A fun, sexy, and self-aware historical romance set in Scotland.
An agent of Fate sends a lonely teacher back in time, tasked with giving a lusty Highland lord an heir.
Beth Ann Anderson is a solitary 45-year-old history teacher, spurned by her abusive ex-husband and still blaming herself for the deaths of her two children in a tragic car accident. While on vacation in Scotland, Beth saves a child from a falling Callanish Stone, and is crushed—only to be informed by the persnickety Fate that orchestrated these events that she wasn’t the one supposed to die. Incredulously blaming her for the mistake, Fate insists she balance the scales by righting a wrong of his own, and sends her back in time to the 17th century to sire an heir with Laird Quinton MacLeod of Brochel Castle. She awakens staring up the ruggedly handsome Quint’s kilt at his impressive Scottish endowment, surprised to find she now inhabits the pert, virginal 20-year-old body of his beautiful English bride-to-be, Lady Elspeth. In their marriage bed, Beth discovers her Highland husband’s manly veneer conceals the soul of a generous lover, their instant chemistry quickly ensuring an heir. But a snooty viscount plans to assassinate Quint, a plot further complicated when Beth discovers that before taking Elspeth’s place, her pompous predecessor was a principal player in this scheme, leaving her in a difficult yet unique position to protect her new love and their unborn son. The political intrigue of the time between Parliament and the British monarchy heavily informs this conflict, and similar historical flourishes add much to the story. Mansfield’s (Tested by the Night, 2015, etc.) time traveling romance finds a pleasant balance between touching, humorous character moments and steamy sex scenes. The novel’s most erotically charged rendezvous between Quint and Beth are the story’s main attractions, and the book isn’t afraid to occasionally be crass, a nice departure from romance novels terrified to use words like “cock.” The result is an honest and intimately playful experience, raising the voyeuristic thrills the traditional “bodice-ripper” offers. The occasional appearance of the time traveling Fate, and the book’s willingness to broach heavy subjects like spousal abuse and personal loss, assure a surprise or two for those who dare to underestimate it.
A fun, sexy, and self-aware historical romance set in Scotland.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5092-0706-0
Page Count: 340
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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