There is a freshness and charm to Liz Ryan's writing that makes The Past is Tomorrow a particularly enchanting read. Classic 19th-century writers often placed naïve Americans in worldly European surroundings, but Ryan's twist on this concept is to place her idealistic young Irishwoman at the heart of an American adventure. Shivaun Reilly is struggling with the loss of her family when another blow lands: the man she always thought she would marry decides to give up his career and move to Spain. Escaping to a pretty New England town on the advice of a friend, Shivaun finds to her cost that the suggestion she should take this trip was not without self-interest on her friend Alana's part. And in Spain, Ivor is having second thoughts about his rash decision. All of this is characterised with real verve, and the storytelling is always both persuasive and involving