Review: Overseas by Beatriz Williams

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (May 10, 2012)
• ISBN-10: 0399157646
• Source: Publisher (via Netgalley)

Kate Wilson is a twenty-something Wall Street analyst, trying to make a name for herself. At an important client meeting, she’s banished to her cubicle, expected to sit around should the rest of her team find a need for her.  It is while she’s sulking at her desk that she runs into Manhattan’s most eligible bachelor, the handsome British billionaire Julian Laurence.  Never been one to attract the attention of the opposite sex and without a serious love interest since college, Kate is shocked at how interested Julian is in her.

The two embark upon a whirlwind romance. Julian doesn’t attempt to disguise his feelings for Kate, but he’s definitely holding something back. Eventually all is revealed: Kate & Julian’s love affair actually started almost a century ago in World War I France when a mysterious women saves the life of Captain Julian Laurence Ashford. For some reason, their love has truly triumphed through time,  Kate arriving on the Western Front just in time to save WWI Julian Laurence from death.  Can Kate accept all of this unbelievable news and truly succumb to the love of her life? Or is all of this too much for her?

Overseas  is the perfect summer weekend read! Put a hold on your life, cancel all your appointments for once you start this one you won’t be able to stop.  Not a typical fan of romance myself, I couldn’t help but find myself swept away in this escapist read!  When this book was compared to Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, I couldn’t resist!

Given the fact that this is a novel involving time traveling, the reader must of course suspend belief while reading this novel. There isn’t a great deal about Julian & Kate’s journey through time that can be believed and accepted.  Williams didn’t intend for readers to examine the probability or possibility of time travel, but instead lose themselves in the love story between Kate and Julian, a love story that stands the test of time.

Overseas is a book that truly took me away to another place and time, a novel that I’ve found myself recommending to anyone who will listen. Kate and Julian have a classic love that you don’t see a lot anymore in fiction, a romance so deep time and distance can’t stop it. This is saying a lot coming from a reader who typically doesn’t enjoy romance, but I found myself wanting to know more about Kate and Julian, about their life together. I’m hoping Williams intends on writing more about this couple, for now I want more! Highly, Highly recommended.