Time Runs Away With Her

The Bean Books #1

by Christine Potter

I was a young adult in 1970s. All that good music and bad pot. I'm looking forward to this read. Here is the publisher's synopsis:

It's not easy being Bean. Bean Donohue lives for her guitar, but her mom threw her out of the house during a snowstorm for singing. No way she's going to get permission to go see The Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East.

Zak, her almost-boyfriend, will get drafted if he doesn't get into art school, pot makes Bean paranoid, and her best friend can't stop talking about sex. 1970's not for wimps-but neither was 1885...or 1945. So why does Bean keep sliding backwards in time?

282 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2015

About the author

Christine Potter is a writer and poet who lives in a very old (haunted) house on a creek in Rockland County. She has an organist/choirdirector husband (Ken) and two spoiled tom cats. One of the house's two ghosts lives in the room behind her office.

Christine's newest book is a YA time travel novel, What Time Is It There? (The Bean Books, Book 3), newly released by Evernight Teen. The first book in the series is Time Runs Away With Her, and the second is In Her Own Time.

Her two poetry collections are Zero Degrees at First Light (2006) and Sheltering in Place (2013). She has also had poems published in Rattle, Fugue, The Irish Examiner, HOOT, Eclectica, and The Pedestal, among other magazines. Her third book of poems, Unforgetting, is due out this spring from Kelsay Books.

Reviews

[Danielle's · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rebecca Donohue is intriguing and a little strange. She is 16 years old, lives with her mother and everyone calls her Bean.

She has a rocky relationship with her mother who is bitter about her divorce. They are trying to find a new normal but clash at every step. Bean loves her guitar and to sing, but her mother wants some peace and quiet which leads to an argument. The situation escalates and Bean finds herself out in the cold.

Her best friend Suzanne has a boyfriend and an over-sharing mother. Bean is close with Suzanne but not her boyfriend. Zak is her love interest and she realises not being perfect may be the key to getting his attention. She finds herself at his door and wanting to get to know him. He's an artist and a fellow music fan. This book is set in the 1970's mostly. There are themes of sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll.

This all sounds mundane, but Bean starts to see glimpses into something special. A step in time.

This is a becoming of age story and the first in a series. The writing style is a little strange even by my standards. Bean is unique and herself. The story is addictive and controversial. 4 stars out of 5. I received an ARC as part of the Chapter by Chapter book tour for book 3.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fresh, whimsical, heartful tale of a time-traveling teen and her supportive boyfriend Zak (supportive love interest -- such a rare being in literature!). Whether you're a young or a slightly older adult, this charming story will take you back to the 1970s -- the good parts, the musical ones -- to follow the folk-singing, delightful Bean, as she wanders into an old mansion and another century. Can ghosts sing harmony? This story will harmonize with chilly autumn nights, dark shadows, great rock & roll, and will utimately run away with you, leaving you ready for Book #2 of Bean.

[Marcus Damanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Love is the heaviest energy of all.”

To those of you who were alive in 1970, welcome back. To those of you who weren’t, just welcome. You’re going to love it here. Pour yourself a cup of hot cocoa. It’s cold outside. Snow is falling. It’s time to line the needle up to your favorite track on the latest Grateful Dead album and melt away the present day.

Meet Rebecca—that’s “Bean” to her friends and peers. She’s sixteen years old, living the difficult life with her single mom “Juuulia,” learning to sing and play guitar without lessons, yearning for a little encouragement and love. There is a chance for love, she supposes, in the odd, long-haired art student named Zak. Her best friend and partner in high school harmonies, meanwhile, is Suzanne, who happens to have the coolest mom ever. A mom who would never kick her out of her house in the middle of the night at the beginning of a snow storm. Suzanne has a boyfriend, too: Blair, the local track star with the regular pocket joint and the unnerving, ever-shifting eyes. Bean yearns, too, to attend the exclusive, too-expensive Deerwood academy where her mother had once been a straight-A student—back when her mother had been rich, before the family had ostracized her, before Juuulia’d entered into a marriage seemingly predestined for divorce … and had Bean.

But, boy, our girl can play guitar. She really can. With the help of Suzanne and her new friend Samantha, she might even get her singing where it needs to be, too. She feels a guilty pleasure that Zak considers her a “troublemaker,” as well, but she knows better. There’s just this … one thing.

Bean’s a time traveler, you see. Not that she can control it—and that’s a problem. And things in the little town of Stormkill are about to get very interesting.

In TIME RUNS AWAY WITH HER, Christine Potter serves up a book for young adults, teens, and grownups alike. Fans of realistic and dramatic fiction will find themselves well-served by the poignant and awkward day-to-day struggles Bean faces, as well as by the spot-on historical references, the perfect blend of nostalgia and edginess. Fans of the paranormal will be swept up in the mysteries of Bean’s oddity, the ghosts of a town’s past shrouded by dark rumors.

And then, of course, there’s the romance. It’s both real and sweet, textured by the difficulties of growing up, complicated by the unpredictable intrusions of Bean’s uncontrolled gift—and threatened by … But, no. That would be telling.

At the outset of this story, one really does want to get comfortable on the couch with a hot beverage, but be warned—there’s something unsafe here, as the story wheels towards several resolutions at once. Not all of them are easy. But, in the end, they are very, very satisfying.

TIME RUNS AWAY WITH HER is a deceptively simple story. But by the time it’s over, the reader realizes with a goofy smile just how deftly Potter juggled all of the subtle elements that ultimately converge with a climactic and dramatic crash, rendering an artful tale at once uplifting, heartbreaking, fascinating, and unique.

[Catherine Stine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was totally charmed by this novel, particularly the super adorable relationship between Bean and her boyfriend, Zak. Her manner of veering between brave determination and shy adoration toward Zak felt very realistic. His way of speaking was hilarious and endearing. I loved his constant sketching of everything and everyone and drawing Bean in a flurry of flowers and feathers and wings. He used a Rapidiograph, an art pen that was all the rage in the 70s. Even the hippie clothing was spot on. For teens curious about this now historic era, I vouch for the authenticity of Bean’s world. Oh, and there’s music! Bean has a girl group, and there’s the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore, Fairport Convention and the rest of the carnival bright soundtrack of the time.

There’s time travel, too. I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with this element, or how smoothly Potter would be able to zing Bean back and forth without it being clunky. But she pulled it off. I never felt her pulling the author strings. Rather it felt like an organic part of the story and each scene back in time was a puzzle piece that was nicely completed by novel’s end.

I related to so many things: Bean’s frosty, troubled mom and how the two of them had to make it work since the divorce. The overlarge drafty house that was lonely when Bean’s mom was at work. Bean’s friends: lovely Susanne in a too – fast, too-open relationship with her boyfriend Blair, and Sam, Bean’s flaky but feisty friend who seemed to have it all, attending Deerwood Academy, an upper crusty local boarding school. Bean’s mom, Julia attended Deerwood but Bean’s family couldn’t afford to send her. Understandably, Bean was in turns fascinated and critical of the school when she went there to visit Sam. And finally, there was Bean’s disgust and fear regarding unwanted attention from a guy whose creepy eyes and attention focused on her way too long. Highly recommended for teens who are curious about the infamous 1970s, and for those who love music, time travel and the high-spirited journey of a very endearing couple.

[Rachel Rust · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is something incredibly fresh and lovely about this book. At first glance, Rebecca “Bean” Donohue may seem like the typical girl-next-door, but she is anything but boring or drab. Quite the opposite—Bean’s inquisitive and smart and dynamic. Not to mention the fact that she slips backwards in time. Author Christine Potter does a wonderful job narrating the time travel in an easy to understand manner. And the time travel brings the reader to some very interesting places…stories within a story.

The secondary cast of characters are simply too wonderful! Her energetic friends Suzanne and Sam, her mother Juuulia, and of course, Zak, her “almost-boyfriend." Zak is one of the best characters I’ve come across in a long time.

This book would be great for anyone looking for a sweet romance, tales of friendship, time travel or even those who love the grooviness of 1970!