Review: A Love Beyond Time by Judie Aitken

A Love Beyond Time
by Judie Aitken

When anthropologist Ryan Burke joins a dig at the site of Little Big Horn, she realizes that not everyone is excited about the opportunity. Renowned Indian affairs lawyer Dillon Wolf wants to shut the project down. But when Ryan is given an old tribal tipi, she journeys to the past -- where the tension between her and a Lakota warrior named Wolf erupts...into passion.

Genre: Adult, Time-Travel Romance

Publication Date: Jan 1st 2000

Publisher: Jove

Format: Mass Market paperpack, 378 pages 

Series: no

Source: Better World Books


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My Review

I am a sucker for romantic time-travel books. Really, that's almost an understatement. I mean, who wouldn't prefer a manly warrior or a cultured 'Don Juan' to these brainless twits in their 'YOLO' shirts, and pants hanging half-off their hips, and wearing so much 'bling' it's almost blinding? That's why I prefer to escape reality with my books.

The first part of A Love Beyond Time is a bit slow, I won't lie. I almost put it down a couple of times. But, luckly, I did not. This one had to have been one of the most amazing books I've read in quite a while. It had everything! EVERYTHING a good time-travel romance should have. I was immersed in the Native American culture, I lived their lives, I saw their language, could almost hear their voices, feel their pain and happiness. And I fell in love with Wolf right along with Ryan (love the boy name for the heroine, BTW). It was an amazing experience. Now I want a hot Native American for myself and that is KILLING me. :P LOL.

The Indians were so... blunt and unselfconscious and to the point about things, but, at the same time, so unafraid to show their feelings, and unembarrassed about their emotions, and also so kind and accepting! That's what I love about different times/cultures. The screaming differences! If it were the other way, an Indian in the middle of white people, I suspect he wouldn't have been received with half as much respect. Just sayin'.

So, that's all you need to know: this was a fantastic creation, filled with excellent characters and well-researched dates, places and local customs. There's even mystery and crime-solving! Simply put, it's a DELIGHT to read. A forbidden pleasure you'll want to savor slowly, but quickly, and without pause. (it'll make sense if you read it, I assure you). I read it in one sitting and wanted to bite the head off of anyone who dared try to interrupt me. Truly.

Don't judge it by the cover and don't let it pass even if you don't like romance, but like actual history in historicals, or vice versa. It has plenty of both and something for everyone. Too bad the author hasn't written anything else. I felt the same about Jack Knife and The Sterkarm Handshake. ANYWAY, get your used copy TODAY (it's out of print and unavailable in ebook format, unfortunately), but it's really worth it. ;)

Review: A Breath of Magic by Teresa Medeiros

Breath of Magic (Lennox Family Magic #1)

by Teresa Medeiros

Published February 1st 1996 by Bantam

Precocious Puritan and aspiring witch Arian Whitewood spends her lonely nights dreaming of magic and excitement. She gets more excitement than she bargains for when she crash lands straight out of a witch hunt into the 20th century and the arms of Tristan Lennox, a reclusive billionaire. Arian blows through Tristan's climate-controlled existence like a breath of magic, only to discover that the spell he weaves around her heart is more compelling than any enchantment.

Genre: Adult, Romance

Publication Date: Feb 1st 1996

Publisher: Bantam

Format: Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages 

Series: sort of, but not really

Source: My own copy

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My Review

It's been forever since the last Teresa Medeiros book I've read. I forgot how much I enjoyed her storytelling and her characters. :)

A Breath of Magic felt more like a breath of FRESH AIR after so many 'bad' or simply 'ok' adult books I tried this week... I laughed SO hard with it! Really, I can't stress how much fun I had reading it. :) It really came at the best possible moment for me.

Arian is the French daughter of an unmarried woman in the 17th century and never met her father. She's sent to live with a stepfather in the middle of a bunch of Puritans.... which would be okay, if not for the small fact that, uhm, she's a witch. A WHITE witch, sure, but a witch nonetheless. And all is evil in the eyes of the Puritans. Arian finds herself in the middle of an Inquisition, just about to drown when she utters a last-minute spell to try and make time stop, but that actually sends her 300 years in the future, in her flying broom.

Tristan doesn't believe in magic, but, ironically still has some inner hope to find it in the world. Which is part of the reason why he promises a million dollars to whoever proves to him that there is such a thing as real magic out there. Tristan is getting fed up with all the charlatans when, out of freaking nowhere, a girl dressed as a nun appears flying/crashing a broom up in the sky. When she falls/lands right into the middle of the contest. He saves her, and sends her broom for examination, certain that it must had some gadget that made it fly. But while his team of researchers find themselves busy trying to prove it was NOT just a broom, Tristan is about to find himself believing in magic again... and also in love.

Tristan could be very bossy and demanding and rude sometimes, but he constantly made up for it, so all was well. He wore his past wounds as an armor around his heart, but it was very satisfying to see Arian slowly melt it away.

Speaking of Arian, she had everything that could have made me dislike her as heroine, but, surprisingly, did not. I actually LIKED her. And you guys must know by now how bitchy I can be. :P She was smart, but kind and pure in a way that was BELIEVABLE and fitting, not coming out as stupid or over-the-head as they usually do in romance books these days. She was genuinely good and naive. But still strong-willed and determined. Authors, take note of this. Your characters don't need to be total losers/pushovers in order to be good/kind-hearted. 

Their romance was also pure and so, so adorable. There were very few sex scenes, only a couple, as a matter of fact, but they were so... gentle and nonexplicit and just, well, romantic. (I'm very eloquent today). They were heart-warming in their simplicity and candor, and very much perfect in their context. This was a real love story. I liked it immensely. And I'm most certainly NOT a romantic. Yes, I am slightly astonished myself. O.o

I was also charmed by the lovely secondary characters! Copperfield, Tristan's (only) best friend and Indian lawyer. Sven, the poor bodyguard, former manicurist/hairdresser, turned goat. Hilarious! I wish they had books of their own. XD

Miss Medeiros, you managed to write a real gem! One that still remains modern, even after sixteen years!!! I congratulate and thank you for such a feat/treat. :) It will come out a bit cheesy, but it was simply... magical. Really, just enchanting.

Early Review: Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle / Reading Romances August Challenge

Reading Romances August Challenge

4) Read a book that has a character that is involved in any type of arts (music, dance, literature, theater, etc).

Kissing Shakespeare
by Pamela Mingle

Expected publication: August 14th 2012 by Random House Children's Books

Miranda has Shakespeare in her blood: she hopes one day to become a Shakespearean actor like her famous parents. At least, she does until her disastrous performance in her school's staging of The Taming of the Shrew. Humiliated, Miranda skips the opening-night party. All she wants to do is hide.

Fellow cast member, Stephen Langford, has other plans for Miranda. When he steps out of the backstage shadows and asks if she'd like to meet Shakespeare, Miranda thinks he's a total nutcase. But before she can object, Stephen whisks her back to 16th century England—the world Stephen's really from. He wants Miranda to use her acting talents and modern-day charms on the young Will Shakespeare. Without her help, Stephen claims, the world will lose its greatest playwright.

Miranda isn't convinced she's the girl for the job. Why would Shakespeare care about her? And just who is this infuriating time traveler, Stephen Langford? Reluctantly, she agrees to help, knowing that it's her only chance of getting back to the present and her "real" life. What Miranda doesn't bargain for is finding true love . . . with no acting required.

Genre: Young Adult, Time Travel

Publication Date: August 14th 2012

Publisher: Random House Books

Format: eARC, 352 pages 

Series: no

Source: Netgalley

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My Review

Miranda is a young actress, but lately she has been thinking of herself as more of a 'failure'. After she blew her part in the school play of The Taming of the Shrew, she decides to let everyone know (including her super perfect actress mom) that she's giving up on acting. That is, she intended to do that, until Stephen Langford, a weird crew member who never hangs around much, tells her he needs her help and drags her to the school's roof, spouting some nonsense about Shakespeare all the way up..

Miranda soon discovers that Stephen may be eccentric and all, but he was not that crazy. He actually meant everything he said to her, and he proves that by somehow traveling back in time, to when Shakespeare was still a teen, and bringing her along for the ride. He explains to her (in incredibly vague terms), that it is his responsability to make sure things in the past happen as they should. And that includes making young Will become a poet as he should, and NOT become a Jesuit, which would ruin our future as we know it. For that (and we still don't know why) he needs Miranda, who is posing as his sister, to seduce him.

Miranda now needs to deal with strange things from the past, such as too many clothes, little privacy, no drinking water, balls and religious conflicts. Oh, and she needs to bed William Shakespeare before it's too late.

As you may probably have noticed, I wasn't very satisfied with this book, for many reasons.

I expected something else, after reading the synopsis. Especially after this bit:

"Fellow cast member, Stephen Langford, has other plans for Miranda. When he steps out of the backstage shadows and asks if she'd like to meet Shakespeare, Miranda thinks he's a total nutcase."

The last thing Stephen did was ask something. He kidnapped Miranda, and the dim-witted thing let him. >.>'

I expected a fun encounter with a young version of a great idol, some fun moments trying to adjust to the time period... things like that. But there wasn't much of that in there, I'm afraid.

Miranda was pretty boring and obtuse at times. She kept going on and on about the same things, kept asking the same stupid questions (when she had already had the answers to them) and just following Stephen's plans too blindly, in my opinion. Plans that were quite ridiculous, if you ask me. 

I simply cannot understand why it is that Shakespeare would ever become a Jesuit, if obviously he never did in our present time. And even if he almost did, and Stephen really had to interfere before that happened, couldn't he have just chosen someone from that time to seduce him? A practiced, mature mistress or something? Did he really HAVE to go all the way to the future to choose one silly, plain, nobody of a teenager? I understand that's why YA books are supposed to be so much fun, but in this case this was not a very good idea at all. 

And, to top it all off, the constant religious babble was a huge turn-off. I understand that during the Elizabethan times all Catholics were forced to become Protestants, and the whole thing was pretty violent... but was that really important to the story?

This book felt sooooooooo long. I just took a look and it's supposed to have 352 pages, but they really felt like 1072. O.o It was very, VERY tempting to just give it up and label it as DNF, but I kept going... and I'm afraid to say it didn't get much better.

What I liked the most about the whole book were the final author's notes, about Shakespeare's life and curiosities. About the book itself I enjoyed Shakespeare's quotes and the hardships Miranda had to got through to fit in that time period. I always like to imagine how I'd act if I had the chance to time travel and see how things were back then. I know, I'm silly like that.

If you like time travel stories and would like to imagine a young, flirty William Shakespeare, you might want to give this book a try.

* I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

The Avenger (Time Raiders, #3) by P.C. Cast

The Avenger (Time Raiders, #3) 
by P.C. Cast

Published October 1st 2009 by Silhouette

For Alexandra Patton, the Time Raiders project sends the reluctant psychic back to 60 AD Briton--a world where she can barely understand the accents, let alone its culture of brutality and superstition. Armed only with her "freakish" ability to talk to the dead, Alex must use all her gifts to entice Caradoc, a savagely sexy Druid warrior, into helping her succeed in her mission.

What they discover along the way is pure passion.

Now, torn between duty and the man of her dreams, should Alex return home if given the chance? Or dare she risk everything to begin anew in this strange and mystical land?

Genre: Adult, Science Fiction

Publication Date: October 1st 2009

Publisher: Silhouette

Format: Mass Paperback, 288 pages 

Series: yes

Source: Bought

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My Review:

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Everybody is always going on about how you can't judge a book by its cover and all that, but, really. We totally do that. And I couldn't help but do it with this one. Good reviews not withstanding.

This is actually the third volume of a series, but I skipped the first two and it didn't get in my way at all. 

I have to admit that the first few pages did drag a bit... yup, sort of boring, though necessary for the plot. But, quickly enough, things start to get interesting.

I loved the way the story was set in the past! Celt traditions, clothing, way of speaking... the writing made it all so engaging and realistic! (In a good way, of course. There were no references to the bad realistic things, like lack of hygiene and all that. LOL. We really don't need those.). Anyway, the descriptions were so nice they made me wish I could see it for myself.

Queen Boudica was a very strong female character, one I had certainly heard of before, but didn't know so much about. I especially enjoyed the 'built-in' mini history lessons about her and her people. They fit the story so well you didn't even notice you were learning. LOL. It's always nice to know more about important female figures. We don't have nearly enough of them. Go girl power!

Alex and Caradoc were unbelievably cute. And highly amusing. I was cheering for them from the very first moment, but thoroughly enjoyed the slow progress of 'building trust'. None of that 'love at first sight' thing here. Sure, they were instantly attracted to each other and there was this sort of 'meant to be' vibe, but isn't there always?

If you like time-travel romance, historical settings and strong female characters, you'll enjoy this book a lot.

Friday Recommends #1 : Jack Knife

Friday Recommends is a meme hosted by Pen To Paper.  This is where we can share a book we would highly recommend. 






The rules for Friday Recommends are:

• Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
• Please consider adding the blog hop button to your blog somewhere, so others can find it easily and join in too! Help spread the word! The code will be at the bottom of the post under the linky.
• Pick a book that you've read, and have enjoyed enough to recommend to other readers. It can be a book you've read recently, or a book you read years ago - it's up to you - but make sure you tell us why you love the book (like a mini review). You make the post as long or as short as you like.
• Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of this post after posting your blog post.
• Put a link back to pen to paper (http://vogue-pentopaper.blogspot.com) somewhere in your post.
• Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My choice is:

Jack Knife

by Virginia Baker

Whitechapel, London, 1888.

For Inspector Jonas Robb, each night brings new terror. But this night is different. It's brought two strangers-David and Sara-who have arrived in London seemingly with no past. What they do have is incredible knowledge about the Whitechapel fiend known as Jack the Ripper. Because David and Sara do have a past. It just happens to be in the future.

Sent back in time, they're in pursuit of a 21st-century madman whose purpose is to change history. As the body count rises, Sara and David realize that their quarry and Robb's have become linked in a way that threatens not only Victorian London, but the very fabric of time.

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This was a great book! I got it at a local bookstore and a day later I found out it was out of print, (O.o) which made me ever happier I bought it in the first place. If you look at the reviews of this title on Goodreads, you'll see that there are all kinds of opinions about it. Some people absolutely hated it, and some, like me, absolutely loved it.

I've always enjoyed time-travel romances, so that was part of the reason I got it. The other was the 'Jack-the-Ripper' part. It really got my attention. *-*

Okay, okay, maybe some things were a bit over the top, like the too-modern gadgets used by the time-travellers from 2007, and maybe the beginning of the book was a bit slow, but it was all worth it afterwards!

The book gets better and better, the characters are very interesting and complex, and the heroine was super strong. I loved her!!! It was very satisfying to see some of the things she told those chauvinistic assholes from the 19th century. LOL.

Also, even though it is fantasy, the author obviously did her homework on the time period, the clothing, locations and the Ripper murders, which made the book even more fluid and pleasant to read.

But, just a small 'spoiler' here, the ending was very unnerving. I get it that the author was trying to be as realistic as possible, but romantically speaking, she broke my heart. >.<

With that out of the way, it is a shame this book is not very well-known. It's almost the same as with The Sterkarm series. They are gems that need to be discovered.

Too bad the author didn't write anything else, either. A waste of talent.

Believe me, it is worth your time. I bought it as a gift to two of my friends already, and they loved it too, so I'm glad I did my job spreading the word about it to them, and now to you. ;)

Friday Reads - The Sterkarm Series by Susan Price

The Sterkarm Handshake

 

by Susan Price

"Beware of shaking hands with a Sterkarm!" goes the folk saying. Why the warning? The members of this wild 16th-century Scottish clan are left-handed, and while they smile and offer the right hand, the left wields a dagger.
When a 21st-century mega-corporation opens a Time Tube to the 16th century, the stiff-backed CEO finds his plans for exploiting the mineral and tourism possibilities of the ancient English-Scottish border frustrated by the Sterkarms--raiding parties of men he regards as primitive animals.

On the other side of the Time Tube, anthropologist Andrea Mitchell has been sent to live with the Sterkarms to be the corporation's informant and translator. There she is surprised to find herself admired for her generous curves and accepted warmly by the volatile and affectionate--but intermittently murderous--clansmen. When her lover, Per, is grievously wounded on a raid, she persuades Old Toorkild, the chief, to allow his handsome and adored son to be transported to the 21st century for healing. But when Per awakes in a world four centuries ahead of his own, his terror and suspicions of treachery bring down a wild collision between heartless technology and a ferocious people skilled in passionate defense of their life and lands.

Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize in England, Susan Price's The Sterkarm Handshake--a richly textured love story, a vivid and sometimes humorous portrayal of confrontation between cultures, and a thumping good page-turner--should find enthusiastic fans among teen-fantasy and time-travel buffs. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

 

A Sterkarm Kiss

by Susan Price
Andrea Mitchell returns to the past, only it's not exactly the past she visited in The Sterkarm Handshake (HarperCollins, 2000). Her nasty ex-boss at FUP asks once again for her translating services, and Andrea agrees to go back through the Time Tube to the 16th century–against her better judgment–hoping she will be reunited with her lover, Per.

Andrea departs and learns that she's been sent to a wholly different dimension, in which the people she lovingly remembers exist but do not recognize her. Instead of buying the loyalty of the Sterkarms, the company she works for initiates a violent overthrow by pitting them against their enemy clan, the Grannams. When an ill-fated wedding draws to its inevitable conclusion, the company's plans are set in motion, and Andrea must unravel them.

Though Price re-explains the setup from book one, familiarity with that novel gives this one greater emotional resonance. The plot moves quickly, and there's as much or more violence than in the previous book. The idea of a past that's actually a part of another dimension gets a bit confusing (16-A, 16-B), but it effectively comes together in a cliff-hanger ending.

The impersonal, inhuman violence of the 21st-siders is subtly, effectively juxtaposed with the brutality and anger of the 16th-siders. Andrea again faces an impossible but emotionally engaging situation: choosing between her murderous 16th-century lover and her destructive 21st-side counterparts.

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Since it's Black Friday today, I've prepared a double book recommendation. ;)

I highly recommend these books to anyone who enjoys time travel, science fiction, fantasy, Scotland and romance! These are real page-turners, but unfortunately they're not very popular. Probably because they were not mainstream. Such a pity. The only way to find them is in used books' stores, but they're completely worth it. My copies are old library ones, and I treasure them immensely. *-*.

I'd give them 5674323 stars if I could. 5 are just not enough.

The alternate-universe 16th century, the Sterkarms (all such rich, complex and well-written characters!), the interesting 'time tube', the references to the old cultures and languages, the issue of greedy 21st century people wanting to exploit the land of the 'less developed' and naïve medieval Sterkarms, the 'forbidden romance', all of it joins in to make a GREAT book! I mean, no wonder the first volume won the 1999 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize!

These books are labeled as YA by some, but I really don't see why. To me they are adult reads, with real issues mixed in with fantasy.

I absolutely fell in love with Andrea and Per, and they also broke my heart.

As soon as I was done with The Sterkarm Handshake, I ran and got myself a copy of A Sterkarm Kiss. And, seriously, so should you. These are gems, master pieces. No, Susan Price didn't pay me anything to say this, I'm just being honest. LOL

Too bad she never came around to writing the third part... :((

Aaaand....