Books Like Outlander

Book Summary

Anne grew up hearing stories about Ireland from her grandfather. After his death, she travels to his hometown, hoping to heal her heartbreak. Instead, after her arrival, she’s overcome by the history of the region. 

Suddenly, she finds herself pulled back to 1921 as Ireland faces war for independence. She’s in the care of Dr. Smith, who has mistaken her for the missing mother of a young boy. Confused by her unexpected trip back in time, Anne assumes the identity of the boy’s mom. 

As she learns to live in 1921, Dr. Smith is drawn further into the fight for independence.

Book Summary

After her sister’s death, Eva returns to their hometown of Cornwall to scatter her ashes. However, this journey will require confronting the ghosts of her past. 

She stays in the home of family friends, the Halletts, where she often visited as a child. But the Halletts are the only occupants. The estate is also home to the people who lived there in the 18th century. 

Eva can slip between present and past, which becomes even more complicated when she falls in love with a man who died before she was even more.

Book Summary

The most compelling aspect of time travel is how actions taken in the past affect the same future you started in. Stephen King brilliantly uses that concept in 11/22/63. 

English teacher Jake Epping is recruited by his friend Al, the local diner owner, to help with the most unlikely of requests. Al discovered a portal in the diner’s storeroom that transports him back in time to the era of Ike and Elvis. He becomes obsessed with using the portal to go back in time and stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. But when he realizes he won’t be able to complete the mission, he enlists Jake for the job. Jake reluctantly agrees to go back to 1958 and live the early years of the 1960s in the small town of Jodie, Texas while devising a plan to stop JFK from dying on 11/22/63. But how will his mission be affected when he falls in love in the past?

Book Summary

Like Outlander, Into the Wilderness is a series. In the first book, it’s 1792, and Elizabeth Middleton has traveled from England to a remote New York mountain village. She meets Nathaniel, an American frontiersman who is very different than the posh men she knew at home. 

Elizabeth is determined to teach all the village children, which soon puts her at odds with local slave owners and her own family. The Mohawk nation also plays a role in this complex story of early America. 

By the sixth and final book, you’ll have gone through Elizabeth’s life all the way to 1824.

Book Summary

Chicago librarian Henry suffers from a rare genetic disorder that causes him to drift unpredictably through time. On one of his travels when Henry is 36, he meets a six-year-old girl named Clare. The two marry at a different point in time when Henry is 31 and Clare is 23. 

This is a story about their passionate love for one another, but the complexities of marriage are multiplied by Henry’s inability to remain in one time and place. Told from both points of view, the book asks the question, “Don’t you think it’s better to be extremely happy for a short while, even if you lose it, than to be just okay for your whole life?”

Book Summary

The night before her wedding, Shay looks into an antique Chinese mirror that will change her life. She blacks out and wakes up in her grandmother’s body all the way back in the year 1900. 

Equally shocking, her grandmother looks into the same mirror and finds herself transported to the future into Shay’s body. And Shay’s mother, Rachael, is torn between her mother and daughter. She weaves between the past and the present as the women struggle to adapt to life in a different time.

Book Summary

A Dance Through Time is the first of ten books in the MacLeod series. The series begins in 1996 New York City with romance writer Elizabeth.

Soon the love story she only dreamt of in her writing is coming true. She falls asleep on a park bench and wakes up in 1311 Scotland on the property of a handsome laird.

Book Summary

Funny isn’t a word used to describe many books in the time-travel genre, but All Our Wrong Todays manages to mix adventure and time travel with humor and heart. 

The humor isn’t the only unique trait from others on the list. In this book, the main character travels between 2016 and…2016! 

His original world is one we wished we lived in, where life is without poverty or war. However, he’s still unhappy because he is missing love after losing his dream girl.

An incident with his time machine leaves him in an alternate 2016, which looks just like our real life with all the world’s problems. 

Is it worth staying there if he gets the girl?

Book Summary

Are looking for a shorter series? The Guardians Trilogy was recommended by Melissa’s mom-in-law. 

It features 6 mystical characters searching for the fire star on the Greek island of Corfu. Three men and three women each have different strengths and have to work together to save the world. They develop romantic relationships along the way in the fairytale-like series.

Book Summary

The Lake House is a historical thriller also set in two time periods, but both from one lifetime of the main character named Alice.

The story is split between Alice’s life in 1930s Cornwall, when she was a child at the family estate, and 2003 London. In the 1930s, Alice’s younger brother vanishes, devasting the family.

Alice somehow goes on to become a successful author. Late in her life, a young detective stumbles on the now decrepit Cornwall estate, causing her path to cross with Alice and leading the way to truths about the past.

Book Summary

This historical fiction takes you right to 13th-century Scotland. The laird’s daughter is getting married, and it’s a joyous time—until a band of Vikings arrives. 

Margaret, the daughter, fights to keep her family together while figuring out which men in her life she can trust. Should she stick with the man she was to marry or trust a half-Norse warrior?

Book Summary

Kendra Donovan is a successful FBI agent who travels to London to track and kill the people responsible for the murders of her FBI team members. 

While fleeing from danger during her quest in London, she steps into a stairwell and comes out in the same castle. But, she’s been transported to 1815.

Can she use her present-day FBI skills to solve a crime on the estate before she returns to her real life?

Book Summary

Timeless is the first in a two-book, YA time travel fiction series. The second book is Timekeeper. 

High school student Michelle Walker has dreamed of a blue-eyed stranger her whole life. After moving to her wealthy grandparents’ home in New York City, she finds an old diary. 

The diary transports her to 1910, where she sees the blue-eyed man. She is suddenly torn between her past relationship with him and her present-day responsibilities of school and family.

Book Summary

Sometimes we find quotes that summarize books better than we can, and this is one of those times. 

Here’s what Publishers Weekly had to say about The Dream Daughter: 

“Exciting and heartfelt…Chamberlain expertly blends the time-travel elements with the wonderful story of a mother’s love and the depths of sacrifice she makes for her child. This is a page-turning crowd-pleaser.”

Caroline has received the news that her unborn baby has a heart defect. While doctors say nothing can be done, her mysterious brother-in-law disagrees. He’s a physicist and proposes something that requires her strength, courage, and faith.

Book Summary

If you’re looking to escape to another world and are open to fantasy elements, the All Souls Trilogy may be for you. 

Starting with a Discovery of Witches, the series follows the story of Diana Bishop, a historian, and reluctant witch, as she solves the mystery of Ashmole 782. She falls in love with a mysterious vampire named Matthew Clairmont, and learns how powerful it can be to accept who you are. 

Although it was initially known as the “All Souls Trilogy,” a fourth book- Time’s Convert- was published in 2018 as a continuation of the series.

Book Summary

Like Outlander, A Knight in Shining Armor features time travel between a present-day female lead, Dougless, and love interest from the 1500s. In this case, a man from the past appears in current times just when he is most needed. 

However, Nicholas has appeared for more than love. He needs to clear his name after being falsely accused of treason. 

As their relationship develops, Dougless is able to return back to the 1560s giving a detailed look into life in that time period.

Book Summary

This epic fiction starts in 1979 California with Dana, a modern African American writer. One afternoon, she’s suddenly transported to the 19th-century antebellum South to rescue a drowning young boy. 

She completes the task and returns to her normal life quickly, but each time the boy is in trouble, she’s returned to the South for longer and more complicated interactions. 

It’s a unique take on time travel, and the sci-fi element is secondary to the compelling storytelling.