Step Back in Time

by Ali McNamara

[Leah]

I love Ali McNamara. From Notting Hill With Love… Actually is one of my favourite Chick Lit books, ever and is easily one of the best debut novels I’ve ever read, too. She just has such a way with words, that you’re always entranced by her stories. So when a proof copy arrived in the mail I was sooooooooooooo ridiculously happy. I couldn’t wait to read it, I LOVE time travel novels, and I do wish more authors would risk writing a novel that’s a bit different because they’re always the best kind and Ali McNamara is easily one of the most imaginative authors around so I couldn’t wait to get stuck in.

I have to admit I’ve been going through a bit of a reading slump recently. I’m still reading, yes, but the books I’m reading just aren’t blowing me away and I was sorta worried to start Step Back In Time becauase I didn’t want to be disappointed in it. I’m quite pleased to report that I loved Step Back In Time – it was such a fun, warm, engaging novel that it would seem my book slump is basically just me reading books that aren’t particularly mind blowing (which in itself is a shame!). Step Back In Time, however, blew all the novels I’ve read in the past week out of the water quite easily and the novel has easily one of the coolest book concepts, ever.

Step Back In Time sees main character Jo Jo moving through the decades, from the swinging sixties to the hippy seventies, to the big-haired eighties, and to the relatively modern nineties. I got into the novel immediately; I loved meeting Jo Jo in 2013 before all the hoo-ha happened because it meant we knew a bit about her, and a bit about the people in her life; Ellie, George, Harry and then I liked how quickly we time travelled. I thought it was utterly amazing; I loved the concept that Jo Jo changed guises with each trip, but how she was still, inside, the same Jo Jo f 2013. I loved how Jo Jo adapted to all of the changes, and managed to realise that there were some thing that stayed the same no matter the decade. I loved seeing that Ellie, Harry and George were always present and correct, even if they weren’t as close to Jo Jo as they had been, that familiarity meant a lot as I read the novel because it meant Ellie wasn’t ever totally alone, even if the people around her weren’t always as they used to be.

Step Back In Time was a pleasure from beginning to the end, I was hooked from the off. I didn’t even mind all the Beatles references (in fact, it was actually nice because it was all tied together), despite not being their biggest fan (I’m a 90s kid, my parents brought me up on Meat Loaf not The Beatles). Ali McNamara has once again hit it out of the park, she is truly a special storyteller and this is her at her best. She encapsulated all the decades so well, and it never felt gimmicky. I loved learning more about decades I’ve never known a thing about, I loved that Groovy Records was present and correct in every decade and I adored the core characters of Jo Jo, George, Ellie and Harry. I didn’t want it to end, I just wanted to keep surfing the decades with Jo Jo, but even the ending was amazing. Ali’s so talented, and Step Back In Time is a triumph, thank you Ali for such an awesome read.