"A Smashing Good Time Travel"
I must say, when I began reading this I wasn't in the mood
to read romance, let alone required reading. But I started
reading this, and frankly I got hooked in. I haven't read
too many time travel romances where the heroine actually
TRADES bodies with another person from the past, although I
know they do exist. I generally didn't think they sounded
all that great, but after this read I have changed that
totally. Jocelyn Tanner is on a tourist trip to England,
participating somewhat reluctantly in a fake bride auction.
She'd just recently been jilted by her fiancé, and this was
supposed to be something for the both of them. When she
faints in the streets of a little English town, however,
she awakens to horrid smells and ugly men claiming to be
her husband trying to sell her off. So when Lord Warrick
buys her for a sixpence, she sees him as her knight in
shining armor. Enter the hero. Garren Warrick is actually responding to an
ultimatum his father gave him that he be married within a
month, or a wife will be picked out for him with the
promise that she will, suffice to say, not be up to the
rake's usual standards. He sees this lost-looking woman on
the auction block and in a pitying move buys her for quite
cheap and marries her. He then whisks her off to his manor
and leaves her there, having fulfilled his father's
ultimatum to get married. He doesn't expect her to give him
any problems, with him living in London and her residing in
the country. Still, they manage to cross paths at a
masquerade ball where Jocelyn is dressed as .... Pebbles
Flintstone! With a old woman Hilda who doesn't take kindly
to being called a 'crone' helping her out of tough
situations, and are able to fall in love. Oh, this book was a hoot! Don't really read it for any
actual history, it's fairly basic but seems accurate. The
author definitely knew about her accounting though, that's
a fact! As I said before, the heroine changes actual
*bodies* with the other woman, then proceeds to get her
into shape. This aspect of the story was surprisingly well
done; there's the initial shock and dislike of activities
like, say, showering and bathing - like a real person would
probably react. There's also a bit of referred-to history
of the heroine's character being overweight at one point,
being ridiculed for it so getting in shape, which she does
to her 18th century body as well. I could really identify
with this, so thought it was pretty nice. It's not like Fat
Chance, or the idea thereof, though. The story itself was mostly character driven. There wasn't
much in the way of antagonists; the few that were there
were very easily, and somewhat anticlimactically, dealt
with; didn't mind that part a bit, as they were nuisances
anyway (not in the writing, just the characters themselves
*g*). As for the important things, well, the sex scenes
themselves were fairly steamy: think a step up from Lynn
Kurland, but not quite to Linda Howard. Not a lot of them,
but that surely didn't detract from the story any. I'd definitely recommend the book for a nice travel book.
As time travels go, I'd say it's akin to Lynn Kurland's
books, although it's set more in Regency England, with its
Ton and all. A smashing good book! Sarah Pearson / May, 2000
Copyright © 2000 for
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted November 10, 2006
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Winner of the 1999 Golden Heart!
Jilted by her fiance, Jocelyn Tanner had to struggle not to believe that her own value had been somehow diminished. Still, she knew better than to let that fear ruin her tour of England. But no one had explained to her that there would be a mock bride auction--or that she would be sucked back in time to the close of the eighteenth century. Suddenly Jocelyn found herself in another time, another body, and in a real auction--being claimed by a real hunk of a man. Still, her bride price hardly seemed flattering. And the handsome Garren had not yet shown her the attention for which she yearned. But as she began to make this new body her own, she saw interest flare behind the lord's reserved facade. She'd soon show him--and herself--in pounds or pennies, no one was worth more than his Sixpence Bride.
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