A Blast From the Past to 1980 - an Editorial Review of "The Right Time"

Book Blurb:

“In The Right Time: Back to the 80s, Lena Gibson deftly blends women’s fiction, romance, and magical realism to craft a can’t-miss story of love and identity.” –Travis Tougaw, author of the Marcotte/Collins Investigative Thrillers

Thirty-year-old Andie is struggling. Despite a fresh start—escaping an abusive ex and making a new home—her old life reaches out to reclaim her. In desperation, she makes a wish and slips back in time.

The 80s are safer and have a reputation as simpler, but everything is different and new. Despite her strange situation, Andie navigates finding work, making friends, and learning how to live in 1985. Along the way, she challenges herself to make more connections and enjoy life.

Paramedic Zack believes love leads to heartache. He has no time for or interest in having a girlfriend—until he meets awkward and irresistible Andie. He resists her charm and pushes her away—afraid to lose someone the way his father did.

Andie’s been given a second chance. If she doesn’t grasp it, she might as well have stayed in her original time. Zack might be the answer to Andie’s wish—if only she could make him believe they belong together.

A blast from the past, The Right Time: Back to the 80s, reminds us to be careful what you wish for—you just might get what you want.

Book Buy Link: https://geni.us/TwqlO

Author Bio:

Award-winning author Lena Gibson is a storyteller as an elementary school teacher and keeper of the family lore. As someone with autism, she often creates characters that reflect this experience.

A voracious reader from childhood onward, Lena seeks wonderful books in which to escape. She loves interesting characters and fast-paced, emotional narratives, leading her to write genre-defying stories in multiple categories. While her books are disaster romance, time slip, dystopian adventure, and sports romance, all are about love, resilience, and hope.

When Lena isn't writing, she reads, practices karate, and drinks a ton of tea. She resides in New Westminster, Canada, with her family and their fuzzy overlord, Ash, the fluffiest of gray cats.

Editorial Review:

For her ninth birthday, Andie received a castle—not a fancy one with turrets and crenellations, but a fortress. It might not have looked like anything special to most people, but it contained a bed she didn’t have to share with her younger sister, plus a built-in bookcase to fill with her favorite books. The room gave her the high ground in her house, and she imagined it would be the perfect place for dreams, tucked into the highest point of the vaulted ceiling.

What a fool her nine-year-old self had been.

Twenty-one years later, as Andie drove up to the curb outside her new rental and parked, she realized her expectations of that long-ago bedroom and this place had both been too high. A sinking sensation filled her stomach and rested like a stone-hard lump as she took stock. When would she learn to be realistic?

The novel's introduction makes it clear that the plot will be character-driven. Rather than using spectacle, Gibson captivates the reader with a sense of discomfort and emotional weight. The reader can tell from the first few pages that Andie is more than just dissatisfied; she is threatened, diminished, and struggling to take back her identity. This grounding anchors the speculative aspect in emotional reality, making the subsequent time-slip feel earned rather than convenient.

Lena Gibson’s The Right Time: Back to the 80s is a subtly potent book that combines romance, magical realism, and women's fiction into a profoundly human tale about survival, second chances, and the bravery required to start over. The novel's real strength is its emotional sincerity, even as time travel serves as its theoretical hook. This is a personal character study based on tragedy, recovery, and the gradual rediscovery of hope rather than a flashy, gimmick-driven excursion to the past.

Thirty-year-old Andie is at her lowest point at the beginning of the book, escaping an abusive marriage and frantically clinging to safety, dignity, and control over her own life. This opening is not hurried by Gibson. Rather, she firmly immerses the reader in Andie's weariness, dread, and emotional disarray. Andie's urge to return to 1985 feels more like an extension of her psychological state - a yearning for a simpler, safer, and more forgiving time - than a story device.

Andie has to make her way through a familiar but unnervingly different world once she arrives in the 1980s. Gibson avoids the temptation to naively romanticize the time period. The 1980s are not portrayed as a miracle cure-all, even though they are slower and more intimate. Andie's trauma is still with her. The story's tension stems from a very real emotional question - can a person outrun their past, or must they confront it in order to move forward - rather than from paradoxes or ostentatious science fiction rules.

Andie awoke twice that night, a strangled scream escaping each time. Vague flashes of Dylan’s face lingered as she lay in the strange dark room, gasping while his dream words lingered, “You’re nothing and nobody cares about you.” The anger in his face sent chills through her, and she made a decision. She wouldn’t continue like this, frightened of her nightmares. She would call Dr. Fossey on Monday to set up an appointment. Andie hated talking about her past, but she suspected getting to the bottom of her feelings now would show them rooted in her childhood. That’s when things had first gone awry, and she’d first felt alone.

The plot develops naturally, striking a balance between Andie's inward journey and her relationships with others, especially her developing bond with Zack, a paramedic whose emotional barriers reflect Andie's wounds. Moments of introspection, awkwardness, and vulnerability are given equal weight with significant plot twists because of the slow and assured pacing.

It has quotes from movies from the 80s at the start of each chapter, and I loved this part. I loved all of those movies and it gives an extra touch to connect the reader to the story even more.

One of the book's best features is character development. Andie is presented with subtlety and moderation. She is neither reduced to her trauma nor romanticized. Gibson permits her protagonist to exhibit characteristics that feel honest rather than annoying, such as awkwardness, hesitancy, fear, and occasionally self-sabotage. Andie's development is gradual as she gets used to life in 1985. She gains the ability to make connections, trust little acts of compassion, and envision a world beyond survival.

Zack is a character that is just as skillfully developed. His reluctance to love is presented as a deeply rooted dread created by loss rather than as haughtiness or conceit. Andie and Zack's love tension grows organically as a result of their shared experiences, miscommunications, and emotional candor. In the best way possible, their relationship is a slow burn—earned, cautious, and based on respect for one another.

Supporting characters, especially those Andie encounters while starting over, make the story even more rich. They are reflections of the community Andie has been without for a large portion of her life rather than plot devices.

Gibson writes in a clear, restrained, and emotionally accurate style. Even while discussing difficult topics like emotional trauma and domestic abuse, she stays away from melodrama. Rather, she uses restrained language and well-chosen facts to let the reader feel the weight of Andie's experiences.

The conversation, which captures the rhythms of both eras without becoming forced or staged, is especially powerful. The novel's authenticity is enhanced by the inclusion of humorous, uncomfortable, and sensitive moments. Gibson also subtly incorporates cultural allusions from the 1980s. She employs historical information to improve mood and emotional context rather than overpowering the reader with nostalgia.

Until she’d spoken to someone, she couldn’t return to work. She’d never talked to a psychiatrist before, and procrastinating here on the sidewalk had butterflies flapping around her stomach. Many people swore by therapy. How difficult could it be? Andie was more of a problem avoider and hadn’t spent much time thinking about the past. There was no point. Everyone had a history and memories they wished to forget. She sighed. That sort of thinking may have led to this snarl of repressed feelings and nightmares.

She took a deep breath and then opened the glass door. The directory in the polished lobby listed a dozen doctors’ offices in the four-story building—showing Dr. Maeve Fossey in room 213 on the second floor. Andie preferred the stairs to the elevator for climbing a single flight, so she entered the stairwell.

Strong continuity across timelines and emotional beats is maintained throughout the book. Rather than being distinct personas created for convenience, Andie's previous and current selves feel like the same person at different stages of learning. The time travel element is grounded on character rather than physics as her memories, anxieties, and instincts persist throughout the narrative.

A fulfilling emotional evolution is followed by the tale arc: escape, confusion, tentative reconstruction, emotional conflict, and final conclusion. There are no sudden leaps or hurried conclusions, and each step feels essential. Gibson depicts healing as nonlinear and intensely personal, demonstrating his respect for its complexity.

Although time-slip romances are not new, The Right Time: Back to the 80s stands out for its grounded realism and emotional maturity. This is not a fantasy about making wise decisions or looking back to change the past. Rather, it is a tale of discovering how to live differently - not flawlessly, but more truthfully - when given another chance.

Gibson is able to examine questions of identity, autonomy, and self-worth without resorting to didacticism by fusing women's fiction with magical realism. The work has a modern resonance that goes beyond its nostalgic setting because of its emphasis on emotional safety and chosen family.

The book has neat chapter transitions, a steady pace, and quality editing and formatting. The framework encourages immersion rather than detracts from it, and the text flows well. Technical difficulties don't keep readers from immersing themselves in the narrative.

The Right Time's conclusion is incredibly fulfilling because it respects the emotional journey that came before it rather than providing a straightforward happily-ever-after. Gibson is aware that neither love nor healing can magically mend every wound. Rather, the conclusion affirms personal development, autonomy, and dignity.

Andie's decision seems justified. She finds herself in a state of hope instead of denial, agency instead of reliance. The reader is left with an honest and uplifting sense of closure as the romance parts settle in a way that is consistent with the characters' emotional realities.

This is a book that sticks with you because of its humanity rather than just its subject. Gibson reminds us that although our lives may be shaped by time, courage and connection are ultimately what transform them.

Highly recommended.

5 stars from The Historical Fiction Company and the "Highly Recommended" award of excellence

AWARD:

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