Sunday, April 6, 2014



OVERSEAS by Beatriz Williams
Published by Puttnam on May 10, 2012
Length: 464 Pages
Genre (s):  Romance, Fantasy, Historical Fiction
Source(s): Goodreads

When twenty-something Wall Street analyst Kate Wilson attracts the notice of the legendary Julian Laurence at a business meeting, no one's more surprised than she is. Julian's relentless energy and his extraordinary intellect electrify her, but she's baffled by his sudden interest. Why would this handsome British billionaire- Manhattan's most eligible bachelor- pursue a pretty but bookish young banker who hasn't had a boyfriend since college?

The answer is beyond imagining. . . at least at first. Kate and Julian's story may have begun not in the moneyed world of twenty-first-century Manhattan but in France during World War I, when a mysterious American woman emerged from the shadows of the Western Front to save the life of Captain Julian Laurence Ashford, a celebrated war poet and infantry officer.

Now, in modern-day New York, Kate and Julian must protect themselves from the secrets of the past, and trust in a true love that transcends time and space.


Well, first impressions first. Typically, I don't read a lot of romance novels. Some have dialogues with way too much cheese and characters that are barely likeable. And with 464 pages of it I have the faintest idea how the story would get stretched out. The plot was compelling but the story fell short. I think the story could do without some of the un-necessary hundred pages or so, wherein pretty much of the story just went on plateau. Perhaps, that is why I found the later revelations anti-climactic having lost much of its momentum with the wasted number of pages.


Character wise, I am still over the fence about Kate Wilson and Julian Laurence. . . typical male lead with all the aura of perfection going on about him. I actually preferred his World War I persona, cultured, duty grounded, much better before he turned all love snot with Kate the time traveler. I mean come on just because its the supposed girl you ended up loving in the distant future, doesn't mean you have to fall in love with same girl twice. That's quite a preposterous and medieval thinking if you ask me anyhow. And the freak out moment with the baby alert, that was so uncool. . .

The female lead appeared like she's one independent career woman. But that's just about a few jumpy chapters in. The rest pretty much show Kate's character as shallow, full of pride and purely one dimensional. Whining about the littlest of things. I mean why should she often bring about the case of her still not doing the deed with him or even the small fact that she had yet to share a kiss with him anyway. All she does is complain!  And for someone who had just been smacked with a fairly inconceivable truth of her time traveling boyfriend didn't appear too shell shocked for some reason. It's like "are you kidding me" then "okay there's nothing else I can do about that. I love you."

Somehow the story didn't develop as well as I hoped it would. The relationship between the two characters, yes while it felt sweet and all that gooey extra stuff, really lacked development. Granted that the dude has had a thing with her from the past, and I mean literally the past like World War I, I couldn't quite understand what made him so deeply besotted with her in the first place anyway? And majority of the story was too much of a damn routine. Fight, make up, fight, make up. The heck with that.

The time travel thing may have just been too much of an ambitious plot. It was a promising start but everything just spiraled out of control. The travel thing, I don't know, was it a cycle? Because somewhere along the way I got lost to knowing who actually started the time jumping thing. The explanation on how the entire working of the time travel thing sounded ridiculous. It would have been better if it just ended up like some conspiracy thing or something of the sort. 

The conflict wasn't as well thought of though. It lacks that depth that I am looking for that could've given that much needed push on the story. The story could have seriously forgone with it.
It was an okay story. But too long if you ask me. Could have compressed to a much lighter, fewer pages or rather given more substance over those pages that weren't given that much sense in it. 


RATING: 2 out of 5