Forbidden by Time is the third novel in the Forbidden Love series by Negeen Papehn.
Finished on: 27.8.2019
[I won this book in a librarything Early Reviewer give-away.]

Plot:
Bita is a successful dentist and she’s pretty content with her life. But her family – above all her mother – can’t accept that Bita is single. When Bita decides that it is time to get her own house, she finds an old family friend as the real estate agent – Ramtin. Ramtin is incredibly charming, divorced and 15 years her senior, but sparks fly between them. Their age gap shouldn’t be a problem – or at least that’s what Bita thinks at first.

Forbidden by Time is a generally nice read and I liked that it was set in the Iranian-American community, but it definitely would have needed some more editing. I enjoyed it for the most part anyway.

Editing is such a crucial thing for a book and it is frustrating that it’s often the first thing people think they can do without when money is tight – as it usually is for small publishers. Forbidden by Time is a textbook example for why editing is necessary: it starts with simple typos that could have been caught, but extends to mixed, confusing metaphors and finally to the way information is given, because especially that last part was a hot mess here. Things were assumed to be known that were never mentioned before a lot – this happens easily when you write a story (because you as the author know those things already) and / or change the order of events at a later stage – but it is something that an editor who looks at it with a fresh eye should immediately catch.

Despite this and despite the fact that it’s actually the third book in a series (which I didn’t know before reading it), I did enjoy this one. I liked the setting and the multi-cultural aspect that gave the book an unusual point of reference.

I did think that the HEA was drawn out a little too long, but at least they did get their happy end and it was fine. I probably won’t be looking for more novels by Papehn to read, but I definitely didn’t regret reading this one.

Summarizing: Okay.