This should have been more historical fiction or romance/women’s fiction. It definitely wasn’t thriller and I wouldn’t even classify it as mystery either. It just followed historical events that you knew were going to happen, without much suspense.

I didn’t dislike it but honestly I got kind of bored. I didn’t feel like Jean and John had any extraordinary chemistry that prompted them to have a sort of soulmate connection that spanned decades. It could partially be lost in translation the way the audiobook was narrated tho. The narrator didn’t have much, if any, change in her voice for different characters outside of a handful of accent changes for foreigners. It was the same voice, inflection, octave for men, women, etc, which gave it sort of a flat and sometimes confusing feel.

While it ended well, the dynamic of the adults in the 2003 timeline felt like everyone was just not communicating, assuming the worst, and giving up really easily. It made the way everything wrapped up feel a bit contrite and simple given the up-to-this-point fully self-focused perspective they all had.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook. All opinions are mine.