Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: When She Dreams by Amanda Quick

Book Description

Maggie Lodge, assistant to the reclusive advice columnist known only as Dear Aunt Cornelia to her readers, hires down-but-not-quite-out private eye Sam Sage to help track down the person who is blackmailing her employer. Maggie and Sam are a mismatched pair. As far as Sam is concerned, Maggie is reckless and in over her head. She is not what he had in mind for a client but he can’t afford to be choosy. Maggie, on the other hand, is convinced that Sam is badly in need of guidance and good advice. She does not hesitate to give him both.

In spite of the verbal fireworks between them, they are fiercely attracted to each other, but each is convinced it would be a mistake to let passion take over. They are, after all, keeping secrets from each other. Sam is haunted by his past, which includes a marriage shattered by betrayal and violence. Maggie is troubled by intense and vivid dreams–dreams that she can sometimes control. There are those who want to run experiments on her and use her for their own purposes, while others think she should be committed to an asylum.

When the pair discovers someone is impersonating Aunt Cornelia at a conference on psychic dreaming and a woman dies at the conference, the door is opened to a dangerous web of blackmail and murder. Secrets from the past are revealed, leaving Maggie and Sam in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to exact vengeance.

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Elise’s Thoughts

When She Dreams by Amanda Quick, is a story with lies, murder, blackmail, and drugs. This series takes place during the 1930’s in the small town of Burning Cove, California with some recurring characters.

The opening scene sets the atmosphere for the rest of the plot.  Maggie Lodge enters the office of Dr. Oxlade for a session about her lucid dreams. Unbeknownst to her, he gives her a drug called the enhancer. He is hoping to control her dreams, actions, and mind. As Maggie is fighting the effects of the drug, she barely escapes from the office.

Lucid dreams become almost a character in the story. People dreaming are aware that they are dreaming. During the dream someone may gain some amount of control over it to try to become aware of their consciousness.

Maggie must also deal with the fact that someone is blackmailing her employer, Dear Aunt Cornelia, an advice columnist. She hires private eye and former policeman Sam Sage to help find the blackmailer.  The investigation leads them to a conference on psychic dreaming where Maggie realizes Dr. Oxlade is also attending. It seems some women who were lucid dreamers are being killed.  As tensions rise and the murders increase, Maggie and Sam realize they are in the path of a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to exact vengeance. They enlist the help of the series recurring characters Raina Kirk, a private detective and investigator, plus Luther Pell, to find information that will help to connect all the murdered women.

The relationship between Maggie and Sam is a delight. Their snarky, intimate, verbal fireworks conversations are enjoyable. But they also realize there is a passionate chemistry between them. What they must overcome are the secrets kept from each other. Both are haunted by their pasts.

Once again readers will not be disappointed with this 1930s mystery. This intriguing and suspenseful story is full of twists. A bonus is how Quick intertwined the information about lucid dreaming into the story.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?

Amanda Quick: The story idea comes from the fact that I am personally intrigued with dreaming. One of the most interesting types is lucid dreaming where someone knows they are dreaming.  The goal is to control the dream and solve problems that someone could not solve while awake. For example, rewrite nightmares or sad dreams to find peace. This was a hot topic in the thirties. Now on online there are many people looking it up.  It is like waking up before falling off a cliff or in my case learning to fly.

EC: There are all types of dreams in the book, what are the differences?

AQ: Lucid dreaming is real. Astral projection is junk science, pure fantasy.  It is when someone thinks they can travel in their dreams as their soul moves to another location. Latent psychic senses have someone believing they have a psychic vibe yet are not aware of it. This is also a scam.

EC:  How would you describe Maggie?

AQ:  Maggie is a lucid dreamer who can control her dreams, which allows her to see things in a different light.  She is adventurous, outgoing, and a modern woman. She is very smart, independent, bold, a little reckless, unpredictable, and confident. Maggie wants to do the right thing and wants to find answers.

EC:  Why does she have an aversion to marriage?

AQ: She had a very close call when her fiancé wanted to marry her for her money and then he was going to send her off to an asylum. In those days it was not hard to get a woman committed against her will. This is why she is wary of marriage.

EC:  Sam Sage versus Sam Spade?

AQ: I did not even try to hide it and had fun playing off the character.  I was going for the iconic 1930s hardboiled private eye.  My character Sam Sage is much nicer and a lot more honorable. Sam Spade is from The Maltese Falcon, an American icon.  I put this quote in the book, Sam Spade is “arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic ass, with the moral code of an alley cat…he isn’t interested in justice…and a lousy detective.” His goal is to prove he is the smartest guy in the room. I wanted my character to be in the same occupation but with better personality traits.

EC:  How would you describe Sam Sage?

AQ:  He is really interested in justice and doing the right thing.  Sam is the classic good guy, very protective.  Some people see him as world weary and wise cracking.

EC:  What about the relationship between Maggie and Sam?

AQ:  They play off each other’s strengths and weaknesses.  She is reckless and he is a ‘by the books guy’.  They are very passionate about each other.  Each sees the underlying strength of the other and trusts each other.

EC:  Next books?

AQ:  It will be another Jayne Castle Dust Bunny book, a futuristic romantic suspense novel, titled, Sweet Water and the Witch, coming out September 30th.  The next Amanda Quick book is out a year from now, titled The Bride Wore White.  A woman wakes up in the honeymoon suite with a dead body next to her. Raina Kirk and Luther Pell have become the anchor characters for the series and will be in every book as cameo players.

Thank you!!

***

BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: Speakeasy: A Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas

Hi, everyone!

Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for this first book in a new series – SPEAKEASY: A Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas on this Virtual Author Book Tour.

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section, the author’s social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!

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Book Description

In 2019, A West Village Nightclub Singer, Roxie Raines, stumbles through a basement doorway into the past and finds herself in Roaring Twenties New York, with all its dangers, secrets, excitement, and romance.

Roxie Raines lurches through a secret basement doorway in 2019, and time-slips back to New York’s raucous Roaring Twenties. While she dazzles the speakeasy crowds with her “modern sound,” she gets trapped in the dangerous web of Frankie Shay, an evil club owner. She struggles to escape his control and return to the basement doorway that sent her to 1925.

When she meets the handsome detective, Jake Kane, it’s love at first sight, but Jake has a secret past, and her own time travel secret makes him suspicious.

Roaring Twenties New York comes alive with flappers, gangsters, romance and speakeasies and Roxie’s stunning rise to stardom could come with the price of losing both the man she loves and her own life.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60592112-speakeasy?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=bpKHMinHIf&rank=1

SPEAKEASY: A Time Travel Novel

by Elyse Douglas

Publisher:  Broadback (April 5, 2022)
Category: Time Travel, Historical Fiction Romance
Tour Dates May 3-June 30
ISBN: 979-8423229016
Available in Print and ebook, 375 pages

***

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

SPEAKEASY: A Time Travel Novel (Book #1) by Elyse Douglas is an entertaining and smart time travel romance set in New York City in 1925. I have read other time travel romances by this author and always enjoy them. While this is the first book in a new series, it does have a complete plot without a cliffhanger.

In August of 2019, Roxie Raines is a struggling singer/pianist who loves performing the old classics. After her performance in Speakeasy, a New York club in Greenwich Village, she follows a local street person who has broken in to the basement and watches him vanish through a blue lit whole in the wall. When she is startled by the bar cat, Roxie falls through, too.

Roxie wakes in the alley behind The Black Cat in New York City in 1925. Roxie finds herself held by a mob boss who discovers her talent. Roxie loves the praise she gets for her performances, but she wants her freedom. She has no connection to the outside world excerpt for the postcards she drops from her hotel room window asking for rescue. She is discovered and rescued by a handsome personal detective and his assistant, but Roxie still does not who to trust with her past. It is 1925 and mob bosses, bootleggers, bribed politicians, and dirty cops are all fighting for their piece of the action.

Can Roxie find her way back to 2019 and does she even want to?

This is a fun romp through New York City in 1925. Roxie is a talented heroine who is capable in the present world, but much more suited to the 1920’s. Jakes’s story just keeps becoming more complicated as more of his personal life secrets are revealed and his dilemma between what he considers the honorable solution versus what he personally wants. The romance progresses at a believable pace and is appropriate to the time-period. The description of clothes, locations, laws, and personal rights was well researched and interesting. The only thing that slightly bothered me was the main antagonist, Frankie Shay, at times seems more of a caricature than a fully fleshed character, but he still fit with the overall suspense plot.

I really enjoy Ms. Douglas’ time travel romances and I am looking forward to seeing where the next novel in this series takes me.

***

Excerpt

SPEAKEASY

Elyse Douglas

Twenty-six-year-old Roxie Raines took the subway down to Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village and hurried off in a warm, August rain.  It was nearly dark, and the shimmer of streetlights on the wet streets made it seem later than it was.  She glanced up to see a tall construction crane, quiet now but surely swinging about during work hours.  Another high rise?  Did New York City really need another luxury high rise?  There was an “old” part of Roxie, a part that longed for the old New York she’d seen online and in old black-and-white movies, before the glass towers, the needle-pointed, multimillion-dollar condos, and the encroaching chain stores took over.

Cars splashed water, taxis honked, and a thin, dripping pan handler shook his chipped cup for loose change, little mumbles moving his lips. 

Roxie glanced at him and thought it odd that he wore retro clothes, scuffed wing-tipped shoes, slacks with no crease, a matching suit coat, and an open collar white shirt.  His old-fashioned, gray fedora was tilted right, low over his brow, and a large mole on the left side of his nose helped give him a menacing look.  Still, she felt compassion for him.  He seemed strangely out of place under the yellow smudge of light from an overhead streetlamp, and he seemed utterly lost in the lonely, silver rain.

Fumbling with her umbrella, Roxie stopped, dug into the pocket of her yellow rain jacket, found three quarters, and dropped them into the panhandler’s cup.  He nodded, his vacant eyes staring ahead.

“Isn’t there a shelter nearby you can go to?”  Roxie asked.

He didn’t look at her, and his response was incomprehensible.

“Can I help you go somewhere and get out of this rain?” Roxie asked, seeing he was soaked, water dripping from the brim of his tattered hat.

He slowly turned to her, his eyes glassy and wide.  “Do you know where you come from, girlie?” he asked, in a low, gravelly voice that sounded like a threat.  “Do you know how you got here, doll?  Are you stranded, too?”

Roxie felt a shiver ripple up her spine and she didn’t answer.

He flashed her a crooked gash of a grin.  “No… I see it in you.  You don’t know where you are or how you got here.  You’re lost.  Just like me, doll, you’re lost.”

And then he laughed, a sinister laugh.

Spooked, Roxie whirled around, thrust her umbrella toward the rain and charging wind, and headed off toward Charles Street, her sneakers soaked, her capri jeans damp, and her chin-length, blonde hair gone wild and frizzy. 

“What the hell was that all about?” she mumbled to herself, quickening her steps, and not looking back at the man.  And then she thought, How do people get so lost and so crazy?

Roxie had a gig that weekend in a Greenwich Village bar called Speakeasy.

***

About the Author

Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the married writing team Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington.

She and her husband, Douglas Pennington, have completed many novels, including The Other Side of SummerThe Summer LettersThe Christmas Eve Series, Time Visitor, Time Change, The Summer Diary, and The Christmas Diary Series.

Social Media Links

Website: www.elysedouglas.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/douglaselyse
Facebook: www.facebook.com/elyse.authorsdouglas

Purchase Link

Amazon

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Rafflecopter Giveaway

“http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e23ee71d1542/”

Book Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: The Christmas Eve Promise – A Time Travel Romance by Elyse Douglas

Hi, everyone!

Today is my turn on the Virtual Author Book Tour for the latest in the series of Christmas themed romance time travel books featuring Eve and Patrick Gantly. I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE CHRISTMAS EVE PROMISE – A Time Travel Romance (The Christmas Eve Series Book #4).

Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the authors section and the authors’ social media links. Enjoy!

***

Book Description

Eve and baby Colleen are traveling to Ohio for the Christmas holidays to spend time with Eve’s parents.

After a few days in Ohio, they all plan to fly to Florida in Eve’s father’s private airplane.  Patrick will meet them there after he completes exams for his forensic psychology degree.

Nothing goes as planned.  The day Patrick is to leave for Florida, he receives a shocking telephone call from one of Eve’s cousins.  Sobbing, she tells him a terrible tragedy has occurred.  It stuns him and shakes him to his heart’s core.

His life shattered, Patrick knows he has but one chance:  he must use the time travel lantern to return to the past in order to prevent the current tragedy.

But once again, the time travel lantern has a mind of its own, and Patrick is hurled back to a time where he must confront a strange, unfamiliar world and learn why the lantern transported him there.

When Patrick comes face-to-face with a mysterious, beautiful woman who looks and acts like Eve, and whose name is Eve, Patrick is haunted.

He recalls the promise he and Eve had made to each other on Christmas Eve the previous year—no matter what happens; no matter if they’re separated; no matter what time or place they find themselves in; no matter what obstacles they must face, they will always find each other, help each other, and love each other for all time.

The Christmas Eve Promise is a journey about the enduring promise of hope and the infinite, unbreakable bonds of love.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55183315-the-christmas-eve-promise—a-time-travel-romance

Publisher:  Broadback (September, 2020)
Category: Time Travel, Historical Fiction, Romance, Christmas
Tour dates: September-November, 2020
ISBN:
Available in Print and ebook,  405 pages

***

My Book Review

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE CHRISTMAS EVE PROMISE – A Time Travel Romance (The Christmas Eve Series Book #4) by Elyse Douglas is the latest in the series of Christmas themed romance time travel books featuring Eve and Patrick Gantly. While each book is complete with a HEA story, they are a continuing sequence of the main character’s adventures and journeys to find each other throughout time, so I feel they are best read in order.

It all began in book one with Eve discovering a time travel lantern which took her back in time to find her soulmate and true love, Patrick.

It is Christmas Eve, 2020. Eve, baby Colleen and Patrick are planning on a vacation in Florida for Christmas with Eve’s parents after Patrick finishes his exams in forensic psychology. First, Eve and Colleen travel to Ohio to visit relatives and then they will fly with her parents to Florida as Patrick takes the train from New York.

Then a tragedy occurs.

Patrick is devastated. He has one hope. He will once again use the time travel lantern to save his wife and child.

The time travel lantern has a mind of its own and Patrick in sent to 1925. Will Patrick find his soulmate, Eve and be able to save his family?

This is another wonderful addition to the series. The authors once again have Eve and Patrick not only searching for each other, but also changing the lives and sometimes the futures of others. Even as you need to suspend belief, it does not make the story less intriguing or heartwarming. The action is fast paced in this story and the emotional investment kept me turning the pages. I found all the details of the time-period, as in all the books, to be thoroughly researched.

I highly recommend this time travel romance and all the books in the series!

***

Excerpt

Excerpt One

Eve held Patrick’s gaze, his champagne glass poised to touch hers “Patrick, before the new puppy comes crashing into our lives, I want us to toast to something else.”

“Now, there’s that mischievous gleam in your eyes again, Mrs. Eve Gantly.  What are we about to toast to? 

Eve worked to find the right words.  “Okay, here it is.  Do you believe in soulmates?”

“Soulmates?” he asked, testing the word.  “Yes, you have used that word before.  I know of it, but I haven’t thought about it.  I assume you are about to educate me?”  He sighed, playfully.  “Thus, the second Christmas toast must wait.”

“I’ve done some research,” Eve said.  “The term ‘soulmate’ first appeared in the English language in 1822, in a letter written by the English poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.”

“I haven’t read much poetry, Eve.”

“It doesn’t matter.  Anyway, some psychologists believe that it’s an unrealistic expectation to think that a soulmate exists specifically for another person.”

“What are your thoughts?” Patrick asked, shifting his feet.  “And, can we step away from the fireplace?  I feel like I’m being roasted as a Christmas goose.”

Eve drifted over to check on Colleen, her mind at work.  Patrick moved to the couch but didn’t sit.  He was intrigued by Eve’s obvious interest in soulmates.

“So continue with your interesting discourse,” Patrick said.

Eve turned to him.  “According to an esoteric religious movement called Theosophy, God created androgynous souls—equally male and female.  A little later, there were theories that the souls split into separate genders, perhaps because of karma.  Anyway, over a number of reincarnations, each half soul seeks the other soul.  And then, after all the karmic debts are purged, the two fuse back together as one.  They are connected by a kind of invisible thread.”

Patrick scratched his head and took another drink from his glass.  “Eve, my love, I know nothing about soulmates, reincarnation or karma.  I only believe in time travel because it has happened to me, against my will, I might add.  But had it not happened to me, I would never, ever, under any circumstances, have believed in it.  Maybe what you say is true, I don’t know, but it seems rather airy, the stuff of dreams and fertile imaginations.”

There was a long gap in the conversation as Eve wandered the room, finally returning to Patrick, who watched her with keen interest.

“Patrick… I met you because I time traveled.  We have both time traveled back and forth several times.  We could have easily lost each other or never found each other.”

Patrick nodded. 

“But we found each other every time.  We fell in love at first sight, didn’t we?”

He leaned and kissed her wet, champagne lips and felt the same electric charge he always felt when he kissed her.  That first-time burst-of-love and desire for her. 

“Yes, Eve.  I fell in love with you at first sight as I followed you along the 1885 New York City streets.  I fell in love with you when we were across the street from Zarcone’s Tea & Coffee House and when you boldly walked up to me and said, ‘Have you been following me?’”

Eve held up her glass and touched his.  “Yes!  And I fell head-over-heels in love with you—and it scared me how fast and how much I fell in love with you.  But that love seemed timeless, didn’t it?  As if love had been just waiting for us to come together on that street corner in 1885?  As if I’d known you before and you’d known me before.  As if we were soulmates just waiting to come together again, to merge again.  Didn’t you feel that, Patrick?  Don’t you feel that now?”

Patrick narrowed his eyes on her.  “You are quite the romantic, aren’t you?”

“I wasn’t a romantic before I met you.  I was married to a man for a little over two years, and I never felt the love I felt for you that very first time I looked into your face.”

Patrick kissed her again.  “Yes, I’ll admit it.  You seemed remarkably familiar the first time I stared into your lovely eyes.”

Eve smiled knowingly.  “And that’s what I propose in this toast.”

She raised her glass to his.  “I want both of us to promise that no matter what happens to us; no matter if we’re separated; no matter what time or place we find ourselves in; no matter what obstacles we face, we will always find each other, help each other and love each other, for all time.  Will you make this Christmas Eve promise, Patrick?”

He gave her a warm smile.  “All right, Eve.  Yes, I promise.  But I pray to the saints in heaven that we are not separated.  I’ve had enough of that.”

They touched glasses.

Colleen cried out and a burst of wind rattled the windows, making the room suddenly chilly.

***

About the Authors

Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the married writing team Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington. Elyse grew up near the sea, roaming the beaches, reading and writing stories and poetry, receiving a master’s degree in English Literature.  She has enjoyed careers as an English teacher, an actress and a speech-language pathologist.

Douglas has worked as a graphic designer, a corporate manager and an equities trader.  He attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and played the piano professionally for many years.

Authors’ Social Media Links

Website: www.elysedouglas.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/douglaselyse
Facebook: www.facebook.com/elyse.authorsdouglas

Buy Christmas Eve Promise: Time Travel Novel by Elyse Douglas

Amazon

Release Blitz and Feature Post: Losing Time by Chris Karlsen

Title: Losing Time ( Knights in Time Book 5)

Author: Chris Karlsen

Genre: Historical Romance (With time travel elements)

Release Date: September 16, 2018

Hosted by:Buoni Amici Press, LLC.

Book Description:

Can love survive the wrong time and place?

Felicia Wycliff’s peaceful stroll through the woods turned to disaster when her dachshund bolted after a rabbit. One minute Felicia was running after the determined little dog, the next she was hurled to the ground. Gathering her wits after her tumble, she brushed herself off and continued her pursuit—-right into three mounted knights who blocked her path.

They were so authentic looking. They might’ve stepped from the keep of the nearby castle, Elysian Fields. But the old Norman fortress was a ruin and had been for three hundred years.

“Seize her,” the middle knight ordered, the knight who sat tallest in the saddle.

“Let me go.” She fought, striking out when the two knights grabbed her. “Who the deuce are you?”

“I’m the Captain of the Baron’s Guard, and you are trespassing.”

Kidnapped, her confusion and fear consumed her. But when they rode through the gates of Elysian Fields, the castle looking as formidable as the date it was built, her terror exploded.

When she fell she knew exactly where she was. But where the devil had she landed?

 

Goodreads book link:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4822048.Chris_Karlsen?from_search=true

Compass, rope and glasses on old paper

Buy links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2NbhI0Q

iBooks: https://apple.co/2MRtVuC

Nook: http://bit.ly/2OYo4Be

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2LgHEXf

Universal link: https://books2read.com/Losing-Time

 


About Chris:

I was born and raised in Chicago. My father was a history professor and my mother was, and is, a voracious reader. I grew up with a love of history and books.

My parents also love traveling, a passion they passed onto me. I wanted to see the places I read about, see the land and monuments from the time periods that fascinated me. I’ve had the good fortune to travel extensively throughout Europe, the Near East, and North Africa.  

I am a retired police detective. I spent twenty-five years in law enforcement with two different agencies. My desire to write came in my early teens. After I retired, I decided to pursue that dream. I write three different series. My paranormal romance series is called, Knights in Time. My romantic thriller series is Dangerous Waters. The newest is The Bloodstone Series. Each series has a different setting and some cross time periods, which I find fun to write.

I currently live in the Pacific Northwest with my husband and five wild and crazy rescue dogs.  


Social Media:

Newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/Moonlight_Serenade

Website: http://chriskarlsen.com/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisKarlsenAuthor/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/chriskarlsen/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorCKarlsen

Instagram: http://instagram.com/chriskarlsenwriter  


Giveaway:

$10 Amazon Gift Card

5 ecopies of Heroes Live Forever

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Book Review: Must Love More Kilts by Angela Quarles

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

I LOVE this time-travel historical romance series! The new book MUST LOVE MORE KILTS (Must Love Series, #4) by Angela Quarles did not disappoint. This book focuses on the sister of the heroine from book three and the Highland warrior that she hand-fasts with the first night the sisters appear in the past. Their adventure can be read as a standalone, but there is overlap and I would recommend you at least read book three in the series first.

Fiona Campbell has always loved her family’s Scottish history, myths and legends. She believes her own self-worth is in keeping her ancestors extraordinary deeds and history alive. When Fiona and her sister end up back in 1689 Scotland it is a dream come true. She can become the Fiona of family legend and save their ancestor’s life and finally prove her own worth to her family.

Duncan MacCowan is a strong Highland warrior and faithful friend to the new laird, even though the laird’s sister broke his heart and proved deceitful in his past. When Fiona drops into his life, he opens his heart once again, but she disappears on the night of their hand-fasting. He cannot believe he has opened up to two unfaithful women and will never believe his heart over his head again. Now as this story begins, recovering from a serious battlefield wound, Duncan is surprised to find Fiona returned and caring for him.

Fiona is focused only on the past and believes she has one only one purpose in her life which is to fulfill the legend which say she will save her ancestor from a MacCowan warrior with a specific scar, but the warrior she loves has that scar. She must remain at Duncan’s side wherever he goes. Duncan believes he will never love again, but the attraction between these two just keeps building. Fiona and Duncan both must overcome their personal fears and work together to discover where their destinies lead them in their present versus family legend from the future and if they can tempt Fate for love.

This series just keeps giving me everything I want. The description of the Highlands and its people in 1689 and how two modern women deal with their time-travel. The author’s explanation of the time-travel and parallel histories is interesting and lets me suspend my belief for the story. Fiona and Duncan are wounded and slow to communicate their feelings and yet extremely strong and fearless in other ways and fast to defend their family and friends. The sexual tension builds and there are a few steamy sex scenes that add to the romance perfectly.

I highly recommend this new book and the entire series! I hope there are many more to come.

Written for and posted first on The Romance Reviews.com.

Feature Post: Time Travel Romance by Angela Quarles

I have always loved sitting down with a well written historical time travel romance. I immediately step into the heroine’s shoes.  As I follow her journey, I am also thinking of my responses to the same situations. Who hasn’t dreamed of going back in time and meeting Jane Austin’s Mr. Darcy, being saved from heartbreak by Jude Deveraux’s Nicholas Stafford, or going on a grand adventure with Diana Gabladon’s Jamie Frazier. The only problem has been that this subcategory in romance has had fewer and fewer options for me to read over the years.

I was so happy to be lucky enough to review a new to me author, Angela Quarles, who is writing wonderful historical time travel novels in a series called “Must Love Time Travel”.  I have currently read and reviewed her first three books and I am anxiously awaiting her fourth in the series. I have given all of these books a 5 star rating!

She writes present day strong female heroines who travel to different time periods in the past to find the heroes they did not know they needed or wanted. I love that each story is set in a different time period and the decision must be made in the end of each book if the couple will stay in the past or return to the present day.

must-love-breeches  must-love-chainmail  must-love-kilts

BOOK #1 – Must Love Breeches

Summary:

Isabelle Rochon has moved to London from Atlanta to work as an intern at the British Museum and is trying to get her life back on track after a failed relationship and the loss of her family. Dressed for a costume ball, she carries with her a silver calling card case from pre-Victorian times which sends her back to 1834. Her case is stolen and as she tries to retrieve it and navigate her new historical social situation she meets the “Vicious Viscount”, Lord Phineas Montagu.

Lord Montagu is pretending a changed personality to seek revenge for his sister and all the ton now call him ”Vicious Viscount”, but Isabelle sees through this persona and is drawn to him. Phineas can’t help but be intrigued by the “Original” from the Colonies. To further his plan, he wants Isabelle to be his pretend fiancé in exchange for his protection and help retrieving her card case. He knows Isabelle is keeping something from him, but he can’t stop his growing attraction and begins to want Isabelle forever. The attraction is strong in both, but Isabelle feels she must return to the present.

BOOK #2 – Must Love Chainmail

Summary:

Katy Tolson cannot be without her smart phone or day planner. She must have order and control in all thing in her life. In just a few weeks she will be getting married, but first she is pulled emotionally to Wales with her bridesmaids for a pre-wedding trip. A wish she didn’t mean to make on her friend Isabelle’s calling card case sends her back to medieval Wales into the middle of a rebellion.

Sir Robert Beucol is a knight set on serving his King and regaining his family’s honor and the lands his father’s treason lost. Half-Norman and half-Welsh, he always has to be better than full-blooded Normans. He is about to show his complete loyalty by fighting his mother’s people when a strange and mysterious wench appears suddenly in his life.

BOOK #3 – Must Love Kilts

Summary:

Traci Campbell, a computer game designer is on vacation with her sister, Fiona, in Scotland. She has never felt any love of her roots like her parents and sister. As the sisters try to reconnect, they get drunk on Glenfiddich and make a bet. Traci bets one hundred dollars that hot, Scottish men in kilts is a myth. And then she meets, Iain, a hot Scottish man in a kilt in the Highlands in the year 1689. She wakes the next morning with a severe hangover, back in the present, and her sister still in the past.

Iain MacCowan is treated as a joker and flirt by his uncle who leads his clan since the accidental death of his father and he does nothing to change that perception. When Traci returns to the past to find her sister, Iain feels something more than he ever has before for this stranger he vows to help, but his uncle distrusts this Campbell as the Jacobites are about to revolt. Iain has to help Traci, protect his clan and maybe reveal his true self to Traci and hope she wants to remain in the past with him after Fiona is found.

The author’s research into the historical aspects of her books is extremely well done. Her plots are original to each time period. The romances are both fun and serious as each hero and heroine must learn what true love is before their HEA. This series is a must read for me and I hope it will be for you, too!