I loved the premise and the setup of If She Didn't Love Him by Sherri Storey. And I am always up for a good time travel romance.
I really felt that Kylie's life before the time travel really set up something for her to lose and I loved how authentically she seemed to handle the struggle of finding herself back in time and desperately needing to change the future. I also really loved her friendships and the fun settings, including the sunflowers, that the author painted for our journey.
The story of how her life played out, trying to rewrite the past into something she could live with, and her struggle with being true to herself while helping others was something that really rang true to me. She felt real, in that respect. And I think, as a women’s fiction or growth narrative, I quite enjoyed this story. I saw a lot of struggles from her and felt she really came back from them in a positive way.
For me, though, I didn’t really feel the connection between the two leads. I would have loved to see her in particular falling a little harder as the book went on. I think there was so much potential for her to wrestle with the difficulty of loving the man from her past life while also falling for the man she’s with now, but I think it fell a little flat for me. Where she was feeling bad for stringing him along, I would have liked to see her feel guilt or struggle with falling for him despite still loving the man she was with at the beginning.
Overall, this was a pretty quick read with a lot of fun elements, strong friendships, and amazing settings and stories. I just wanted to see more from the romance. I think part of that just comes from feeling like she had so much potential to share her struggles with us, and I really wanted to see her wrestle with her parallel love stories and what that meant for her future. If you enjoy stories about trying to rewrite the past, the ins and outs of charity work, fun friends, the struggle to keep life together after loss, or women’s fiction with a romantic element, this love story might be for you. Until next time,
Your Romance Reviewer,
Eliza.