Book 79, 2026

[chez_jae]

A Time to Dream by Sherry Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


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I had half a chapter + the epilogue to read in my “work” book, so I brought it home and finished it this evening. The book was A Time to Dream by Sherry Lewis. It’s a time-travel romance from the “Time Passages” line. Main characters are Shelby Miller and Zacharias Logan.

As the caretaker of the twin, historic houses of Summervale and Winterhill, Shelby is dismayed to learn that Summervale may be torn down. That was the home where Agatha Logan lived out her life, after becoming estranged from her husband, Zacharias. Desperate to find something to convince the powers that be to save the house, Shelby searches the attic of Summervale for Agatha’s journals. Instead, she ends up getting swept back to the past, into Agatha’s body. Shelby realizes that if she can put things right between Agatha and Zacharias, perhaps that will change history and save Summervale. She must feign a loss of memory, but no one will tell her why Agatha and Zacharias will have nothing to do with one another. It’s up to Shelby to seek Zacharias out to set things right between them. She must also deal with Zacharias’ harridan of a mother, as well as his mistress. The more time she spends with Agatha’s husband, however, the more Shelby begins to fall for Zacharias herself. Can she change history without breaking her own heart?

I liked this story. Shelby is engaging and determined. It was interesting to see how other characters initially treated her or acted around her before gradually warming up to the new “Agatha”. I do take exception, however, to the fact that Shelby ended up in Agatha’s body. I’ve read a lot of time-travel romances, and that never really makes sense to me. When a character is whisked through time, body AND soul, it seems more conceivable. Otherwise, we must wonder what became of the other person’s soul. In this particular case, Agatha and Shelby switched, but that brings about its own dilemma. While one character can muddle along in the past, I can’t help but think that the poor soul who got transplanted in the future must be utterly floundering. How can you go from horse-and-buggy, no electricity, conservative attire, etc to cars and planes and microwaves and mobile phones and bikinis? It would break your brain! I have to remind myself at times to just let it go.

Favorite line: “Only a fool refuses to allow himself to walk toward the warmth.”

Good story overall—four stars.