YMMV / No Time Like The Past

• Character Rerailment: Those familiar with the Flanderized version of Kirk will be surprised by his treatment in this book. While he notes Seven's exceptional attractiveness frequently, this is a Jim Kirk with his priorities firmly in order: the Federation first, his ship and crew a very close second, and getting in Seven's pants a very, very distant third.
• Fridge Brilliance: Of course Kirk is immediately interested in Seven, but not just because she's a Ms. Fanservice. From what we've seen of Kirk's actual Love Interests (as this article points out) he Has a Type: brilliant (often scientists), professional, driven by duty and excellence, and frequently blonde. Seven could not fit this description better; she couldn't be Kirk's type more if she tried.
• Fridge Horror:
  • Messing around with Borg technology is a bad idea in the 24th and 25th Centuries. . . how badly would Seven's remaining Borg implants screw up the 23rd Century?
  • Seven notes that the Borg had never encountered a species with the "improbable coloring" of the Cherons, and that the Borg would have found their segregation an inefficient use of biological resources, since the Borg prefer assimilation, even if by force. However, given how individually powerful Bela and Lokai were shown to be, it's probably a huge relief the Borg never got a crack at that biological and technological distinctiveness. But, at least at the time Kirk's Enterprise makes her return visit, Bela and Lokai are still alive. . .
• Like You Would Really Do It:
  • Oh no! Seven's just blown up one of Enterprise's shuttlecraft with herself still aboard! The woman from the future sacrificed herself to protect the timeline! But there's still seventy-five pages of novel and at least one season of Voyager left!
  • Kirk has been buried in an avalanche thousands of years in the past, and in the final year of his historic five-year mission! How can the future possibly survive Kirk dying well before his time?
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The novel moves directly from Plot Coupon to Plot Coupon, skipping just about everything that happens between (it's explicitly a few days of research with the first one for Seven to locate the second, a few days traveling to it, then more travel to pieces three and four). While the end result is a perfectly serviceable, and indeed quite enjoyable, Star Trek story, much of the potential of the premise of Seven of Nine just being aboard Kirk's original Enterprise is lost. Seven hanging out in the lounge listening to Uhura sing, or playing tri-dimensional chess with Spock, or Kirk roping her into (or desperately trying to keep her out of) a poker game. . . a few scenes like that could have added a lot of character and depth to the story. Combined with the necessity of Seven having to pass as just a regular Federation scientist among everyone except Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Commissioner Santiago, and there's a lot of story potential there that's sadly just glossed over.
• What Could Have Been: According to the author, this novel was adapted out of a cancelled story that would have tied in to the AOS movies - instead of Seven, the character from the future was originally supposed to be Ambassador Spock on the alternate Enterprise.