This is Vickie Presley’s first book and I believe she has attempted too much. Yesterday and Forever is a romance that is both a time travel and a murder mystery as well. The author spends most of her time observing all the conventions of these genre forms without developing any real originality. For example, she spent at least the first 50 pages of the book telling us all the differences the heroine notices between life in present day USA and 1878 in Wyoming. We have read this countless times in other time travel romances and, in general, it has become boring unless the author can do it with humor or bring something else fresh to the telling. At one point, Presley has the opportunity to develop a humorous scene when the hero discovers the heroine’s tampons and wonders what they are. Presley just lets the matter drop, not using a funny scene where it was desperately needed.

The basic plot revolves around a woman lawyer, Bailey Cooper, who is about to become a judge. She is sent back in time to a rancher, Zach Gooden, and his sisters in 1878 Wyoming. Zach has a feud going with an adjacent rancher and that person becomes the murder victim. Bailey takes the lead in solving the murder mystery because she’s the lawyer and thus feels it is her role to do so. When she gets into her lawyer mode, she usually becomes strident and overbearing.

Bailey also spends most of the book debating whether she should stay with Zach or return to her own time. After almost 300 pages of her whining incessantly about this predicament, I felt like hurling the book at the wall. At first Bailey was merely boring but, as the story goes on, she becomes someone you’d like to shoot! Zach was more likable but needed far more development. He remained a stick character in the book. Actually, all of the characters remained stick ones but that could have been because Presley had way too many characters for a 310 page book.

The pace of Yesterday and Forever was very slow, likely because she tried to do too much. The “everything plus the kitchen sink” phenomenon seemed to be in play here in terms of plotting. As a result, character development didn’t seem as important an ingredient as it should have been. Had the author developed more interesting and likable characters who had unique problems, this reviewer would have been more engaged in their romance. Yesterday and Forever read as though it had not been through rigorous editing; it seemed as though Jove just wanted to grind out another time travel romance and did so. While no doubt the author was well intentioned in the writing of this book, she could have used more help from her publisher. Had she received it, I’m sure I would have liked it more.