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!

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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

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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!

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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.

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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