The Legend MacKinnon by Donna Kauffman

Book Description:
Three centuries ago in Scotland a curse was born of the long-standing feud between the Claren and the MacKinnon clans. Now, generations later, destiny has decreed that three women, the last of the Claren line, be granted one final chance to set things right. — Maggie, Cailean, and Delaney Claren are three cousins who grow up unaware of one another-until an inheritance brings them together. Now mysterious journals and the deed to an ancient Scottish castle will bring them face-to-face with the warriors at the heart of the MacKinnon family, three brothers sentenced to cruel fates by a terrible curse.

Duncan is trapped in the form of a ghost, Rory must live an immortal life alone, and Alexander has been wrenched by time from the past to the present, with no way back. Ferociously compelling, dangerously relentless, they are bound by no mortal laws-except desire for the three Claren women. The journals speak of one key that can break the powerful spell. And finding that key will plunge them all into a world of unforeseeable danger and tantalizing desire...

I thought this sounded interesting and something I'd really like, but it turned out to be just a so-so time travel story set in contemporary Scotland.  Three cursed brothers from 300 years earlier meet the descendants of their clan's enemies: three women who are cousins, though they have never met.  Eventually the cousins all come together due to an inheritance they've been notified about.  All meet their match (and mate) in each brother while trying to figure out how to end this blasted curse.  This took me forever to get through, it just didn't pull me in or keep me interested.  It wasn't bad, but nothing compelling in it for me, when it should have been. 

The book is broken down into three parts.  We begin with the first cousin, a young woman who is fleeing from her ex-boyfriend who is now stalking her and trying to kill her.  This story has the most background and detail to it.  Maggie has just received communication about a ramshackle cabin she has inherited from some long lost relative in the back woods of Kentucky or Tennessee, maybe North Carolina (I can't remember) who has left it to her in his will.  This is her chance to get away from her crazy ex-boyfriend who'll never find her now.  When she arrives at the cabin she meets Duncan MacKinnon.  He is a ghost, but he doesn't seem like a ghost, he's very real and solid, and very much a Scottish Highlander in full regalia.  Neither one likes the other, but they form a truce of sorts and eventually develop feelings for one another.  Duncan pops in and out at will, he's gruff and doesn't trust Maggie because she's a Claren.  The Clarens are his worst enemies, never mind the feud was from 300 years ago.  Still, he had one very bad experience thanks to a Claren woman and because of it, Duncan is in a sort of after life "purgatory", cursed from long ago.  He is allowed to be human and live on earth once a year for a month - in the cabin.  Duncan is always angry, primarily because of this curse hanging over his head.  Can Maggie somehow help lift the curse?  Their relationship was only skin deep, not much to it and I felt like Maggie should have been a bit more freaked out over the fact that Duncan was really a ghost.  She just sort of seemed to take it in stride.  She didn't seem all that upset when her ex showed up and nearly killed her before Duncan killed him for her instead - blood spattering all over her to boot!  Again, she held it together pretty well...  An odd sort of love story between them.

Part two of the book is the story between Cailean and Rory.  Cailean has sought out Maggie for help with this inheritance and family curse.  Cailean has "the sight" and is aware of the curse and the history of the two feuding clans.  By the time Maggie and Cailean meet, Maggie has already fallen in love with Duncan and doesn't want to leave him, refusing to join Cailean in Scotland.  Her time is short with Duncan, their time together is running out.  Maggie goes off to Scotland on her own to where their clans lived three hundred years earlier.  There she meets Duncan's younger brother Rory.  His curse is that he is immortal.  He is sort of a mysterious legend, known as a sheepherder.  As it turns out he's been living in the MacKinnon Castle all this time, it has been hidden underground and no one has ever discovered it (this called for a big stretch of the imagination - but let's face it, this whole story did!)  Soon Cailean and Rory have a torrid affair and can't keep their hands off one another, they seemed to have the most chemistry together and passion of the three couples, but still, nothing all that compelling, I just didn't care about them - or any of these people for that matter.  Still, I kept with it...

Next, along comes Delaney, who was some sort of covert operative for the government - until recently.  She's cute and feisty - just what the third brother, Alexander needs.  Alexander has time traveled from the past and has had no way to get back.  All three of the brothers have been unaware of what has happened to the other and by the time we get to Alexander and Delaney's story, Alexander, who is the eldest and laird of the family just bothered me more than anything else.  I didn't even like him!  By this point Maggie and Duncan have joined up with the others in Scotland and the brothers are reunited which was an emotional moment.  Yet Alexander wants them to go back in time with him to finish off the Clarens and regain their castle.  Never mind that Alexander has no idea how he can achieve this!  Meanwhile, he's been stockpiling guns and all kinds of weapons in the underground castle (amazing that he and Rory have never bumped into each other in over seven years!) so he can take them back to medieval Scotland and wipe out all the Clarens!  Duncan and Rory can't join him, nor do they want to.  The curse prevents them from it and they've fallen in love with their respective Claren cousin!  There's no way they're going to go back in time and wipe out their ancestors!  Plus, Alexander's plan is pretty far-fetched.  They manage to talk him out of it.  Alexander took the longest to come around to falling for Delaney who basically launched herself at him.  I didn't identify with either one for their characters were so undeveloped.  I barely knew them.  I felt like Delaney and Alexander got short shrift in this book, so much time was devoted to Maggie and Duncan, a little less with Cailean and Rory, and by the time Delaney and Alexander have their turn, it's in record time and only a few pages devoted to them!  But, they fall for each other eventually, as I knew they would.

Once the three brothers all admitted their love to their respective Claren woman - and said it aloud - voila!  Guess what happens?

I can't exactly pinpoint what went wrong with this book, it should have been so much better.  This is the second book I've read by Ms. Kauffman, and I'm afraid it's my last.  Her last one was only lukewarm as well.  I guess it was just simply dull in parts and there was a real lack of passion or emotion - not much action either (except when Duncan killed Maggie's boyfriend).  Too much talking and searching for this key that no one could find.  Lots of hand wringing by everyone, though I did feel sorry for Maggie and Duncan who had to say good bye to each other once Duncan's time was up after his month with her.  That was about the most emotion I sensed throughout the entire book!  The weak characterizations and lacklustre sex scenes didn't help.  Overall, a disappointing read for my last Time Travel Challenge book for 2010. 

3/5

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Replay by Ken Grimwood (audio)

Book Description:
Jeff Winston, forty-three, didn't know he was a replayer until he died and woke up twenty-five years younger in his college dorm room; he lived another life. And died again. And lived again and died again - in a continuous twenty-five-year cycle - each time starting from scratch at the age of eighteen to reclaim lost loves, remedy past mistakes, or make a fortune in the stock market. A novel of gripping adventure, romance, and fascinating speculation on the nature of time, Replay asks the question: "What if you could live your life over again?"

I really loved this audiobook, I was completely swept up in the story, though I didn't speed through it.  I savored it.  At times, I stopped listening for a while (X-mas holidays had me sidetracked), but when I returned to it, I was always glad to get back into the story of Jeff Winston and what he was going to do in his "current" life - for he has several.

Jeff is a 'replayer' a term he coins for this odd phenomenon that happens to him.  Dying from a sudden heart attack at his office while in his mid-40's in the late 1980's, Jeff doesn't die.  He inexplicably finds himself back in his old dorm room at Emory in Atlanta, early 1960's - he's 18 years old again.  Everything is just as it had been, same roommate, same girlfriend, same car, same everything.  Yet, he is not the same 18 year old.  This 18 year old remember what happens in life as the future unfolds.  He takes advantage of it, and bets everything on the Kentucky Derby - and wins.  He goes to Vegas and bets on something else - and wins.  He easily makes a fortune betting on sure things.  He tries to prevent the Kennedy assassination - but as it turns out, it wasn't just Lee Harvey Oswald - it was a conspiracy.  Jeff tries to stop Oswald, but someone else kills Kennedy instead, and Jack Ruby kills that person.  Some things Jeff can't change.   Eventually, he hooks up with a Vegas gold digger, Sharla, living the high life at age 18 - traveling and living in Paris, living in NYC, starting his own investment firm, he doesn't even bother with graduating from college - what's the point?  His life turns out completely different than his "first" life.  Successful, a millionaire, money is of no concern to Jeff now.  Married, with a daughter his life is going well.  Yet, when that fateful date comes around again, when he is 43 years old, no matter what he tries to do to prevent it's outcome, cardiologists, hospitals - he dies.  The same sudden heart attack. Where does he land? 

Atlanta.  Emory.  18 again.

And so it happens again and again.  Each life takes Jeff on a different journey.  Sometimes he tries to look up his first wife, Linda.  Another time, he marries his girlfriend from Emory.  Another time he meets another 'replayer,' Pamela, who becomes the love of his "lives."  Together they try to sort it out and find other "replayers" and figure out why this is happening to them.  They reunite a few times after they "die."  His relationship with Pamela is the one constant for him.  Yet, soon they realize that this 'replaying' is not going to go on indefinitely, there is an end eventually.  When they reach that point, the book is both fulfilling and bittersweet.

Does this sound bewildering?  Does it make your head hurt just trying to think about it?  Trust me, it's told so well, it's believable, it's poignant - stimulating.  I loved this book!  What a little gem I stumbled upon!  I identified with Jeff, felt his frustration and yet was enthralled by the way he lived each life - and how different they all were.  This is not another version of "Groundhog Day", it's much better, richer, detailed and "deeper."

If you like time travel or these kinds of stories, give it a try.  The setting for the most part was in the 1960's, one of my favorites.  A worthwhile read and the reader, William Dufris, who narrated this was wonderful as a Southern Jeff, with a bit of a Southern accent.  His girlfriends' voices (most of them Southern - with an irresistible lilt to them) were good too - I really enjoyed the whole thing, I was sorry when it ended!

Read this book - or listen to it, a real keeper!

4.5/5

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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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Pirates by Linda Lael Miller

Book Description:
A thoroughly modern woman encounters a dangerous, dashing eighteenth-century buccaneer is a sensuous, joyous, utterly heartwarming tale of love....

Phoebe Turlow needs to get out of Seattle and forget about the man she just divorced, her dwindling finances, and the lonely nights that stretch ahead of her. But she can't foresee what awaits her on Paradise lsland....

Duncan Rourke is known to historians as "the pirate patriot." He's been dead for two centuries -- or at least he's supposed to be, until Phoebe Turlow steps out of a van, into a run-down island hotel, and into his world.

Neither Phoebe nor her pirate can envision the glorious venture that is about to unfold. They understand only that they have found each other, and a grand passion across the chasm of time...and they fear only the moment when it may vanish. Passionate, emotional, and completely entrancing, Pirates will steal your heart.

I had high hopes for this time travel book that I've had on my TBR list for ages. It sounded good to me, but as I began to read it, I kept scratching my head and thinking to myself why does this storyline sound so familiar? Was it the hero's scarred back from a flogging by a sadistic English officer? Or maybe it was because a 20th century woman goes back 200 years in time only to find love and romance and then returns to her present time, pregnant with her 18th century husband's child - but then rejoins him again two hundred years earlier? Sound familiar to any of you Outlander fans? Sheesh!

As much as there were some Outlandish similarities, this book was not at all like Jamie and Claire's story. Phoebe is an unemployed divorcée who is down on her luck. She takes a trip to the Caribbean, all expenses paid, as long as she sits through the interminable time share pitch that the hotel makes as a prerequisite. While conveniently dressed for the fancy Saturday night masquerade party as a serving wench from the eighteenth century, she pushes the wrong button on the elevator and finds herself back in the Caribbean, only it's now 1781 and the Revolutionary War is going full tilt in America and she comes face to face with Duncan Roarke, the owner of the hidden Caribbean mansion where she finds herself. The mansion is his pirate lair, only he doesn't seem much like a pirate at all. He's more of a patriot for the American cause, although the rest of his family are all Loyalists.

Duncan is surprised at who Phoebe is, but believes her time traveling story, thanks to the help of his servant Old Woman, who is a wise native islander that teaches Phoebe the ways of the eighteenth century. She seems to have some sort of psychic power and has been waiting for Phoebe to arrive. She informs Phoebe that she will marry Roarke and bear him children. Well, that took care of any surprise for the rest of the book. Ho hum - bo-ring! Phoebe takes it all in (eventually) and falls madly in love with Duncan, even though he's gone off sailing for weeks and has left her behind on the island. While he's gone, she thinks of him constantly. Who wouldn't? He's handsome, dashing, plays the piano and looks like a pirate! Then, at one point, Phoebe leaves Paradise Island and goes off on her own because Old Woman told her to. She meets the same sadistic British officer that flogged Duncan and a whole other subplot enters into the story. She works as a serving wench in a tavern and bides her time until Duncan comes and finds her.

What got me was, what did Duncan see in Phoebe and why did he want to even find her? I found her annoying and often stupid, particularly when she keeps on wanting to befriend Duncan's former island mistress! Plus I can't stand romances in which the heroine falls in love immediately and the hero and heroine have sex before page 50. Now, I was reading this on kindle, so I don't know what page it was, but it seemed too damned early, and I did not understand the attraction Duncan had for Phoebe. In fact, so much about this whole plot line was trite and clichéd, I could barely get through it!

One interesting short lived part of the book was when Duncan went forward in time with Phoebe for a while, but then he inadvertently leaps back in time again without being able to let Phoebe know or say good bye to her. She figures it out soon enough, but what I didn't understand is why she just moped around pining for him. Why didn't she go to the elevator again and again every night and try to leap back to him again? It took her ages to figure it out! I did like their reunion, which was full of battle scenes and excitement. Although there was some sailing in ships that took place in the boat, the title Pirates is sadly misleading. This book is not in the least bit about pirates, don't get your hopes up. It's about an American patriot posing as a pirate to attack British ships for the Americans.

Meanwhile, the side stories involve the dilemma of Duncan's family being Loyalist, yet wanting to protect Duncan and his Revolutionary leanings. His mother and brother and sister all wind up having to flee Charleston (where he is from) and go live with him at his Caribbean hideaway. They all accept Phoebe with alacrity, not even questioning her background as strange or her odd short hairdo! I normally love time travel stories, but I do like to have a little reality thrown in them too, even if that sounds paradoxical. For Duncan's family and friends to all be so accepting of Phoebe (who I couldn't stand) just irked me and was unrealistic! Okay, okay, so I'm a time travel snob.

If I had the chance to do it all over again, I'd pass up this book, but it was part of my Time Travel Reading Challenge list, so I stuck with it. I wish I had been warned, I'm surprised it's gotten such good reviews elsewhere. Lovers of this book must be die hard Linda Lael Miller fans or have never read Outlander. What can I say, I've been spoiled by Diana Gabaldon. This is the only book I've read of Ms. Miller and I suspect it will be the last.

2.5/5

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Green Darkness by Anya Seton

Book Description:
The year was 1968 ... the country was England. Richard Marsdon had brought his new bride, Celia, to the family home, Medfield Place. They were young and very much in love. But Richard and Celia were not only of this time. They had lived and loved before-in another world-in sixteenth-century England. And their love had been tragically doomed. Was their new love destined for the same fate?

GREEN DARKNESS - a spell-binding story of a great love caught in an evil web of mysticism and witchcraft - of a threatening past that reached across centuries to change the present.

This is the first book I've read by Anya Seton. A bestseller in the early 1970's, it comes across as a bit dated now, but it was an interesting book that covered the Tudor period of King Henry VIII's son, Edward VI, through Mary Tudor's brief reign and then into the first few years of Elizabeth I, all with a mystical reincarnation theme. Doomed lovers that died violently during Tudor times are reincarnated and reunited in 1968 only to face new challenges and unhappiness. Can a learned and wise doctor help them overcome the tragedy from their past life so that they can live in peace now?

The book starts out in "present day" of 1968. Celia and Richard Marsdon have been married for less than a year. They meet on a cruise ship and fall in love and marry quickly. She, an American heiress, he, an earl who could use an infusion of American money for his crumbling country estate. They are happy at first, but some strange things begin to happen in their marriage. Celia seems to have some unexplained blackouts while visiting an old nearby estate, and Richard becomes more and more withdrawn from her. No longer sharing a room, Celia is convinced he no longer loves her or wants her. During a country weekend party at their estate in the country all hell breaks loose when she has a sort of breakdown and comes seriously close to dying and is removed to a London hospital. An Indian, Dr. Anankanda who was a guest during the fractious weekend, thinks he can help her. He believes she has been reincarnated and was once a young woman, Celia, who lived four hundred years earlier. The book is in three parts: Part I is in 1968, Part II is four hundred years earlier, and Part III is in 1968 again.

Once the good doctor begins his hypnosis/mystical therapy on Celia the story shifts to Tudor times and we meet the young Celia, who is an orphan of dubious, but once noble birth. Her mother worked in a tavern, but her aunt on her father's side (the noble side) takes her in and helps elevate her status. Celia is taught how to read and the learnings of the Bible under the tutelage of a young and handsome monk, Brother Stephen. The family she now lives with in the house of Sir Anthony Browne is Catholic, though they must practice in secret since Catholicism is now outlawed for it is during the reign of the young King Edward VI, a devout Protestant. Unlike today, England was either all Protestant or all Catholic, depending on who the ruler was. Despite the restrictions, Sir Anthony keeps a house priest, Stephen Marsden, who is a Benedictine monk from the a nearby family, members of the gentry. He is truly devout to his calling, but once he begins to give lessons to the young and beautiful Celia, his devotion to God is tested.

For much of the book Celia is in love with Stephen. I found her character somewhat stupid and annoying, I didn't really like her. I often found her incredibly naive or selfish. She was young and had convinced herself that Stephen loved her back, even though he was always pushing her away! She was sure that he would leave the priesthood for her. At one point, she throws herself at him, they have a passionate kiss and he comes to his senses and renounces her, he cannot love her, it goes against all he knows and believes in as a priest. She hates him for a while as she goes North with her aunt to visit the Dacres, a noble family with a son who may want to marry Celia. She becomes friends with a daughter of the Dacres, Magdalen who is nice to her amidst a lot of weird ghoulish sorts of goings on. Blood drinking crazed women and ghosts roaming about desolate castles, with the proverbial loutish son that can't wait to get his hands on the beautiful and virginal Celia...

This northern interlude is long, it mostly gives background fodder to the plot and points out the difficulties of being a Catholic family during the Dissolution and the political ins and outs under Edward's reign and then into Mary's where everyone has to be Catholic, and then under Elizabeth's where everyone has to be Protestant again! It's like watching a tennis game! Families fall and rise dependent on their religion. Heads rolled and many were imprisoned for their religions during this time. Eventually Celia, raised as a Catholic, gives up all religion and simply depends on herself. This interlude also touches on a homosexual relationship that Celia witnesses which I imagine must have been pretty daring and titillating to read about back in the early 70's when the book came out! Nowadays it would seem pretty tame.

Once Celia returns from the North, she marries an older man who eventually dies. She returns to Sir Anthony's house, who is now married to her old friend, Magdalen Dacre and under Mary Tudor's reign, the Browne's have been elevated and Sir Anthony is Master of the Horse under Queen Mary. They are very grand now and Brother Stephen has risen as well. He and Celia are reunited and sure enough, she tempts him again, and this time she succeeds where she failed last time. They have a night of passion together just before she is supposed to marry a nice young man. But, once again she's not happy with just the one night and wants Stephen forever. He cannot live with the guilt - he is a priest and she is supposed to marry another! But, she runs away and finds Stephen who is the house priest for the Allens, who live on another estate. Celia disguises herself and finds a job there as a scullery maid and eventually makes herself known to Stephen. She is pregnant from their one night together and at last he admits his love to her and they have plans to run away to France - but... but... it doesn't turn out that way! I won't give it away, but it does not end well... all I can say is Mrs. Allen is just as creepy as her counterpart in the present, Mrs. Simpson.

Back to 1968... now that we know what their past lives went through, their present day counterparts make alot more sense. Dr. Anankanda has brought Celia back to the present with a lot of mystical mumbo jumbo reincarnation stuff and he is also able to help her husband Richard/Stephen come to terms with his past lives as well. Their former lives are finally put to rest. In addition to Celia and Stephen, there are many side characters that we see in both present and the past, such as Dr. Anankanda/Julian, Celia's mother/Ursula, the Simpsons/The Allens (Mrs. Simpson/Allen is especially creepy), and the Duchess/Magdalen. They are interesting, but hardly any real character development to anyone, including the main characters of Celia and Stephen. We know what drives them, but it did feel like there was not much depth to them, the historical aspects of the book were front and center, with the plotline giving it life.

Overall, Green Darkness wasn't bad, but the 1968 plotline was a little dated and strange with it's modern tone. The switch to the earlier period was jarring. The Tudor period was well done, but I can't say I really got into the doomed love story of Celia and Stephen all that much. Although it is the central thread of the book, this is more of an historical novel, not a romance. I almost got the impression the author wanted to write about Tudor times and the role of religion and it's importance to the noble families and how it affected them under the changing monarchs but added the love story to give it more broader appeal.

I can't say I was really crazy about this book, but it was interesting and it made me think about this aspect of the Tudor times and the background history and settings and descriptions were first rate. I liked comparing the modern settings with the past settings and figuring out who was who. It gave a vivid impression of what it was like to live back then and I was compelled to read on to see what happens to the star-crossed lovers of Celia and Stephen, even though we have a pretty good idea of what happens to them in Part one, which gives a sense of doom through most of the book. You know it won't end well, though I really could care less about the modern Celia and Richard. Richard was completely unlikable in present day, I felt more sympathy for his alter ego, Brother Stephen.

If you are into Tudor historicals give this a read, particularly if you think you'd like the mystical, time travel, reincarnation aspect, I have a feeling some will love it, and some won't.

3.5/5

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The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde (audio)

Book Description:
When soon-to-be single parent Thursday Next emerges from her comfortable life inside an unpublished book, she steps into a new age of fictional narrative. The entire book world is abuzz with anticipation of an improved Text Operating System that moves from the 8-plot to the new 32-plot story system. But danger lurks when Jurisfiction agents keep turning up dead. When Thursday steps in, she encounters Dickens' Miss Havisham, passes through Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and deals with a mispeling vyrus, holesmiths, and unionized nursery rhymes.

I've been away on vacation for a week, driving back and forth from NJ to FL and got a lot of reading and audiobook listening done! We had a great time in the sun, and audiobooks make the driving a pleasure along I-95!

The Well of Lost Plots is the 3rd installment in the Thursday Next series, and I enjoyed listening to it. Elizabeth Sastre was once again the narrator and she has an endearing British accent for the 30-something Thursday. A matter of fact tone, which stands out amidst all the mayhem and craziness that surrounds her in Jurisfiction, where she is biding her time, in hiding from the Goliath Corporation and evil genius, Aornis Hades, who is screwing around with her memories by trying to make Thursday forget her eradicated husband, Landen.

Thursday, now pregnant with Landen's baby has become part of the Character Exchange Program in the unpublished book, Caversham Heights, a book that is basically too crummy to get published. She's taking over the character of Mary for a year. Her role in Caversham Heights is a sideline, for the real plotline of the book is her apprenticeship at Jurisfiction under the tutelage of Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Miss H is one of my very favorites. She steals every scene and Ms. Sastre does her voice perfectly. Jurisfiction is a kind of policing agency within the imaginary fictional world of what goes on behind how books are really written and developed. All the characters from all the books in the world, past and present, are real and alive in Jurisfiction. One of the funniest scenes in the book - if not the funniest - is when Miss Havisham must run an anger management session for the characters of Wuthering Heights. It was a real hoot. All the characters hate Heathcliff (except Cathy, of course) and Heathcliff comes across as a movie star with sunglasses and his agent in tow. Much more than this, I'm leaving a lot out, but it was great!

Another aspect of the story I found interesting as well as prophet-like was the scenario of the new operating system known as UltraWord. We learn the history of the text operating system used by Jurisfiction, beginning with OralTrad, then onto the award winning SCROLL, that was upgraded numerous times, finally leading to BOOKV1, which was used successfully with it's many upgrades for over 800 years. Now UltraWord is being unveiled as the brand new text operating system of the future to be voted on. But, it is not as great as it seems. It turns out that only three people can read a book on UltraWord (reminiscent of today's DRM ebook dilemma), thus putting an end to lending libraries and used bookstores. Plus UltraWord's descriptions really stink, it basically makes everything sound cheap and generic. Good-bye to great writing, hello slap dash, computer written, get-it-out-as-fast-as-you-can prose. It turns out that Jurisfiction agents are being killed off because they are aware of these issues and want it stopped. Thursday ingeniously foils the dastardly "powers that be" who are trying to get UltraWord passed quickly in a vote (not unlike the health bill debacle going on these days) at the BookWorld Awards (another memorably funny part of the book).

In addition to the hilarious Wuthering Heights characters, another side plotline I loved was about ibb and obb, two generics that live with Thursday in Cavisham Heights. We see how they morph into Lola and Randolph and become real characters! Plus, there is the ongoing problem of what is going to happen next (no pun intended) with Thursday. Will she have her baby in the real world, will she ever see her husband Landen again? What's in store for Thursday in Jurisficion - will she live there forever?

Stay tuned and do yourself a big favor and read this series. It's a must for anyone who is well-read and has a sense of humor for the absurd. These books weave in and out of the classics and will make you giggle over and over-this book was no exception! I didn't like it as much as the last, since Thursday, for the most part, is on hold and not in the real world - but what a world it is!

Highly recommended!

4/5

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Secrets of the Highlander by Janet Chapman

Book Description:
He is the father of her child, but the secrets they are hiding are tearing them apart....

Megan MacKeage escaped the smothering protectiveness of the Highland MacKeage clan to work as a scientist on the Canadian tundra. But when fellow researcher Wayne Ferris breaks her heart by rejecting her, Megan returns to Maine alone.... Then she meets the town's new police chief, Jack Stone--the man she knew as Wayne Ferris. Instead of the quiet scholar he posed as, he's an aggressive private eye who's willing to fight for what he wants, just like all the overbearing men in her clan. So why is Megan still feeling a dangerous attraction? And though Jack claims he followed her here because he loves her, can she ever trust a man with so many secrets?

Another winner from Janet Chapman! I pretty much read this in a day - a snowy blizzardy blustery snow day off from work. Nothing like spending the whole day in your pajamas curled up in bed reading a romance that takes place in the snow in Maine! Perfect!

This is the official last book in the Pine Creek series of time traveling highlanders from the 12th century (not including her recent Christmas book, which is coming up on my TBR list) that wind up in present-day Maine running a ski resort. One of the highlanders, Greylen MacKeage, has seven daughters - and this book is about Megan MacKeage who finds herself pregnant and single. On top of everything else, she's not sure of how she's going to handle the fact that the father of her baby basically ended it with her as soon as he found out she was pregnant while working together in the tundra of Canada. Now, lo and behold, he has shown up in her home town in Maine as the police chief with a new name and new look to him - granted, a very attractive look - but, what's he up to??

To say the least, Megan is pissed off!

The man she knew as her nerdy boyfriend Wayne, has now morphed into rugged and attractive police chief, Jack Stone. And he expects her to come running - to forgive the way he humiliated her and sent her packing, breaking her heart and wondering what she's supposed to do with a baby on the way? Well, Megan starts out determined to send him packing instead, with a swift kick in the you-know-what, but soon she learns the truth about him, that he sent her off for her own good, and though it takes her a while to believe him, she begins to thaw when it comes to Wayne/Jack, and it doesn't hurt that her father likes him as well as everyone else!

As usual in Chapman's Pine Creek books, there is lots of paranormal and fantasy elements. This is no exception. There's a mysterious dragon-like creature breaking into bakeries and stealing doughnuts in addition to the subplot of who is after Megan to get some DNA samples she took in Canada. Plus, there's lots of Greylan and Grace (from the first book in the series - Megan's parents) and Winter and her husband Matt, and his brother Kenzie, who is mixed up in the mystery as well!

I found the plotline exciting and compelling, but most of all I loved the chemistry between Megan and Jack. No matter how much she resisted him at first, she couldn't stay that way forever. Not only does he explain away what he did and why, but he's a great guy in the end. Okay, so he's not over six feet, like all her relatives who were Scottish highlanders, but he's someone that you'd want to have with you if you're lost in the woods on a cold winter's night. Adept at survival with his own brand of magic up his sleeve he is a man after my own heart. He also has a wrenching backstory of his own of how he became orphaned at the age of nine, which is unforgettably sad. I really loved Jack, a great guy (plus the back picture of the book makes him look very yummy!)

I won't reveal too much of the plotline, but this was a great addition to the series, one of my favorites! I highly recommend this series! I'm sad it's almost over! :(

4/5

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Time Travel Reading Challenge

I found another reading challenge that is perfect for me! This one is run by Alyce from At Home With Books. Ever since I read Outlander time travel has been one of my very favorite genres. I'm going to commit to reading six time travel books for 2010, but I'm sure I'll probably read more than that. Some have been on my TBR list for a long time, so this is incentive to finally get them read! Others I've just added, but I'm always looking for good time travel stories!

The Rules:

Decide how many time travel books you want to read and then read them before the end of 2010 - that's it! (The challenge goes from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010.)

My List:

For the challenge I am planning to read at least six of these books.

1. Secrets of the Highlander by Janet Chapman
2. Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine
3. The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde
4. The Legend MacKinnon by Donna Kauffman
5. A Dance Through Time by Lynn Kurland
6. Pirates by Linda Lael Miller
7. Return of the Highlander by Sara MacKenzie
8. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
9. Replay by Ken Grimwood
10. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
11. Green Darkness by Anya Seton
12. From Time to Time by Jack Finney
13. Twilight in Babylon by J. Suzanne Frank

January, 2011:  Well, I didn't finish 6 by the end of 2010, but I did read Replay and The Legend MacKinnon January 8th, 2011, so I came pretty close to completing the challenge.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with my choices, but my two favorites that I read on the list were Replay and A Dance Through Time, which you can read about from my reviews here on my blog.

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