About The Book
Thea and Isaac were once close, but they’ve grown apart.
Thea works tirelessly, convinced that she can prove everyone around her wrong – convinced she can prove that time travel is possible. But when her latest attempt goes awry, she finds herself picking up the phone and calling her old friend.
Isaac is in New York – it’s the middle of the night, but when he sees who’s calling him, he cannot ignore his phone. At Thea’s request, he travels home, determined to help her in her hour of need. But neither of them are prepared for what they will discover when he gets there.
The Light Between Us is a story of second chances and time travel. It begs the dangerous question that we all ask ourselves – what could have been?
My Review
Oh Katie Khan, what are you doing to me?! First you write Hold Back the Stars which 18 months after reading I still frequently think about and now you have filled my heart with The Light Between Us.
The Light Between Us is about two estranged friends, Thea and Isaac, who are brought back together when she discovers how to travel through time. Thea is studying for her PhD at Oxford University and despite the Physics Department believing that her theory is a waste of time she has doggedly persevered and at the moment of success she needs to hear the voice of her best friend. The thing is, there is something in Isaac and Thea’s past that they have been studiously ignoring which could be life-changing for both of them.
This is a book about love and missed opportunities. The friendship between Thea and Isaac is one of those complicated yet oh so simple relationships. There is an understanding and a shorthand between them that only comes with a history like theirs and yet, what if they had been more than friends? I loved the push and pull of their friendship, the underlying tensions and layers of meaning invoked from a look or throwaway comment. Thea is spiky and Isaac is kind yet stern and is one of the few people who really ‘gets’ Thea. Being more than friends could either be the worst or best thing that ever happened to them.
The time travel aspect is accessible with sufficient science to ground it in facts but you didn’t need to be in The Big Bang Theory to understand it. Katie Khan uses incredibly beautiful and poetic writing to describe the notions of time travel and it never once felt ridiculous or like I had to suspend belief. It all felt so incredibly real to me, and I fully believed that Thea and her friends had achieved the impossible and I fell head long into their world.
I love how Katie Khan takes wonderfully crazy things like time travel and future dystopian worlds and uses them to explore very human themes like love, friendship and loyalty. In The Light Between Us Thea has three female best friends; kind and lovely Rosy, dry and witty Urvisha and sensible and loyal Ayo who well and truly have Thea’s back. This friendship group is very realistic – ancient in-jokes collide with straight talking advice and segue into full on mickey taking. I really felt like I recognised this group of women and how their friendship fed and nourished one another. The Light Between is, on the surface, a love story between the will-they/won’t they relationship of Isaac and Thea but much more than this, it is a love story about the strength of female friendship. There is unequivocal loyalty for each other which was never cloying and it didn’t veer into saccharine sweet moments. It was a dream to read.
I thought this was a beautifully written and accomplished book with some gorgeous imagery and stunning lines. In fact, I fell in love with this book when I read the first line which I thought was poetic and gripping all at once;
The planets were moving towards each other in the night sky when Isaac and Thea first met.
This really is a book that you can fall into, lose yourself completely in and emerge blinking into the real world again a few hours later. It is accomplished and observant and was reminiscent of books like Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Like these books there is excellent world building in The Light Between Us which allow you to fully invest in the narrative – because who says that time travel isn’t possible?
I loved this book, it is a warm, tender love story with characters that leap from the page and stacks of heart. Bravo Katie.
About The Author
Katie Khan has spent 10 years working in online editorial in the film industry, including 4 years as Head of Digital at Paramount Pictures. She joined Warner Bros. in 2017 to work on a major film production. Her first book, Hold Back the Stars, is being adapted into a film by the producers of Stranger Things.
She is a graduate of the acclaimed Faber Academy writing course. Katie lives in London with her boyfriend and rescue cat Artie.
My thanks to Doubleday/Transworld and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the invitation to join the Blog Tour and for a copy of the book in return for an honest review. The Light Between Us is published on 9th August in both ebook and hardcover.
Beverley Has Read 
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