was surprising and satisfying, no blazing time-travel story black holes.

If you like The First Time because of the science aspect, I also recommand her earlier works, Professor Bradshaw Mystery series. Bradshow is a professer of electrial engineering at the University of Washington in the early 1900s (when common folks didn’t know much about electricity). He investages many electricity related cases.