A Dance Through Time by Lynn Kurland

Book Description:
James MacLeod was the most respected - and feared - laird in all of Scotland...  Unpublished romance novelist, Elizabeth Smith, knew she was overworked when she began hearing voices.... To clear her mind, she took a walk in Gramercy Park. She dozed off on a bench - and woke up in a lush forest in fourteenth-century Scotland.  A forest surrounding the castle of James MacLeod...  

Quickie Review:

My first book by this author and I really loved this time travel romance. Twentieth century young woman who happens to be a romance author from NYC accidentally travels to medieval Scotland and meets the fierce laird of the MacLeod clan who immediately thinks she's a witch and throws her into his pit of a dungeon.  Feeling guilty, he frees her and then tries to make it up to her and they fall in love and you can guess the rest.  It was actually a really good book and I devoured it!

This is one of the time travel stories in which the modern heroine, Elizabeth, must deal with the dirt and grime, bad teeth and foul breath of just about every Scottish Highlander she meets - except for the hero, of course! *grin*  I was glad Elizabeth figured out pretty quickly what had happened to her when she traveled back in time.  She handled it pretty well.  I loved the way she meets James MacLeod, the laird.  His reaction thinking she's a witch is realistic, frankly, and his first inclination is to have her burned.  But, instead he throws her in this horrible dungeon, it was disgusting and naturally, she is totally traumatized by the experience.  He finally lets her out after feeling so sorry for her and does all he can to then help her.  They gradually fall in love, and of course, there is a villain who's trying to mess things up for everyone.

As the story progresses, James and Elizabeth marry and she has come to terms with the fact she won't ever see NYC again, but she remembers something about what she read about the MacLeod Clan.  At one point she saves James' life after a fierce battle with a neighboring clan.  Only he should have died at that battle.  She realizes she has changed the future so that she and James are going to have to travel ahead in time so that the future is not screwed up.  So, they go forward and James at first is blown away by everything, but he gets used to it pretty quickly and he meets her brothers and parents and it's all one big happy family, until they have to go back again to kill this awful villain!  It's complicated, but it was really good, and there are something like 13 more books in this series! 

All I can say is Elizabeth was endearing, I really liked her and her reaction to things, though she did tend to be annoying at times.  James was, to me, sort of a realistic highlander, what you'd expect from those days.  It took some getting used to for him to accept Elizabeth's ways (primarily, about cleaning up his disgusting castle!)  The side characters were good too, his illegitimate son and the young girl he falls for.  Elizabeth's brothers all get their stories too.  I even enjoyed the way her father reacted to James as well - it was all so good!

I highly recommend this classic time travel story, a real keeper and it's "clean", with some allusions to sex, but nothing blatant, so it's appropriate for young teens, who I'm sure will eat it up!!

4/5

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