Trail of Longing (Hot on the Trail, Book 3)

 

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS INFORMATION THAT SOME MAY CONSIDER SPOILERS.

MERRY FARMER

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 1/11/15.

How acquired: Bought.

First line: Dr. Dean Meyers was the most beautiful thing Emma Sutton had ever seen.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I read the first two books in this series back in 2015, and very much enjoyed them, and in 2020 I came across the next two books while browsing in a bookstore and snatched them both up. And as often happens, when I have so many different book series in progress, they then sat on my shelves until now.

I’ll admit that it took me awhile to really warm up to Emma. When the story opens, she’s madly in love with Dean, even though she’s never spoken to him. And when she does finally speak to him, she’s so shy that she can barely stammer out full words, much less a complete sentence. She was sweet enough, but her mother was a piece of work, shamelessly contriving to push Emma and Dean together and telling Emma she needs to “trap” Dean because he’s such a good catch. Much to Emma’s dismay and embarrassment, but to Dean’s amusement. He’s interested, and is willing to let Emma’s mother play matchmaker. Actually, I guess my taking awhile to warm up to Emma isn’t quite true – I liked her just fine, until her mother decided another candidate would be better than Dean, and Emma would not stand up to her. Dean was frustrated, and I was right there with him, while Emma kept insisting that her mother had been through so much that she couldn’t go against her wishes.

I loved Dean. He’s a doctor, and his tending to the other travelers on the wagon train was sweet and compassionate. After a tornado ravages the travelers and Emma’s ankle is sprained and swollen and painful, she and her mother and Dean and dropped off at a way station so she can rest and stay off her feet while they wait for the next wagon train to come along. And that’s when the trouble started. They join the next train, where Emma becomes good friends with another girl, Katie, and where she meets Russ, who went to medical school with Dean, was a surgeon alongside Dean on the battlefields, and who tells everyone that Dean was a deserter, along with lots of other stories. The speed with which Emma’s mother suddenly throws her lot in with Russ and begins pushing Emma to him and away from Dean was astonishing, and I began to hate her mother. That was the point where I also got exasperated with Emma for not standing up to her.

Then Emma and Katie are kidnapped by a couple of Indians, and Dean and Aidan, who has been in love with Emma practically his whole life, take off after them, while Russ refuses to go along, claiming he needs to stay behind to help protect the other women.

Needless to say, Dean rescues Emma, they declare their love for each other (and spend a steamy night in a cave), and everything is right with the world after that. Except that the two had Indians split up and gone in different directions, and when the book ends we still don’t know the fate of Katie and Aidan. Thankfully, their story is the next book, TRAIL OF DREAMS, which I am now off to get started on.

Goodreads Synopsis: Emma Sutton fell in love with Dr. Dean Meyers on the very first day of their journey west on the Oregon Trail. Dean is handsome, caring, and noble. If only she could tell him! But between her crippling shyness and the marital machinations of her mother, she despairs of ever being able to say what’s in her heart. When a sudden injury puts her in Dean’s hands, literally and figuratively, she hopes she might just have a chance with him…until a ghost from Dean’s past comes between them.

Dean Meyers is determined to make the long journey west to start a new life and leave the horrors of the Civil War behind him. He is charmed by Emma and amused by her mother, and can finally see peace in his future. But when an old colleague shows up to turn his world upside down, it’s all Dean can do to keep love, hope, and Emma from slipping away. All seems lost until Emma finds herself in danger and Dean is given a chance to be a hero…if he can reach her in time.

Love will give her courage to find her voice and follow her heart…

A Father's Gift (San Antonio Series, Book Two)

 

PAULA PECKHAM

Stats for my copy: Pdf review copy, Elk Lake Publishing Inc., 2022.

How acquired: Cozy Mystery Review Crew.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: This second book in the San Antonio series picks up some time after Manny and Abby marry and settle down in Manny’s house together. Abby is about seven months pregnant and they are eagerly anticipating becoming new parents but are both experiencing anguish and fear as well. Abby is constantly sick, long past the time when morning sickness should have passed, which keeps her worried as she tries to go about her usual chores. Manny is feverishly working long days, trying to get everything done around their home and farm prior to the baby’s birth. In the midst of his usual chores, he decides to add on a bathing room to their cabin, so Abby won’t have to go outside in the cold winter weather, and can have a tub.

While the story is both Abby’s and Manny’s, I felt it leaned more towards Manny. Abby’s fear of giving birth and her worry over her constant sickness are quite valid, but Manny’s story just tugged at my heart a little more I guess. He’s filled with self-doubt regarding his ability to be a good father, worried that he’ll be like his own father, who was shot to death over a gambling table when Manny was very young. He becomes more and more obsessed with learning the circumstances around his father’s death, where it happened, and where was his body buried? It’s a quest that exposes secrets and lies, and causes him to cross paths with a dangerous man.

Gabe is an older gentleman passing through town, who helps Manny one day when he’s trying to take home a load of firewood. The two hit it off, and not long after he offers Gabe room (well, barn) and board in exchange for Gabe’s help with building the new room. Gabe is a mystery. Abby isn’t pleased to have a stranger living on their farm, foisted on her with no warning, but a deep friendship soon develops. Still, she wants to know what Gabe is hiding, and the answer to that came as quite a surprise and not what I was expecting.

One of my favorites parts of the book is Manny trying to learn everything he can about babies, without asking Abby any questions, as he doesn’t want her to think he is incapable of being a good parent. When he inadvertently overhears a conversation between a couple of women, he is delighted to realize that women talk about pregnancy and babies and child birth a lot, and he begins skulking around, eavesdropping wherever he can. This led to a hilarious scene when he’s telling his best friend, Jonathan, about a conversation wherein “Martha told Juanita her daughter, Jessie, had her bloody show.” The two men are appalled and disgusted over the thought of having to see a bloody show, and as they speculated about what it entailed I was laughing out loud.

This shorter story is a nice follow up to PROTECTED, and while it wasn’t quite as enthralling as the first book, I did enjoy revisiting Abby and Manny starting out their married life. I’m very much looking forward to the third book, about Jonathan, who we got to know in the first book.

*received via Cozy Mystery Review Crew and voluntarily reviewed*

Goodreads Synopsis: Abby and Manny Blair anticipate the birth of their first child. Nausea plagues Abby every morning, and fears keep her awake at night. Orphaned at age eighteen, she prays daily for a safe delivery and a future with her child.

Manny yearns for guidance from his own father. Good news can't be shared with a man who'se been dead since Manny was only five years old. His grandmother, Yaideli, raised him, doing her best to stand in the gap. She taught him how to become an upstanding, caring man.

But the impending responsibility of fatherhood looms over Manny like a storm cloud. He fears he will fail his young family. The desire to know what happened, to understand why his father left him behind, overwhelms Manny. Christmas and the baby's birth draws near. He sets out on an adventure of discovery and finds something completely unexpected. Abby and Manny receive a precious gift--learning about the love and sacrifice only a father can give.

Protected (San Antonio Series, Book One)

 

PAULA PECKHAM

Stats for my copy: Pdf review copy (Kindle edition was published 4/9/22).

How acquired: Cozy Mystery Review Crew

First line: Abigail Walker stood beside the fresh grave.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: One of my favorite historical fiction plots is a wagon train headed west in search of a better life. There are always obstacles to overcome, and the travelers are forced to live together and work together to make the journey a success. When I read the synopsis for PROTECTED, it sounded right up my wagon track! What could be a more daunting obstacle than for all the adults to become ill and perish and the orphaned children having to finish the journey to on their own?

Abby, the oldest of the kids at eighteen, finds herself in the unwanted position of leader, with the younger kids looking to her for guidance. After a frightening incident with a couple of trappers they cross paths with, the older of the other children convince her to disguise herself as a boy. She is resistant at first, but then she begins to realize how much easier life is, how much more freedom you have, when you are dressed in pants instead of skirts. I’m with ya, Abby! I haven’t worn a dress or skirt in probably twenty years, since I began working in an office where jeans were acceptable attire.

Manny and Jonathan are also headed to San Antonio, where they both live, and are eager to get home. I forget now where they were coming from. Anyway, they come across the little wagon train while the kids are desperately searching for Sarah, who had been snatched and carried off by one of those trappers. They help the kids out, rescue Sarah, and then decide to travel with the kids the rest of the way, because of course they are good men and can’t just leave the kids to fend for themselves.

In the first few chapters I felt the writing was a bit simplistic, and knowing it was a debut book, I was thinking the story was good and the author showed promise. But at some point, my thinking changed, and it was more like the author just didn’t feel the need to throw in a lot of description, a lot of unnecessary words that did not help move the story along. And the story definitely moved along. Looking back, I feel like it moved at a pretty brisk pace, because I was so caught up in the story I didn’t want to put it down when my break was over and it was time to get back to work.

I loved Abby, and all the kids. It was a little hard to keep up with the kids, especially the younger ones, such as their ages and which ones were siblings. But since this was Abby’s and Manny's story, it didn’t bother me. Abby showed a lot of strength and perseverance. I also loved Manny, and the friendship that developed between him and “Abner”. Manny’s backstory was heartbreaking.

Once they arrive in San Antonio, the townspeople welcome the travelers, taking in the kids who have no family waiting for them. Abby herself is taken in by Manny’s grandmother, another character I loved. Of course, the secret finally comes out, and Manny feels angry and betrayed to learn that his friendship with “Abner” was based on a lie. Another obstacle for them to overcome. Meanwhile, Abby is able to claim a plot of land, and with lots of determination throws herself into fixing up her homestead.

I will point out that this is a Christian romance, and the characters’ faith, or lack of faith, plays a large part in the story. I’ve found that some Christian romances are light on the religion aspect. I’m fine with a story either way, light or heavy, but I know some readers prefer the lighter, or that the religious aspect stay mostly in the background.

All in all, I very much enjoyed this book. The characters are wonderfully written. I lean more towards character driven stories over plot driven, and here I felt like I got both. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more from this author.

*I received a free copy of this book via The Cozy Mystery Review Crew and have voluntarily reviewed it*

Goodreads Synopsis: Disaster strikes a wagon train en route to Texas, leaving 18-year-old Abby in charge of the survivors, all children younger than her. After an attempted kidnapping, the others convince her to disguise herself as a boy. Initially reluctant, Abby soon realizes life on the trail is much easier without bulky skirts. The disguise allows her to do things as "Abner" she couldn't do as Abby. It's intoxicating.

Disfigured by fire as a child, Manny, a young cowboy, is lonely and yearns for companionship. His scars and the judgment of townspeople make it difficult for him to trust others. He intercepts the wagon train and agrees to help the children finish the trip to San Antonio. A new friendship cracks the protective walls built around his heart. Hope blooms when he meets "Abner," and Manny's fear of rejection slowly dissolves.

As the weeks on the trail go by, Abby develops romantic feelings for Manny, and he values his first new friendship in years. When Manny discovers her deception, it destroys the fragile bond of friendship growing between them.

Can God help the two young lovers find trust, faith, and forgiveness on the hot Texas plain?

The Secrets of Emberwild

 

STEPHENIA H. MCGEE

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Revell, 2022.

How acquired: Revell Reads Blogger Program

First line: Freedom rushed through Nora Fenton’s veins, erupting with each breath.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: My first time reading this author and I very much enjoyed her writing. When I was young – a teenager – I was very into thoroughbred horse racing, but never learned as much about harness racing, which is partly why I was interested in reading this book. The details the author provided about the training process – or at least, Nora’s training process, were fascinating. In her Author Note at the back of the book, Ms. McGee mentions she has always loved horses and has an equine science degree, and it definitely shows.

The characterization was also wonderfully done. I loved both Nora and Silas, and hated Nora’s uncle Amos. Nora is strong willed, and chafes at the restrictions placed on women (the story is set in 1905). She has no desire to marry without love, and is more at home in the barn with the horses than in the house cooking and cleaning. Her father had been ill for some time, and after he passed away Nora and her mother learn from their uncle that the solicitor has shown him the will, and Nora’s father left the farm to Amos. And he is making plans to find a suitor for Nora and marry her off. And I have to tell you, as much as I loved the book, it also made me so angry at how little control women had over their own lives in those days. Maybe because of everything going on in our world now, with women’s rights being trampled on so severely, I’m more sensitive to the issue than I used to be. I’ve read other historical books, and I’ve read about women being ruled by men, but it’s never elicited this anger in me before. Although maybe that is because the author chronicles Nora’s life and her feelings so well, and with such detail.

And then there’s Silas. He finds Nora a bit fascinating, and unlike the other hired hands, has no animosity towards Nora for wanting to participate in her beloved horse’s training and acting like she’s the boss. He admires her, her abilities, her bond with the horse, Arrow, and how much progress she makes with Arrow, who won’t perform for anyone else. Although Arrow does accept Silas fairly quickly, because, like Nora, he has an innate ability to understand horses.

A beautifully written story that kept me completely captivated from start to finish. I definitely need to read more from this author.

*I received a free copy of this book via the publisher and have voluntarily reviewed it*

Goodreads Synopsis: A gifted trainer in a time women are not allowed to race, Nora Fenton prefers horses to men. They're easier to handle, they're more reliable, and they never tell her what to do. After her father's passing, Nora is determined to save her struggling horse farm, starting with entering her prize colt into the harness races at the 1905 Mississippi Fair. If she wins, she may have a chance at independence. But when a stranger arrives and starts asking disconcerting questions, she suspects he may have other motives than unseating her in the training job that is rightfully hers.

Silas Cavallero will do whatever it takes to solve the mystery of his father's death--even if it means training an unwieldy colt for Nora, who wants nothing more than to see him gone. But when mysterious accidents threaten their safety and circumstances shrouded in secrets begin unlocking clues to his past, Silas will have to decide if the truth is worth risking ruining everything for the feisty woman he's come to admire.

Where the Road Bends

 

RACHEL FORDHAM

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, published 2022 by Revell.

How acquired: From Revell Reads Blogger Program.

First line: The small band on her ring finger glistened in the sunlight as Norah King walked the family land she had nearly lost.

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I’ve read all but one of Ms. Fordham’s books as they were published. Her first book, THE HOPE OF AZURE SPRINGS, remained my favorite. Until now. I believe WHERE THE ROAD BENDS is my new favorite.

Quincy and Norah are both lost souls, though Quincy much more so. Norah has been struggling to hold onto the family land since her father passed away, and in a last ditch effort to keep the bank from taking it, she is engaged to marry a man she doesn’t love but who has promised to work her land and get the farm back into shape. With no living family, the land Norah grew up on represents home and stability for her, and she is desperate not to lose it.

Quincy has been on his own since he was a young teen, barely supporting himself as a back alley street fighter. Their paths cross when Norah finds him on her farm, beaten and unconscious, and drags him to her home where she nurses him back to health and encourages him to make a better life for himself.

Two years later, Norah’s and Quincy’s lives have both changed dramatically. While neither knows the fate of the other, neither has ever forgotten the other. But Quincy has been carrying around guilt over a secret he kept from Norah, and he sets out to find her again and make things right.

I loved Quincy so much, but at the same time I had mixed feelings about that secret of his and what he did. But he has a good heart, and even the best of us are flawed, and he wanted to set things straight. I also loved Norah. Strong and independent, but living in a time when those values were not traditionally valued in a woman, and circumstances could be hard to rise above. Ms. Fordham’s writing just flows across the page, and even the supporting characters are individual and well written.

A beautifully written story of redemption, of finding one’s place, of letting go of the past and making a better future.

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher and have voluntarily reviewed it*

Synopsis from Goodreads: As Norah King surveys her family land in Iowa in 1880, she is acutely aware that it is all she has left, and she will do everything in her power to save it--even if that means marrying a man she hardly knows. Days before her wedding, Norah discovers an injured man on her property. Her sense of duty compels her to take him in and nurse him back to health. Little does she realize just how much this act of kindness will complicate her life and threaten the future she's planned.

Norah's care does more than aid Quincy Barnes's recovery--it awakens his heart to possibilities. Penniless and homeless, he knows the most honorable thing he can do is head on down the road and leave Norah to marry her intended. But walking away from the first person to believe in him proves much harder than he imagined. 

Rachel Fordham invites you to experience the strength and beauty of love forged in the crucible of hardship in this heartwarming story.

A Cowboy for Keeps (Colorado Cowboys, Book One)

 

JODI HEDLUND

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Bethany House, 2021.

How acquired: Bought.

First line: “Stop or we’ll shoot!”

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: I’ve read two books by Jodi Hedlund previously, COME BACK TO ME and NEVER LEAVE ME, both from her Waters of Time series, both featuring time travel, and both of which I loved. So I went searching her back log to see if she had any other time travel stories, but alas, no. However, her Colorado Cowboys series caught my eye, and since I love cowboys as much as I do time travel, I bought this one, the first book. And I think I loved it even more than the other two books.

Set in 1862, Greta and her young half-sister have been orphaned, and rely on other family members to support them. Nine year old Astrid has consumption, and Greta feels she and Astrid are a burden to her sisters-in-law, who get angry and irritated when Astrid can’t stop coughing. Rescue comes in the form of a man in Colorado, who pays the way for Greta and Astrid to travel to Fairplay, Colorado, where Greta will be his mail order bride. But things don’t go as planned. The stagecoach is robbed and she loses all of her savings, and then learns that her fiance has died, leaving her stranded in Fairplay, homeless and penniless. But the mayor has a plan. He wants to make the town more family friendly so his wife will finally be willing to join him with their child. Wyatt McQuaid needs a loan to buy cattle. So he makes a deal with Wyatt. He’ll loan him the money, if Wyatt marries Greta and starts a family.

I adored Wyatt. He’s struggling to get his fledgling ranch up and running. He wants to get to a position where he can send for his ma and his siblings to come live with him, to get them away from his cruel stepfather. He’s tried various other ventures since leaving home, and they have failed. He’s filled with guilt for not being able to protect and provide for his family. His self-esteem is low, he feels like he is a failure at everything. A wife is the last thing he needs or wants right now, but he desperately needs some good cattle. Fairplay is a mining town, and he buys cattle off the new miners when they arrive, whenever he can, but those cows are all skinny and run down, and he’s struggling to come up with money even for them. On top of all that, he has an enemy, a neighboring rancher determined to run Wyatt out of town, because he wants Wyatt’s land. He feels a little bit of guilt for not telling Greta about the deal he made with Steele, but he doesn’t know how to bring it up. She thinks he’s marrying her to be chivalrous and keep her from being homeless, because of his close friendship with her late fiance.

I loved Greta also. She’s strong and determined. She agreed to be a mail order bride and come to Colorado not just to get away from the family who didn’t want her around, but also because she hoped the climate in Colorado would be good for Astrid’s health. She intends to be a good wife and make herself useful in Wyatt’s home, and she’s surprised when he gives her and Astrid the bedroom and he sleeps in the barn. But he doesn’t want to push her into a marital relationship, and tells her he’ll wait three months, and then if she wants to leave, she can. And she agrees to that, because if Astrid’s health is not improved in those three months, she intends to take her to a hospital in Denver, even though she has no idea how she’ll pay her care.

I like the author’s writing, and her descriptions of both the beauty and the desolation of the land is evocative. I had a little trouble connecting with young Astrid at first. She’s very precocious, and if we hadn’t been told early on that she is nine years old I would’ve thought she were eleven or twelve. But eventually she won me over, just like she wins over almost everyone she meets.

But it’s the slow build up of the friendship between Wyatt and Greta that is the heart of the story. As they get to know each other, they come to admire and respect each other, and of course to eventually love each other. They respect each other so much, in fact, that it gets in the way of the relationship growing. Sometimes I wanted to say talk to each other! Share your thoughts and feelings! Don’t let each other go!

Towards the end there’s an unexpected revelation that nearly ruined everything for both of them, but of course it all comes out right in the end, and I can’t wait to find the next book in the series.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Greta Nilsson's trip west to save her ailing little sister, Astrid, could not have gone more wrong. First, bandits hold up her stagecoach, stealing all her money. Then, upon arriving in Fairplay, Colorado, she learns the man she was betrothed to as a mail-order bride has died. Homeless, penniless, and jobless, Greta and her sister are worse off than when they started.

Wyatt McQuaid is struggling to get his new ranch up and running and is in town to purchase cattle when the mayor proposes the most unlikely of bargains. He'll invest in a herd of cattle for Wyatt's ranch if Wyatt agrees to help the town become more respectable by marrying and starting a family with Greta. But when old insecurities and surprising revolutions arise, can a union born out of desperation survive?

The Marshal'sMission

 

ANNA ZOGG

Stats for my copy: Mass market paperback, Love Inspired Historical, 2017.

How acquired: Received from a BookCrossing member.

First lines: Who is that?

(For Goodreads synopsis, scroll down.)

My thoughts: My first time reading Anna Zogg, and I very much enjoyed this book. Lenora is a widow, struggling to keep her ranch going with just her ten-year-old son, Toby, to help her. Cole is a US Marshal, undercover and investigating a gang of outlaws who robbed a bank, killing two people in the process. A gang that included Lenora’s deceased husband.

The romance played out very, very slowly, which I liked, as it was also very realistic. Cole and Lenora have secrets they keep from each other. Cole’s secret didn’t bother me, he’s undercover law enforcement, so of course he has to keep his true identity a secret. Lenora’s secret worried me. Before he died, Amos gave her a satchel full of money, and not wanting to use any of it, Lenora buried it in his grave. Was that the right thing to do? Maybe, maybe not. But Cole of course is looking for that money, and both I and Lenora worried about his reaction when he learned she’d kept that secret from him.

I loved Cole and Lenora, and young Toby, who was fiercely protective of his mother. The relationship that built up between Cole and Toby was heartwarming. And of course I hated the villain, Jeb, who keeps coming around, harassing Lenora, and telling her he’s going to marry her. He, too, is looking for that money, and some of the scenes with him were tense indeed.

And then towards the end, the tension really ramped up, and even though I knew it would have a happy ending – it’s a category romance, after all – I was still on the edge of my seat and totally engrossed way past my bedtime.

Also, I love the cover.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Hiding his true identity is the only way for US Marshal Jesse Cole to bring bank robbers to justice. But the lovely widow whose Wyoming ranch he stumbles onto reminds him of everything he's sacrificed for the law. When his job is done, he's resolved to leave Lenora Pritchard behind--until she and her son are threatened. Now the only way to protect them is to make her his wife.

To conceal her late husband's guilt, Lenora hid his stolen haul. And with a ruthless gang leader determined to retrieve it, she needs Cole's protection for herself and her son. It's a marriage in name only, founded on dangerous secrets...but could it possibly lead to a true and loving family?

Come Back to Me (Waters of Time, Book One)

 

JODY HEDLUND

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Revell, June 2021.

How acquired: Revell Reads Blogger Program, for review.

First lines: “Your father is in a coma.”

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: It took me a good 70 pages to really get into this book. Marian is a research scientist, who rushes to England upon learning her father is in the hospital in a coma. Her father is also a scientist and has been on a quest to find holy healing water from the mythical Tree of Life, in hopes of curing Marian’s sister of a genetic disease. Those first 70 or so pages contain a lot of dialogue, mostly between Marian and her father’s colleague, about her father’s research and the science behind it. Then things start happening – her father’s home is vandalized, Marian is attacked in the street in broad daylight – and she begins to realize her father has apparently stumbled upon something real, and a rival lab will do anything to get a hold of it. And that’s when I began to get interested. As Marian’s life seemed to be in danger, I began to suspect everyone around her, including her father’s colleague, of being a spy for the rival lab. I did not, however, suspect the person who in the end turned out to be the spy!

Then the time travel element began, and I was quickly completely enthralled. Once Marian is in the past, in 1381, her first few days are brutal, as she finds herself imprisoned in a convent. Yes, you read that right. You’d think a convent would be a safe place, but Marian probably still has the scars to prove it is not. Fortunately, Will, a knight in not-so-shining-armor, comes to the rescue. After a harrowing night during a peasant uprising, Marian finds herself married to Will and ensconced in his home.

There is definitely no romanticizing the Middle Ages here, but Marian seems to adjust extremely well to life without electricity, toilets, running water, etc. There’s occasionally a mention of how she missed having a bathroom in the house, and how hot the clothing of the time is, but the author does not really address the culture shock aspect, which is one of my favorite parts of time travel stories. And yet, I found myself not really caring about that as the slowly building relationship between Marian and Will kept me so entranced.

I hadn’t read anything by Ms. Hedlund prior to this book, but I loved her writing. The POV switches between Marian and Will, and her characterization was wonderfully done, especially on Will’s side as we learn more about his life and the emotional burden he is carrying. He is often bewildered by Marian and how outspoken and headstrong she is, unlike his deceased wife and other women of his time.

As the time approaches for Marian to return to her life in the present, her existence in two times begins to take a toll on her, and she is torn between the past and the present. I was gripped with a sense of helplessness, as I didn’t see how this story could possibly have a happy ending, and I desperately wanted Marian and Will to be together forever.

Romance and adventure, with a bit of suspense thrown in at the end – it all boils down to a fantastic read.

Goodreads synopsis: The ultimate cure that could heal any disease? Crazy.

That's exactly what research scientist Marian Creighton has always believed about her father's quest, even if it does stem from a desire to save her sister Ellen from the genetic disease that stole their mother from them. But when her father falls into a coma after drinking a vial of holy water believed to contain traces of residue from the Tree of Life, Marian must question all of her assumptions. He's left behind tantalizing clues that suggest he's crossed back in time. Insane. Until Marian tests his theories and finds herself in the Middle Ages during a dangerous peasant uprising.

William Durham, a valiant knight comes to Marian's rescue and offers her protection. . . as his wife. The longer Marian stays in the past, the more she cares about William. Can she ever find her father and make it back to the present to heal her sister? And when the time comes to leave, will she want to?

Bestselling author Jody Hedlund is your guide down the twisting waters of time to a volatile era of superstition, revolts, and chivalry in this suspenseful story.