The Best Time Travel Books To Escape Real Life

This time travel romance offers a premise that readers seeking books like Outlander will love. 

In the near future, a civil servant is assigned to a project that involves working with "expats" from across history to uncover whether time travel is possible. 

Her assignment as a "bridge" means working closely with an expat named "1847" or Commander Graham Gore. 

Commander Gore, who died on Sir John Franklin's Arctic expedition in 1845, is bewildered by living with an unmarried woman in a world of unfamiliar inventions like washing machines and Spotify.

With a colorful cast of characters, this debut novel promises a blend of romance, spy thriller, comedy, and philosophical exploration. 

Release Date- 7 May 2024

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In this thrilling standalone fantasy adventure from Brandon Sanderson, readers are promised a time travel adventure story reminiscent of Jason Bourne with a twist of time travel.

A man wakes up in medieval England with no memory of his past.

Pursued by enemies from his own time, he must rely on his wits and the help of locals to uncover the truth and survive.

With fragments of a guidebook to aid him, he races against time to unlock the secrets of his identity and escape his mysterious predicament.

Release Date- 25 June 2024

In Madison's enchanting debut, history professor Cecily Bridge-Davis unearths a haunting family secret: a generational curse that transports one member back in time with each passing generation.

Armed with nothing but a family Bible and a cryptic map, Cecily embarks on a quest to unravel her family's legacy.

Release Date- 3 September 2024

This new time travel romance novel is recommended for fans of The Dead Romantics and readers who love a quirky protagonist.

Delphie finds herself in the afterlife after an unfortunate accident.

But her luck changes when she meets a charming stranger who could be "the one."

With the clock ticking, Delphie embarks on a journey back to earth to find him, hoping for a second chance at love and life.

Release Date- 2 July 2024

Clementine is navigating a devastating loss. To remedy that she vows to stay busy, work hard, and find someone decent to love.

But when she meets a charming man in her late aunt's apartment, she faces a rather unusual dilemma—he exists in the past from seven years ago.

As they navigate their unconventional relationship, Clementine contemplates love and timing in this magical novel that made our best books of the year list.

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If 13 Going on 30 was your favorite movie, you will love this new Sophie Cousens novel.

Tired of her mundane life, Lucy Young stumbles upon a wishing machine and makes a wish to skip to the best part of her life. 

Lucy is thrilled when she wakes up to find herself in a seemingly perfect future, complete with a handsome husband, a successful career, and adorable children. 

However, as she navigates this new reality, she questions whether skipping ahead is the right choice.

In this YA rom-com, Charlotte and JT are thrown into adulthood after a mishap while decorating for prom. 

As high school seniors who are transported 13 years into the future, it is a surprise to wake up as a 30-year-old engaged to their high school nemesis. 

As they discover more about each other, they question whether they can return to their high school selves and what that might mean for their relationship. 

Readers have praised Natalie Naudus's audiobook performance in this Mindy’s Book Studio selection as a delight.

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In Arsén's debut, mathematical theory intertwines with time travel, guiding readers through one woman's transformative journey from scientist's daughter to NASA programmer.

When she discovers a wormhole, Annie must navigate the complexities of love and loss through this uniquely created time travel experience.

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The story begins with this shimmering line, "The loss of my mother is like a missing tooth: an absence I can feel at all times, but one I can hide as long as I keep my mouth shut."

Faye is a thirtysomething woman with two daughters and a husband training to be a clergyman.

But unlike her husband, Faye doesn't believe in God, and her logical, scientific brain means she struggles with an unusual predicament.

Faye has been reuniting with her mother, whom she lost as a child, through a unique time machine portal...a cardboard box in her attic.

This experience brings her into 1977, the year before her mother's death, where Faye can finally connect with her long-lost mother and her younger self.

Fisher writes time travel sequences in an Alice and Wonderland way as she slowly (and then dramatically) pulls you into another world.

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Tia Williams's new book, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde, garnered some of her inspiration from this 1989 romance selection.

A woman finds herself stranded in an English church after a breakup, yearning for a knight in shining armor to rescue her.

Little does she know, her fate is about to take an extraordinary turn when Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck, a dashing knight from the sixteenth century, appears before her.

Many romance readers encourage getting the original published copy if you can. The story was expanded by 50 pages in the newer editions, which slowed down the pacing for many readers.

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Alice Stern is approaching her fortieth birthday in this big-hearted novel, and life isn't what she expected.

Despite her comfortable job and friendship with her beloved BFF Sam, she feels like something is missing.

These feelings could be because she's sitting by her father's hospital bed as he nears the end of his life.

After a night of too much drinking, Alice wakes up to find herself in her sixteen-year-old body on the morning of her sixteenth birthday, greeted by her younger and healthier father.

Seeing him through the eyes of her forty-year-old mind, Alice questions whether she genuinely understands her father and finds a new appreciation for who he is.

If you like your time travel light on science and big on heart, this book is for you.

This backlist book is gorgeous, original, and profoundly moving.

In 1975, Lux Lysander is a single mother struggling to make ends meet who spontaneously decides to take a solo trip to Sonoma Valley.

She doesn’t expect to find that just beyond a thick fog on her adventure is a community frozen in time in the year 1906.

Lux is stunned to learn that the residents of Greengage have been stuck in the early twentieth century. She finds herself drawn into their simple world.

The reader follows Lux as she travels back and forth through time, finding love in a different era and learning the consequences of living in parallel worlds.

This novel has many lovely plot twists, and the ending Gideon carves for the end is movie-worthy.

Jake Epping is a high school English teacher who receives a gruesome essay from one of his adult GED students. The chilling story documents a horrific event that occurred fifty years ago.

Shortly after this strange classroom encounter, Jake discovers a portal to 1958 in his friend Al's restaurant.

His friend enlists Jake to travel back in time and prevent the Kennedy assassination. You will be on a suspenseful journey filled with many unexpected plot twists in this Stephen King adventure story.

Once you finish the novel, check out the miniseries from Hulu starring James Franco.

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Written in 1979, this classic novel is one of the best science fiction stories you will ever read. 

Dana is a Black woman married to a white man in the late sixties.

After becoming dizzy one day, she finds herself transported to the South in 1815 when a little boy, Rufus, is drowning in a river.

This is just the first of many visits that will take her back into the 1800s when Dana is not free.

Butler layers a riveting dimension by giving Dana a white husband.

When they are transported together, he must act as her enslaver. It's what makes this book such a page-turner!

You can join us for the 2024 Book Club discussion as we discuss this time travel classic this year.

If you are a fan of police procedural stories or love a good serial killer book, this time travel series is for you.

In A Murder in Time, Kendra Donovan, a brilliant FBI agent, suffers a setback in her career after a disastrous raid that leaves her wounded and half her team dead.

Seeking revenge, she travels to England to take out the person responsible, but things take an unexpected turn when she finds herself transported back in time to 1815 and stuck in Aldrich Castle.

Mistaken for a lady's maid, in this new era, Kendra must adapt to her new life in the 19th century and try to figure out how to return to her own time.

However, her investigative skills are tested when a young girl is found dead on the castle grounds, and Kendra realizes that she may have a greater purpose than expected in this new time period.

In the Scottish Highlands of 1945, Claire Randall, a British combat nurse, embarks on a second honeymoon with her husband.

But when she accidentally steps through a standing stone, she finds herself transported to 1743, a time of war where she must navigate as an outlander in a land fraught with danger

Caught between these two eras, Claire must navigate her heart's desires in this historical romance filled with adventures that have made it a beloved modern-day classic.

I loved the first novel in this spicy historical romance series, and hope to continue the Outlander book series with the next eight books.

In 1970, Carly Sears, a young widow from the Vietnam War, received the devastating news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect with no cure.

However, her brother-in-law physicist proposes a solution that challenges Carly's preconceived beliefs about time.

He shares with her that surgery can be done, but this surgery won't be available until 2001.

With his help, Carly time travels so her child can be part of this experimental surgery.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but Carly will do anything to save her daughter.

This historical fiction novel has a surprisingly grounded time travel aspect, approaching the time travel trope with believability, as it fractures relationships with those she left behind.

Searle's version of time travel is light and frothy without a repeating loop sequence, but just a single vision that imagines a different world for our main character in five years.

Dannie Kohan has always been a planner. She lives by the numbers and never strays from her carefully laid path.

So when her job interview goes just as planned, and she accepts her boyfriend's marriage proposal, she knows she is on track to achieve those five-year goals.

But that very successful evening, Dannie had a vivid vision of herself in five years, and her imagined future was turned upside down.

In this sequence, Dannie wakes up in a different apartment with a different engagement ring and a different man by her side.

The year is 2025, five years in the future, and Dannie doesn't even recognize her own life or the man she's with.

This is not a love story but one of great platonic love and the power of our deep, lasting friendships, which sustain us throughout our lives.

This book is a good choice for a reader who needs a quick win that will not ask a lot of you and will not take you too far into elaborate time travel dimensions.

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On New Year's Eve, Oona celebrates her 19th birthday but wakes up in her 51-year-old body, living 32 years in the future.

Each year, she jumps to a different age while internally feeling like she's still 19.

As Oona navigates her life out of order, she discovers the importance of family, the power of love, and the beauty in finding oneself.

This selection is for readers that don't need an answer to the WHY on the time travel experience, but are here for the journey.

Like many readers, The Time Traveler’s Wife was my first dip into this trope.

I still vividly remember my emotional reaction to the storyline and how much it moved me.

This beautifully written novel explores the unconventional love story between Henry, a man with a rare genetic disorder, and his wife Clare.

Henry's altered timeline can change the past, but doing so has unpredictable and often negative consequences for the future.

This involuntary time travel experience is what makes this so captivating.

Niffenegger weaves the intricacies of time travel with the emotional depth of the characters' relationship, making this a beloved favorite for any time travel enthusiast.

I still count this among my favorite reads of all time.