All the Time in the World, by Cara Bastone | Free Audiobook

The premise is delightfully bananas in the best way. Celeste and Everett both turn up on the same tiny island, chasing the same wormholes, each carrying a private reason for wanting to mess with time. I loved that the science is kept loose and playful rather than bogged down in rules. The story is far more interested in the two of them than in how the wormholes technically work, and that was the right call.

What makes it sing is the banter. Bastone writes dialogue that actually sounds like two clever people falling for each other while pretending they are not, and the back and forth had me grinning. Underneath the jokes, though, both characters are grieving something, and the book takes that seriously. The contrast between the humor and the ache is what gives it real staying power.

I will say the time-travel logic is easy to poke holes in if you want to, but I did not want to. The emotional rules stay consistent even when the physics are hand-wavy, and that is what matters here. It is a comfort listen with a lump in its throat, and it earns its happy resolution rather than just handing it over.

The full-cast production is where the audio really pulls ahead of the printed version. Emily Bader and Lewis Pullman lead as Celeste and Everett, and their chemistry is the engine of the whole thing, every pause and laugh landing exactly right. The supporting voices fill out the world, and the Dolby Atmos mix gives the island a real sense of space and weather. This is a story built to be heard.