30 Best Time Travel Books

Travel back in time with the best time travel books. Find engrossing thrillers, time travel romance, and mind-bending sci-fi.

The Uncorked Librarian craves armchair travel via books that, like magic carpets, fly readers across time and space.

What could be better than showcasing some of the best books about time travel?

Plus, we know that our readers crave historical fiction, and books with time travel tend to go back into the past.

Most already know about The Time Traveler’s Wife, A Christmas Carol, and The Time Machine. In recent years, though, we’ve seen more and more time travel novels hitting the shelves.

For holiday and romance time travel, grab In A Holidaze. Haig’s The Midnight Library was one of the best books we read in 2020 (note there are trigger warnings, though).

Recursion re-kindled our love for science fiction, and Ruby Red transported us to 18th-century London. Displacement offers a poignant commentary about generational trauma and racism.

Below, find time travel in books of all genres and for adults and teens – history, romance, classics, sci-fi, YA, and thrilling fiction.

Choose from bestselling titles that will not only transport you across time periods Doctor Who-style but also some of the best time travel novels that will tesser you into new dimensions and around the world.

What are your favorite novels about time travel? Let us know in the comments, and get ready to travel in the blink of an eye. Let’s get started!

If you love to travel, head over to all of our books across the world reading lists.

Grab the best books about time travel here:

1. We get the month’s hottest new and upcoming titles from Book of the Month.
2. Try Audible Plus.
3. Find books via Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans.
4. As a member of Amazon Prime, don’t miss Amazon First Reads — early access to Kindle books.

Best Time Travel Books

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Would your life change if you had one seemingly real dream or premonition? What if some key facts were missing but you had no idea? Can we change the future?

One of the best books about time travel and friendship, don’t miss In Five Years. In fact, we read this New York City-based novel in half a day. Have the tissue box ready, though.

The premise: Dannie nails an important job interview and is hoping to get engaged. Of course, this is all a part of her perfect 5-year plan.

Dannie has arranged every minute of her life ever since her brother died in a drunk driving accident.

On the night of Dannie’s scheduled engagement, she falls asleep only to ‘see’ herself 5 years into the future in the arms of another man. Did she just time travel or could this be a dream?

When Dannie arrives back in 2020, her life goes back to normal. …That is until she meets the man from her “dream…”

You are expecting In Five Years to be a time travel romance but it turns out to be a different type of love…

Explore more of the best books with strong friendships.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Recursion is one of our all-time favorite time travel books to gift to dads who love sci-fi. Can you tell what we gave our dad for Christmas one year?

In Recursion, no one actually physically time travels – well, sort of. Instead, memories become the time-traveling reality.

Detective Barry Sutton is investigating False Memory Syndrome. Neuroscientist Helena Smith might have the answers he needs.

The disease drives people crazy – and to their deaths – by causing them to remember entire lives that aren’t theirs. Or are they!?

All goes to heck when the government gets its hands on this mind-blowing technology. Can Barry and Helena stop this endless loop?

Recursion is also a 2019 Goodreads Best Book for science fiction.

Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi | Translated by Geoffrey Trousselot

One of the most debated time travel books among our readers and favorite bookstagrammers, Before the coffee gets cold takes place at a cafe in Tokyo, Japan.

You’ll either love this translated time travel novel or will find it a bit too repetitive. We think the story has a drop of humor with a beautiful message. We most definitely shed a tear or two.

Along with coffee, this 140-year-old, back-alley cafe lets visitors travel back in time. Four visitors at the cafe are hoping to time travel to see someone for the last (or first) time.

The way each patron views the cafe says a lot about them. The details are everything in Before the coffee gets cold.

True to the title, their trip can only last as long as it takes for the coffee to grow cold. If they don’t finish their coffee before this point, there are ghostly consequences.

The novel questions who you would see one last time and what issues you would confront. Along with the many rules of time travel, these visitors are warned that the present will not change.

Would you still travel back knowing this? Can something, anything, still change – even within you?

If you enjoy translated literature and wish to travel to Asia with a good book, head over to our books set in Japan reading list.

Or, if you wish to time travel with a great Japanese movie, be sure to watch The Girl Who Lept Through Time.

Read even more Japanese fantasy novels here.

In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren

If you are looking for a sweet and sexy holiday rom-com set in Utah, don’t miss In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren.

For novels about time travel, this one is sure to put you in the holiday spirit if you enjoy movies like Holidates or Groundhog’s Day.

We also recommend In A Holidaze if you are looking for Christmas family gathering books – a big request we see here at TUL.

Mae leaves her family and friend’s Christmas vacation home after drunkenly making out with an old childhood friend. Blame the spiked eggnog. 

Unfortunately, Mae’s secretly in love with her best friend’s brother, Andrew. On the ride to the airport, Mae wishes for happiness just as a truck hits her parent’s car. 

Mae lands in a time-travel loop where her dreams start coming true.  Is it too good to last? What happens when she isn’t happy once again? Is she trapped?

This time travel novel is also perfect if you are looking for something light to read and prefer happy endings.

P.S. Did you know that Christina Lauren is a pen name for a writing duo, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings?

Christina Lauren also wrote The Unhoneymooners, which was also hilariously enjoyable and set on an island.

This Is How You Lose The War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar 

A Goodreads runner-up for one of the best science fiction novels of 2019 – and one of the shortest time travel books on this list – This Is How You Lose The Time War follows two warring time-traveling agents falling in love through a letter exchange.

Red and Blue have nothing in common except that they travel across time and space and are alone. Their growing and forbidden love is punishable by death and their agencies might be onto them.

In a somewhat beautiful yet bizarre story, we watch as Red and Blue slowly fall for each other and confess their love.

They engage in playful banter and nicknames. Every shade of red and blue remind them of each other.

The first half of the novel is a bit abstract. You might even wonder what the heck you’ve gotten yourself into.

However, once you get your feet planted firmly on the ground of the plot, the story picks up and starts making more sense.

We can’t promise you’ll love or even understand This Is How You Lose The Time War – we aren’t sure what to think either.

However, this is truly one of the most unique sci-fi and LGBTQ+ time travel romances on this reading list – written by two authors.

Also, maybe crack out the dictionary…

Explore even more of the best LGBTQ+ fantasy books.

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

If you are looking for the most thought-provoking and mind-blowingly inspiring take on time travel in books, Haig’s The Midnight Library is it.

This is one of the best books on this list that will make you think more deeply.

This story will be triggering for some with both a pet death (early on) and suicide ideation. We almost put down the novel at the beginning because of the heaviness, but we promise, it’s worth it.

Imagine if you could see your other possible lives and fix your regrets. Would that path be better? Would these changes make you happier?

Set in Bedford, England and at a library, Nora answers these questions as she intentionally overdoses on pills.

Caught in the Midnight Library – between life and death – Nora explores books filled with the ways her life could have turned out.

Nora tries on her alternative lives, pursuing different dreams, marrying different people, and realizing that some parts of her root life were not as they seemed on the surface.

Find hope and simplicity in an authentic time travel novel. Haig addresses mental health through a new lens that is both beautiful and poignant.

We also named The Midnight Library one of the best books of 2020.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

From bestselling author, Casey McQuiston of Red, White, & Royal Blue – one of our favorite LGBTQ+ books for new adults – don’t miss the most-talked-about book of 2021, One Last Stop.

Twenty-three-year-old August is quite the cynic and living in New York City. Up until now, August has jumped schools and towns as often as you change a pair of socks.

August has also never been in a serious relationship and wants to find “her person.” August’s life suddenly changes, though, when she meets a beautiful and mysterious woman on the train.

Jane looks a little …out of date… and for good reason; she’s from the 1970s and trapped in the train’s energy. August wants nothing more than to help Jane leave the train, but does that mean leaving her too?

A feel-good, older coming-of-age story, laugh out loud and be utterly dazzled as you follow love across time and space. You’ll cozy (and drink) up in the parties and community surrounding August.

One Last Stop was named one of the best LGBTQ+ time travel books of 2021 (and romances); put your name on the library holds list ASAP…

Read even more books set on trains.

Displacement by Kiku Hughes

For historical YA graphic novels, Displacement is one of the must-read books about time travel that will teach young readers about generational trauma, racism, politics, and war.

Follow Kiku, who is displaced in time, back to the period of U.S. Japanese incarceration [internment] camps – essentially glorified prisons – during WW2.

Kiku begins learning more about her deceased grandmother’s history, which is beginning to mirror present-day times under the “leadership” of President Donald Trump.

How can Kiku help stop the past from repeating itself, and more so, how can we?

In a simplistic but poignant style of storytelling, Hughes’s powerful YA WW2 book is accessible for young readers and is one of the shorter and quicker books with time travel on this list.

Find even more LGBT+ graphic novels to read.

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird Jose Silver

Some of the best time travel books are those with alternate realities. While not all of us here at TUL loved The Two Lives of Lydia Bird, many of our readers did. Maybe the hype did us in.

There are content warnings, including prescription pill addiction.

Set in England, Lydia and Freddie are planning their marriage when the unthinkable happens. Freddie dies in a car accident on the way to Lydia’s birthday dinner.

In a matter of seconds, Lydia’s world falls apart, and she isn’t sure how she will survive. When Lydia starts taking magical pink sleeping pills, though, she enters an alternate universe where Freddie is alive and well.

Caught between her dream world and real life, Lydia must decide if she will give in to her addiction – living in a temporary fantasy world – or give it up completely.

We will admit that the repetitive and predictable plot drags on; the pacing feels off.

However, The Two Lives Of Lydia Bird offers emotional growth and poignant commentary about healing after loss.

Lydia’s pill addiction is a relevant topic, and as Lydia soon learns via her dreams, no love is perfect.

Maybe her future was destined to be different anyway, which is reminiscent of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library.

Here And Now And Then by Mike Chen

One of the bestselling novels about time travel, Here And Now And Then follows the everyday life of IT worker, Kin Stewart.

Stewart has two lives since he is a displaced time-traveling agent stuck in San Francisco in the 1990s. He has a family that knows nothing about his past.

When a rescue team arrives to take him back, Stewart has to decide what he is willing to risk for his new family.

Read even more books set in San Francisco, California (and more!).

The End of Eternity by Issac Asimov

The End of Eternity is said to be one of Asimov’s science fiction masterpieces.

Harlan is a member of the elite future known as an Eternal. He lives and works in Eternity, which like any good time travel novel, is located separately from time and space.

Harlan makes small changes in the timeline in order to better history.

Of course, altering the course of the world is dangerous and comes with repercussions, especially when Harlan falls in love.

This is one of the most spellbinding books about time travel – although some criticize the story for its loopholes.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

We have a plethora of Agatha Christie fans amongst our Uncorked Readers, and Turton’s The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evenlyn Hardcastle is inspired by Christie.

This is also one of the best time travel books and mysteries if you enjoy Downton Abbey and Groundhog’s Day.

An award-winning historical thriller, Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until Aiden Bishop can name the killer.

Similar to Levithan’s Every Day, each day, Aiden wakes up in a different body from the guests of the Blackheath Manor. Can he identify the killer and break the cycle?

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The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Known for being one of the best books with time travel for thriller lovers, The Shining Girls is also one of the spookiest novels on this reading list.

Kirby Mazrachi is the last shining girl – a girl with a future and so much potential.

Harper Curtis is a killer from the past meant to kill Mazrachi. However, Kirby is not about to easily go out without a fight.

The First Fifteen Lives Of Harry August by Claire North

If you are looking for funny time travel books and like Groundhog’s Day, check out The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August.

No matter what August does or says, when he lands on his deathbed, he always returns back to his childhood, again and again.

On the verge of his 11th death, though, a girl changes the course of his life.

All Our Wrongs Today by Elan Mastai

A debut novel, All Our Wrongs Today is both a humorous and entertaining book about time travel that speaks to how we become who we are.

In 2016, technology has basically perfected the world for Tom Barren. However, we all know that perfection doesn’t equate to happiness.

Barren has lost his girlfriend, and he just happens to own a time machine…

Now, Barren has to decide if he wants to keep his new, manipulated future or if he just wants to go back home to his depressing but normal life.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

If you follow TUL elsewhere, you know that we haven’t really gotten into the Outlander or GOT craze. Blasphemy, we know.

However, many of our book list contributors love the Outlander series. It’s definitely considered one of the best time travel books, series, and TV shows of all time in pop culture.

A New York Times bestseller and one of the top 10 most loved books according to The Great America Read, get ready to enter Scotland in 1743.

Claire, a former British combat nurse, walks through an ancient circle standing stone and is transported into a world of love, death, and war.

Outlander also appears on our North Carolina reading list.

Read even more cult-classic books from the ’90s.

A Knight In Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

For time travel romance lovers and a feminist tale set abroad, try A Knight In Shining Armor.

A Knight In Shining Armor is a classic and more retro time travel novel: Dougless Montgomery is weeping on top of a tombstone when Nicholas Stafford, the Earl Thornwyck, appears.

Although this armor-clad hunk allegedly died in 1564, he stands before her about to embark on a journey to clear his name.

Convicted of treason, Montgomery vows to help her soon-to-be lover find his accuser and set the record straight.

The Night Mark by Tiffany Reisz

Set in South Carolina, if you love lighthouses and beach vibes, you’ll enjoy this time travel romance, The Night Mark.

After Faye’s husband dies, she cannot move on and recover. Accepting a photographer job in SC, Faye becomes obsessed with the local lighthouse’s myth, The Lady of the Light.

Back in 1921, the lighthouse keeper’s daughter mysteriously drown. Faye is drawn into a love story that isn’t hers.

11/22/63: A Novel by Stephen King

Written by bestselling author, Stephen King, 11/22/63 is one of the best award-winning time travel books for historical fiction lovers.

Set in 1963 when President Kennedy is shot, 11/22/63 begs the question: what if you could go back in time and change history?

Enter Jake Epping in Lisbon Falls, Maine.  Epping asks his students to write about a time that altered the course of their lives.

Inspired by one of those haunting essays, Epping enlists to prevent Kennedy’s assassination.  How is this time travel possible? With the discovery of a time portal in a local diner’s storeroom…

11/22/63 is one of the most thrilling and realistic books about time travel, according to critics and readers.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

If you are looking for historical fiction novels about time travel that address slavery and racism, be sure to check out Butler’s Kindred.

This is also one of the best books published in the 1970s.

One minute Dana is celebrating her birthday in modern-day California, and the next, she finds herself in the antebellum south. Dana is expected to save the plantation owner’s son from drowning.

Each time Dana finds herself back in this time period and the slave quarters, her stays grow longer and longer as well as more dangerous.

P.S. If you love Dana in Kindred, don’t miss our leading ladies in historical fiction reading list.

What The Wind Knows by Amy Harmon

A bestseller and Goodreads top choice book, if you love historical Irish fiction, What The Wind Knows will transport you to Ireland in the 1920s.

Anne Gallagher heads to Ireland to spread her grandfather’s ashes. Devastated, her grief pulls her into another time.

Ireland is on the verge of entering a war, and Anne embraces a case of mistaken identity. She finds herself pulled into Ireland’s fight for Independence at the risk of losing her future life.

What The Wind Knows is one of the best books with time travel according to our Uncorked Readers, too.

Travel to Ireland with this reading list too!

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler’s Wife is one the best time travel books for romance seekers – and not just because the story features a librarian. We are so biased.

Henry and Clare have loved each other for pretty much forever. Unfortunately, Henry has Chrono-Displacement Disorder, sporadically misplacing him in time.

Of course, this time-traveling dilemma makes Clare’s and Henry’s marriage and future together pretty darn interesting.

Grab some Kleenex as they attempt to live normal lives and survive impending devastation.

The Time Traveler’s Wife has also been made into a romantic movie classic.

Classic Books With Time Travel

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

It goes without saying that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is one of the most famous and best time travel books for classic lovers.

Ebenezer Scrooge is a greedy, lonely, and cruel man who truly has no Christmas spirit.

Haunted by the ghosts of the past, present, and future, Scrooge must find the ultimate redemption before it’s too late. Does he have a heart?

Read even more classic and contemporary ghost books.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Similar to The Time Traveler’s Wife, Billy Pilgrim is “unstuck” in time in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.

Drafted into World War II, Pilgrim serves as a Chaplain’s assistant until he is captured by the Germans. He survives the bombing at Dresden and ultimately becomes a married optometrist.

Things get a little wild…

Suffering from PTSD, Billy claims that he is kidnapped by aliens in a different dimension. Like most time travel novels, the story is out of order and Billy travels to different parts of his life.

Slaughterhouse-Five is a somewhat bizarre time travel book about finding meaning in our sometimes fractured and broken lives.

It’s also one of the most popular books published in the ’60s.

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

First published in 1889, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is one of the classic and satirical books about time travel set near our hometown.

Having grown up in CT close to the old Colt factory, this story makes us smile.

Hank Morgan supervises the gun factory and is knocked unconscious. Upon waking, he finds himself in Britain about to be executed by the Knights of King Arthur’s Round Table in Camelot.

Morgan uses his future knowledge to his advantage, making him a powerful and revered wizard, which unfortunately doesn’t quite save him as he hopes.

Not to mention that Morgan tries to introduce modern-day conveniences and luxuries to a time period that isn’t quite ready for them.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

The Time Machine is said to be one of the greatest frontrunner novels about time travel.

Published in 1895, the Time Traveler recalls his exhausting time travel adventures to incredulous believers. He even disappears in front of them.

Blended with fantasy and science fiction over the course of 800,000 years, the Time Traveler battles “bad guys,” loses his time machine, debatably falls in love, and meets the underground dwelling Morlocks.

YA Books About Time Travel

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

Changing the past can be pretty tempting. We’ve even seen that The Flash cannot resist. However, altering the course of history can be dangerous…

The first of two YA time travel books, Nix is the daughter of a time traveler. Her dad can sail anywhere on his ship, The Temptation.

Her dad has his own temptation, though: to travel back to Honolulu in 1868, the year before her mom dies in childbirth.

Nix’s father threatens to possibly erase her life and destroy a relationship with her only friend.

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier | Translated by Anthea Bell

If you are looking for time travel in books and love YA historical fiction, try Ruby Red, which is the first in the Ruby Red Trilogy.

Gwyneth Shepherd quickly learns that she can easily time travel, unlike her cousin who has been preparing her entire life for the feat.

Gwyneth wants to know why such a secret was kept from her. There are so many lies.

Gwyneth time travels with the handsome Gideon back and forth between modern-day and 18th century London to uncover secrets from the past.

Back in our MLIS and library days, Ruby Red was one of our favorite YA time travel books to recommend since so few knew about the series. Just a small warning that this enemies-to-lovers trope felt a tad sexist.

Read a more in-depth summary of Ruby Red on our books with red in the title reading list.

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A little creepier for young adult time travel books, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is all about time loops.

We’ve only read the first in this eerie series that mixes manipulated vintage photography with a suspenseful and chilling story.

Jacob discovers a decaying orphanage on a mysterious island off the coast of Wales. Known as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, the building isn’t exactly abandoned…

Jacob runs into peculiar children who might be more than just ghosts. If you are looking for Kurt Vonnegut-esque time travel books for teenagers, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is for you.

A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

One of the most well-known books about time travel for families – made even more popular by Oprah and Mindy Kaling, A Wrinkle In Time, is the first book in The Time Quintet.

Although a time travel series for elementary and middle-grade students – and also a 1963 Newbery Medal winner – adults will love the lessons and whimsical sci-fi quality of A Wrinkle In Time.

Meg Murray and her brother, Charles Wallace, go on an adventure in time to find and rescue their father. Their dad disappeared while working for the government on a mysterious tesseract project.

Watch this thrilling time travel adventure mixed with a coming of age story and a little girl power, too.

Grab the best time travel books here:

1. We get the month’s hottest new and upcoming titles from Book of the Month.
2. Try Audible Plus.
3. Find books via Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans.
4. As a member of Amazon Prime, don’t miss Amazon First Reads — early access to Kindle books.

Save The Best Time Travel Novels For Later

What are your favorite books with time travel?

What are the best books about time travel that you’ve read? Which time travel books do you want to read?

Let’s face it: there are so many novels about time travel, we couldn’t possibly capture them all.

Are we missing any of your favorite time travel series or books? Are there any here that you didn’t love? Let us know in the comments.

Travel Back In Time:

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“Time travel books” is also our January 2022 Uncorked Reading Challenge theme.