The Best Time Travel Books Where the Romance Sweeps You Back in Time and Off Your Feet
Discover the best time travel books where the romance sweeps you off your feet as you travel backwards or forwards in time.
These time travel romance books demonstrate that true love can truly conquer all – even the fantastical elements of time travel.
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Have you ever read a time travel book and thought about what it would be like to travel through time? To be a time traveler who is whisked away to another land, another dimension and another time where you just so happen to find the person of your dreams?
That may be fiction (as far as we know 😊) but that doesn’t prevent me from enjoying being swept back in time with beloved time travel romance books.
Why I Love Time Travel Books
There are several reasons why I enjoy time travel romance books. While it’s not as popular a romance book trope as others, I find them fascinating for several reasons.
Time Travel Books with a Look at History
I’ve always said that romance books offer so much more than a happy ending. With time travel romance books, you also get an added look at a different time period in history.
Whether the time traveler character is traveling back in time or forward in time, these books give you a look into what it’s like to live in a specific time period.
I particularly enjoy time travel books where the character travels hundreds of years back in time. While the book may have started as a contemporary romance, it evolves into historical fiction or a historical romance novel as the time traveler not only finds love but has to adapt to the different lifestyle of the times.
Often, it’s the most talented writers who do their research to weave in historical accuracies that make time travel books a fitting historical romance novel as well – I’m looking at you Diana Gabaldon!
Finding Love in Time Travel Romance Books
Of course, I probably wouldn’t love time travel books as much if they didn’t provide a happily ever after ending for their characters.
That’s why this book list only has time travel romance books though there are many other popular time travel books you could read that don’t have the added love story component.
I particularly enjoy the love story of time travel books because it shows how love really can transcend seemingly difficult circumstances and obstacles, including time.
It’s one thing to find such satisfaction in seeing two characters fall in love on the page, but it’s quite another when they can find each other and make it work when they are from two different worlds and time periods.
Mysticism in Time Travel Books
I also love the mysticism often found in time travel books.
There is usually some kind of science fiction element to the time travel story to explain or attempt to explain how the time traveler transported to a different time and/or place.
Was it by time machine, or by a magical spell or even by a bored fairy or god that prompts the time traveler’s journey? I love the variety of creative explanations to time travel that authors think up!
It’s probably why I also enjoy fantasy romance books so much.
With time travel books, the mixture of science fiction and fantasy truly creates this amazing backdrop to the love story that unfolds.
What You’ll Find in This Book List of Time Travel Books
This book list of time travel romance novels contains some popular and well-known time travel books with a few that may not be as well know but really intrigue me.
I’ve, of course, included a few of my favorite time travel books as well as a variety of different time travel romance books that I want to read.
These novels span historical fiction, touching on science fiction as well as contemporary fiction, young adult fiction and fantasy. But isn’t that what you’d expect from a time travel romance book? A bit of the fantastical where love can conquer anything, even time and time travel?
If you want to be swept away by love and time, then pick up one of these time travel books. Happy reading!
My Favorite Time Travel Books
Outlander
by Diana Gabaldon
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse just back from the war, reunites with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone circle. Suddenly, she’s thrust back in time to 1743 and a Scotland torn by war where she meets a young Highland warrior.
James Fraser, a young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.
I’m not sure you could ever have a book list of time travel books, romance book or not, that doesn’t include Outlander! Diana Gabaldon has written and entire book series about a woman who travels back in time and finds the love of her life, and it is one not to miss.
I had always been a romance book lover, but it wasn’t until I delved into this series that my obsession began. The romance between Jamie and Claire is so incredibly wonderful but so is every other aspect of this book and series.
I loved being swept away into the Scottish Highlands and learning about its history just as much as I was glued to the pages to see how Claire would fit into this new world and/or whether she could find a way to return back to her time.
This is one of my most favorite romance novels of all time and definitely the best time travel book I can’t recommend enough.
Beyond the Highland Mist
by Karen Marie Moning
He was known throughout the kingdom as Hawk, legendary predator of the battlefield and the boudoir. No woman could refuse his touch, but no woman ever stirred his heart—until a vengeful fairy tumbled Adrienne de Simone out of modern-day Seattle and into medieval Scotland.
Captive in a century not her own, entirely too bold, too outspoken, she was an irresistible challenge to the sixteenth-century rogue. Coerced into a marriage with Hawk, Adrienne vowed to keep him at arm’s length—but Adrienne’s reservations were no match for Hawk’s determination to keep her by his side.
This time travel book is another must read that kicks off a fantastic series of romance books. I love how Moning pits a strong heroine who travels hundreds of years back in time against an alpha lord. They are equally matched for each other which sparked great chemistry.
This book also brings in some fantasy elements which I love and are continued with in the rest of the series. The mix of historical romance and fantasy made this one of my favorite time travel books!
A Knight in Shining Armor
by Jude Deveraux
Abandoned by her boyfriend, Dougless Montgomery cries upon a cold tombstone in an English church for her own rescuer. When suddenly, a man appears- Nicholas Stafford, Earl of Thornwyck, the man who according to his tombstone, died in 1564.
Dougless knows that Nicholas is nothing less than a miracle: a man who does not seek to change her, who finds her perfect, fascinating, just as she is. What Dougless never imagined was how strong the chains are that tie them to the past, or the grand adventure that lay before them.
This time travel romance book also involves a character from the sixteenth century, but it begins with an Earl who travels forward in time to the future aka the 1980s.
I remember enjoying not only their connection but also seeing the modern world through his eyes. There is also a sense of desperation and suspense to the novel given why Nicholas left and why he seeks to return to his time.
Overall, this is one of the most popular time travel romance books and one worth checking out.
What the Wind Knows
by Amy Harmon
When Anne travels to Ireland to scatter her late grandfather’s ashes, she abruptly finds herself transported to Ireland of 1921 with the country on the edge of war.
But there Anne finds herself, hurt, disoriented, and under the care of Dr. Thomas Smith, guardian to a young boy who is oddly familiar. Mistaken for the boy’s long-missing mother, Anne adopts her identity, convinced the woman’s disappearance is connected to her own.
As tensions rise in the struggle for Ireland’s independence, Anne is drawn into the conflict alongside Thomas where she’s faced with the choice of letting go of the life she knew or the man she’s come to love.
There’s just something magical about Harmon’s writing that captivates me with each book, even more so with this time travel romance.
While this most certainly is a time travel book, it’s undoubtedly a historical fiction/historical romance. Throughout the book you’re transported along with the trials and tribulations of the Irish leaders who are fighting for their independence from the British – told mostly from Thomas’ diary entries.
The romance was more of a subtle slow burn alongside the backdrop of the history unfolding in the novel.
I also liked that this was a “different” time travel romance book in that the character only traveled eighty years into the past to a world that still had modern convenience. Instead of having to acclimate to a new time, Anne had to find her way among a world that knew or assumed she was someone else.
I highly recommend for time travel book fans and historical romance fans alike.
In a Holidaze
by Christina Lauren
Maelyn is spending the holidays at a cabin in Utah with her family and friends. Only she wakes up the morning after Christmas having kissed her long-time friend, NOT his brother whom she’s had a massive crush on since she was a teen.
That morning kicks off a time loop where she’s stuck reliving the same vacation giving her a chance to right the past.
I thought this time travel book was something new and fresh from the writing duo, Christina Lauren whom I adore. The time loop plot line was overall an interesting twist that is very reminiscent of the movie Groundhog Day if you’re familiar with it.
What I liked best about using this time travel idea was confidence it gave the main character, Mae. Reliving the same Christmas holiday finally gave her the confidence to live authentically and to share her feelings with Andrew, come what may.
While this time travel book is also considered a Christmas romance book, it honestly can be read any time of year because it wasn’t a huge focus of the story.
If you’re looking for a different type of time travel romance book, and one that is purely a contemporary romance novel, then you’ll want to read this one!
More Time Travel Romance Books
The Time Traveler’s Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
Clare meets her future husband when she is six and Henry is thirty-six and yet the two marry when she is twenty-three and Henry is thirty-one. Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder which causes his genetic clock to reset and misplace him in time.
With this time travel book made into a Hollywood movie, and now a TV series to debut in 2022, this is another one of the more famous time travel books worth reading.
While I loved the movie and can’t wait to check out the series, I have yet to read the book but it’s on my TBR list. I adored the love story between Clare and Henry, particularly their first meeting, but it might be the trials and tribulations that their love faces due to Henry’s time traveling abilities that struck me most.
Most time travel books focus on the main character traveling back in time or forward in time only once or twice to return to their own time, but Henry does both repeatedly throughout his entire life. It’s a unique twist to explore how a time traveler can find and sustain love with his unique abilities.
One Last Stop
by Casey McQuiston
August looks forward to seeing Jane every day on the train. Only her subway crush is impossible because Jane is a girl lost in time, displaced from the 1970s.
This time travel book is McQuiston’s long awaited sophomore debut which released with great fanfare and was nominated for best romance book in the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards.
This time travel romance book adds a diverse choice to the trope as it features a lesbian romance between a girl from the present and a girl from the 1970s.
Not only is Jane transported to the future, but she is stuck to a subway train, which is an added plotline for her and August to uncover.
In Five Years
by Rebecca Serle
When asked where she sees herself in 5 years in an interview, lawyer Dannie Kohan is ready with her prepared answer. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep but wakes in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man in 2025, five years in the future.
After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away until four-and-a-half years later, when she meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.
Serle’s time travel book was a 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards nominee for best romance book.
I love the twist on this time travel romance book where Dannie’s time travel experience only existed for one hour, five years into the future and how her experience influences her life as the story unfolds.
If you’re more interested in contemporary, time travel romance books, this is a good choice for you.
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird
by Josie Silver
Lydia thought she’d be with Freddie forever but then he died in a car accident. Trying to get over her heartache, she enlists the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, to open to life–and perhaps even love–again.
But then something inexplicable happens giving her another chance at her old life with Freddie. Lydia is now living two lives at once. One in the past where Freddie is alive and still owns her heart and her real life in the present where someone else wants her too.
This time travel book is another contemporary romance that also received a 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards nominee for best romance book.
The parallel lives twist of this time travel book is reminiscent of the plotline to the romance movie, Sliding Doors, which I loved. I love the idea of living two lives with two loves and how you could possibly choose between the two.
Charming the Highlander
by Janet Chapman
When a plane crash strands brilliant scientist Grace Sutter on an icy mountaintop in Maine, she finds herself alone in the wilderness with the only other surviving passenger — Greylen MacKeage, a sexy, medieval warrior who’s been tossed through time to find the woman he’s destined to love.
Forced together to survive the harsh, wintry landscape, neither expects the fierce passion that flares between them. But Grace is not used to letting her heart take control, and Greylen will settle for nothing less than her heart’s surrender.
I’m such a fan of romance novels with Scottish heroes so I’m already loving this time travel book with the Highland warrior.
This time travel romance where the character travels from the past to the future, also features another one of my most favorite romance book tropes: the forced proximity romance. Add in a snow storm and harrowing scenarios for survival, I’m all about this book!
Opposite of Always
by Justin Reynolds
When Jack and Kate meet at a party, they instantly bond and before he knows it, he’s falling hard. But then Kate passes away, ending their story, but does it?
Kate’s passing sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate’s there again. Healthy, happy, and charming as ever.
Jack is sure he’s losing his mind but he will believe in time travel if it means saving Kate’s life. However, Jack will learn that his actions are not without consequences. And soon he has to figure out what he’s willing to do to save the people he loves.
If you’re a fan of young adult romance, this is the time travel book for you. I can’t imagine it’s ever easy to believe in time travel, even if you’re the one doing it, especially if you’re a young teen dealing with loss.
The idea that actions have consequences and the possibility of changing the future is such an engaging premise to time travel books and I can’t wait to explore it in this one.
Remembrance
by Jude Devereaux
Bestselling romance writer Hayden Lane has found her soul mate – or rather, created him: he’s her latest fictional hero. Barely noticing when her real-life fiance breaks their engagement, she visits a psychic to learn more about him – and is told that in a past life Hayden was Lady de Grey, a promiscuous woman of Edwardian England.
Hayden can’t resist submitting to a hypnotist’s magic. But the trick goes wrong, and instead of merely remembering her past as Lady de Grey, Hayden is living it.
Devereaux pens yet another classic time travel book in this romance. Fans of historical romance novels in the Edwardian era will devour it.
I for one want to see how Hayden survives not only her “new” reputation but the brooding man who captures her heart as well.
Time Between Us
by Tamara Ireland Stone
Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.
As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question.
Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.
This is a contemporary, time travel book that explores the idea of whether or not you can control time travel, and the consequences that answer may have when you find the love of your life in another time.
I like that the time difference between the time traveler and lover is not very wide but that the aspect of time travel is still an issue that can greatly impact their relationship.
The Rose Garden
by Susanna Kearsley
When Eva’s film star sister passes, she leaves California and returns to Cornwall, where they spent their childhood summers. Only there Eva realizes the house where she grew up is not only home to her old friends, but also to the people who had lived there in the eighteenth century.
When Eva finally accepts that she is able to slip between centuries and see and talk to the inhabitants from hundreds of years ago, she soon finds herself falling for Daniel Butler, a man who lived long before she was ever born.
Eva begins to question her place in the present, and in laying her sister to rest, comes to realize that she too must decide where she really belongs, choosing between the life she knows and the past she feels so drawn towards.
Would you want to stay in the past with the man you loved if the person you cared for was no longer in your present?
I can understand Eva’s dilemma in this time travel romance book and look forward to seeing how she manages slipping back and forth through time.
Transcendence
by Shay Savage
Ehd’s a caveman living on his own in a harsh wilderness. When he finds a beautiful young woman in his pit trap, it’s obvious to him that she is meant to be his mate. He doesn’t know where she came from, she’s wearing some pretty odd clothing, and she makes a lot of noises with her mouth that give him a headache. Still, he’s determined to fulfill his purpose in life – provide for her, protect her, and put a baby in her.
Elizabeth doesn’t know where she is or exactly how she got there. She’s confused why a caveman is hauling her back to his cave home. With only each other for company, they must rely on one another to fight the dangers of the wild and prepare for the winter months. As they struggle to coexist, theirs becomes a love story that transcends language and time.
Wow- a time travel romance book set in prehistoric time? I am so game to read this one.
They say love doesn’t need a language to exist and that couldn’t be more true with this time travel book where one character lacks the ability to comprehend language. It too is a forced proximity romance with Ehd and Elizabeth only having each other to rely on.
If you want a fresh and different take on the time period of a time travel romance, check this one out.
Silent Vows
by Catherine Bybee
Myra, a medieval virgin druidess, flees five hundred years into the future to escape her demise at the hands of a cursed witch and lands in the arms of a handsome but cynical twenty-first century cop.
Officer Todd Blakely knows Myra is hiding something but can’t resist her innocent charms. Destiny throws them both into a world of intrigue and mysticism. Can Todd be the true white knight she needs? Or will magic and the winds of time tear them apart?
I love that this romance book is an intersection with fantasy romance and time travel romance. Rather than take place in the past, it takes place in the future with the heroine traveling forward in time.
I’m anxious to see how an officer reacts to the fantasy and magic of Myra’s story!
Must Love Chainmail
by Angela Quarles
With a day planner attached to her hip, the last thing Katy Tolson wants is a romance that threatens her well-ordered life. She’s set to marry the safe–but bland–guy, but something’s not quite…right. A careless wish thrusts her through time into medieval Wales and into the arms of a knight in somewhat shining armor.
Sir Robert Beucol, half-Norman and half-Welsh, lives with the shame of his father’s treason and vows to reclaim his family’s holdings and thereby his honor. He seeks to prove himself to his king, not be sidetracked by the mysterious woman with pink toenails.
I look forward to traveling back to medieval times in this time travel book. Katy sounds like a woman after my own heart with her day planner by her side, but I am curious to see how she may lighten up with Sir Robert.
If you enjoy time travel books with a bit of adventure, try this book!
Trapped in Time
by Denise Daye
On the day she and her mother escaped her cruel father, Emma Washington vowed to never fall in love. Now, Emma is a back-to-school PhD student with bigger and better things to worry about. That is, until one night a car comes crashing toward her, changing her life forever. Instead of waking up in a 21st-century hospital, she finds herself waking up in the backwaters of London, Victorian England, 1881.
Trapped in a time where everything she once knew is considered witchcraft, Emma soon realizes her survival depends on the very thing she has tried to avoid her whole life—marriage. As if that isn’t bad enough, she must betroth herself to none other than the most powerful duke in all of England, the notorious and feared Lord William Blackwell.
This sounds like a great marriage of convenience, time travel book with a strong heroine and engaging Lord. Plus, it kicks off an entire series of time travel romance books!
I love romance books with reluctant characters who can’t help but fall in love when it’s the last thing they are looking for, especially in a different century.
If you like historical romance novels, this may be the best time travel romance for you.
See You Yesterday
by Rachel Lynn Soloman
Barrett Bloom is hoping college will be a fresh start after a messy high school experience. But when school begins on September 21st, everything that could go wrong does. After the most terrible day, Barrett falls asleep in the common room only to wake the next morning perplexed to find it’s September 21st. Again. And after a confrontation with Miles, her nemesis from her Physics 101 class, she learns she’s not alone—he’s been trapped for months.
When her attempts to fix her timeline fail, she agrees to work with Miles to find a way out. Soon they’re exploring the mysterious underbelly of the university and going on wild, romantic adventures. As they start falling for each other, they face the universe’s biggest unanswered question yet: what happens to their relationship if they finally make it to tomorrow?
While this time travel book doesn’t release until May 2022, it is on my TBR list because I love Soloman’s writing and can’t wait to read it.
It sounds to be the perfect blend of new adult, college romance with a thread of Groundhog Day fun mixed with an enemies to lovers angle. I don’t know what could be better!
If you like time travel books that focus more on a time loop than long flung travel, this is the book for you.
Don’t forget to share your favorite time travel romance books in the comments below!
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