Cassandra and Lawrence, a love for the ages, find a fitting setting upon the shore of a Gatsbyesque mansion in Crest Harbor, Massachusetts.?Seventeen-year-old?Cassandra, her mom, stepdad, and toddler brother, Eddie, have rented the house for the summer. Lawrence and his uncle Ned, meanwhile, live in that very same house, except at a different time mely the 1920s. The two parties are connected by travel through the space-time continuum, which Collins establishes with a surreal flash of light, a full moon, and alternating chapters, effective bait for fans of Niffenegger, Byatt, and du Maurier. Or perhaps readers will simply relish the harlequin image of the chaste lovers on the beach amid the crashing waves. After Lawrence's life is revealed to be in danger, Cassandra spends hours in the town library researching in hopes of changing history t is that the best course of action after a friend ceases to exist when an ancestor becomes involved in a fatal accident? A satisfying summer read in every way; pack this one in the beach bag.

Gr 8 Up-Two emotional teenagers meet on the beach and bond over art, poetry, and feeling misunderstood, only to find out they live in the same house90 years apart. Cassandra and Lawrence can only see each other on the strip of private beach behind the house that Lawrence occupies in 1925 and that Cassandra's family is renting in 2015. Cassandra takes to the library to do some digging on her new beau and discovers he was/is going to be murdered on that very beach in just 10 days. The love-struck teens are torn between staying in their own time periods to investigate (and try to prevent) the murder and spending what might be Lawrence's last days on Earth together. The romance is woozy and breathless, which gives it a classic feel, and the investigating the teens do on both sides of the event builds some suspense. While there's quite a bit readers have to accept here (not one person in either time period is interested in using this beautiful private beach except the teens, ensuring nobody figures out their secret until the very end; any culture shock Lawrence might be feeling at the language and dress from 2015 is brushed off a little too easily; and the explanation as to why they can see each other in the first place is spotty), readers with a flair for the dramatic and romantic will overlook these points easily. VERDICT A hazy, romantic mystery that might appeal to fans of Nicholas Sparks. Beth McIntyre, Madison Public Library, WI