The prequel to the TV show Outlander, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, premiered recently, so I must talk about time slip novels. In these novels, the characters accidentally stumble through time, without any knowledge of how they got there. Alone and desperate, they must navigate a world unknown. Will they find love? Will they meet the younger version of their mother? Will they finally figure out the identity of Jack the Ripper? You will just have to read and find out.

What better way to start your time slip journey than with the classic novel Kindred by Octavia Butler? In the story, Dana is drawn back to the antebellum South, where she is forced to be a slave on a plantation. She is thrust back and forth through time. As one stay in the past lingers on, she starts to wonder if she will make it home. 

If you are looking for a little more lightness and love on your time slip journey, I would suggest The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston where the love of Clementine’s life disappeared a few days ago, but he hasn’t seen her for seven years. You could also find love on the New York City subway in One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, but the catch is one is from the 1970s, and one lives in the 21st century.

If mystery is more to your liking, then you need to try books by author Kelley Armstrong. She has written not one but two series in which the main character slips through time. In A Rip Through Time — set in 1869 Victorian Scotland and following a modern-day detective who finds herself trapped in a housemaid’s body — or a more gothic A Stitch in Time, in which a woman inherits a manor and is surprised to encounter her childhood friend who she believed was a figment of her imagination. 

If you are still looking for more time slip recommendations, you can always listen to the DMPL podcast Beyond the Shelves and hear my co-host Jes and me go on and on about Emily St. John Mandel and her time slip novel Sea of Tranquility. We also talk about other books, I promise.

Sarah Lane is an adult services librarian for the Des Moines Public Library who spends her time reading as many romance novels as possible, when not chasing around an exuberant toddler or attempting to learn to crochet… again. This article was originally published in Little Village’s September 2025 issue.