Laura read and liked Misfit's review of Somewhere In Time:

"I can't believe I'm saying this but skip the book and see the movie instead! Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think that instead of Hollywood screwing up a good book and getting it wrong that they could take a mediocre book and make something ...more I can't believe I'm saying this but skip the book and see the movie instead! Never in my wildest dreams would I ever think that instead of Hollywood screwing up a good book and getting it wrong that they could take a mediocre book and make something unforgettable. Originally published as Bid Time Return, the story starts in 1971 and written in a journal/diary format by Richard Collier, who suffers from a brain tumor. In an effort to escape his real life and career, Richard finds himself at San Diego's Hotel Del Coronado, while there he sees the 19C photo of actress Elise McKenna and finds himself immediately attracted to the image and falls in love.

Richard reads everything he can find on Elise, who after a strange and life-changing visit to the hotel in 1896 never married and he realizes that she died of a heart attack within hours after she saw a very young Richard and recognized him as her lover from the Coronado Hotel. OK..... Determined to escape the present and return to Elise, Richard finds clothing of the period and somehow meditates himself into the past and once there, well, you all know the rest of the story.

So how is it that a story I love to bits every time I see it (well possibly because it _is_ Christopher Reeve) be so slow paced and mediocre in the book? I love a good love story as well as the next female reader, but he was just too sappy and gushy over this woman who he'd only seen in a photograph -- and Elise wasn't much better with her mooning over Richard. The diary/journal format didn't help either especially with 100+ never ending pages of Richard's efforts to return to the past (came close to tossing it), and since I'm not into spoilers I won't go into the ambiguous little ending the author leaves the readers with, but you won't like it. From all the rave reviews, clearly I'm in the minority opinion on this one, but if you're dead set on reading it, get it from the library first - then buy it if you love it. 2/5 stars. (less) "