[Review] Right Where We Belong - Farrah Penn

Summary: Delaney Carmichael's final year of boarding school at Ivernia is not off to a great start. Losing her father has left her feeling completely unmoored—both emotionally and in terms of what she wants to do with her future. So when Delaney discovers that Ivernia—the one stable place in her life—is on the brink of shuttering its doors, it feels like the last straw. If life is measured in what she has to lose, then does anything matter?

Desperate for a solution, Delaney makes a wish—for a way to save Ivernia. The universe's response? Enter Lord William Cromwell of Dunbry, a tall, handsome, and woefully out-of-place-boy from nineteenth-century London. At first, Delaney thinks this charming English heartthrob might somehow be the answer to her problems, but when disastrous consequences begin to unfold at an alarming rate, she realizes that if she can't return William to where and when he belongs, the present could unravel completely. Much to Delaney's dismay, the only person capable of helping her is her brother's infuriating best friend, Sumner, a boy who seems dead-set on getting under her skin. With time quickly running out, can the two set things straight before the past begins messing with the present in irreversible ways? (Pub Date: Nov 11 2025)

Delaney has just lost her father and she might also lose the school that connects her to the memories of him. Right when she wishes for something to save her school, a boy time travels and appears right in front of her. And he's the person who would later found her school, even though he doesn't know it.

2.5 rounded up to 3.

This book had everything to be charming. But I think it became a big mess instead. It's rare for me to struggle so much, but this was a hard one. I couldn't grasp what was up with Delaney, and that's probably one of the reasons I couldn't get into what was upsetting her. 

My other problem is the romance. The book has all the characteristics of a romance but in trying to build a love triangle, it give too much focus on the other guy, the one any reader can tell is going to lose. So I didn't care for Delaney, and I couldn't care for her love interest either because I knew he wasn't her endgame, give me the real one right now!

The other characters were okay, but they also pop up in the story out of nowhere, as soon as the plot needs them. There's probably a lot more to each of them, there are signs they were constructed to be rounder but they never get the time to show that and end up as just tools to the plot.

And finally, the challenges Delaney needs to overcome felt too abstract. For a book who tries to build a time traveling machine based on articles and calculations, it lacked in more concrete hurdles. Author made, author solved, was the feeling I got. That is, when I could follow what the problem was.

There were good points, of course. Although the plot seemed convoluted, the writing is clean and easy to read. Also, the parts of Delaney dealing with her grief were sad, but they show the readers hope too. There are some good lessons in it and they aren't there in a preachy tone, so I feel the younger readers will benefit a lot from this story.

In sum, I've read another book by this same author and I remember enjoying it, wanting to read more from her. However, this needed more cleaning up, more focus so the good parts and the writer's strengths could shine.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.