Cons: Some stories are better than others but I am not complaining.
The Bottom Line: I really enjoyed this book. If you like romance, time swept books or short stories, you will enjoy this one that also adds a holiday touch.
My fourth year anniversary here on Epinions is rapidly approaching so I thought I would honor my anniversary by sponsoring a write off. The purpose of my write off is to resurrect some books that may have been long forgotten about. The only rule for my write off is that you must write about a book that was written before 2001, and preferably write about a book that no one else has yet written about. To get more information on the write off please go to my profile page: http://www.epinions.com/user-msmorvay/show_~View_Profile
Everyone is invited to join in. Please feel free to leave a comment saying you would like to join in on this review or send me an email saying you would like to join in. The participants that are joining in are listed on my profile page as well as at the end of this review. Here is one of my submissions to this write off.
A Time Traveled Christmas
Ok fans of Romance and Holidays. I have picked a cute little paper back just for you. This romance novel has not 1 but four romantic holiday stories, by four different authors. The title of this book is: A Time-Traveled Christmas. Epinions actually has the name listed incorrectly it also only lists one of the authors, and of course there are four authors of this book. If you would like to purchase this book you will of course need the proper name.
The Book Itself
The book is in mass market paper back for and is 443 pages long if you ignore the few pages of advertisements in the back. Each story is between 100 pages and 130 pages in length so if you don’t have a whole lot of time, but need to get in your romance fix, you can read these delightful tales one at a time. As you can probably tell by the title of the book the romances are more of a fantasy type than true romance. And of course there is time travel involved. Think of the movie Kate and Leopold. Think of traveling to a distant time and place and finding romance there.
The Stories
Allow me break down each story for you.
The Christmas Portrait, By Megan Daniel
Cassie Douglas lives in New York City. She has no husband, boyfriend, or nearby family. She is lonely and of course the holidays only seem to amplify that lonely feeling.
There is one good thing about Cassie’s life though. She is a window designer and designed one of the most admired Christmas windows in the City of New York. The magical scene is of a Christmas ball set back in the 1882 complete with a portrait artist sketching the ball. All details are as historically detailed as possible, as Cassie had researched the ball before attempting the window. It was very elaborate and detailed, and Cassie couldn’t help but be mesmerized by her own work as she wished that she could be like the people in re-creation.
One lonely evening as Cassie stared into the window she created she is joined by a bag lady that she had befriended (Olga). But one must wonder, was Olga truly a bag woman or a fairy god mother of sorts. As Cassie finds herself transformed back in time at the very ball she had re-created in the window. She also finds herself meeting up with the portrait artist, whose name is Nicholas Wright. Although he is a bit stand offish at firstAs the ball progresses and Christmas draws nearer Cassie and Nicholas find them selves falling for each other.
But what will happen in the end. Will Cassie stay with her new love in his time or will she return to own, never to see him again. Well that you will have to read for yourself.
The Spirit of Things to Come, By Vivian Knight-Jenkins
A 30 year old Kindergarten teacher is driving to her parents house a blustery winter evening. She was dreading the usual holiday family torment of her sisters making her feel less than and her well meaning mother trying to play match maker. All of this going on in her mind, suddenly she sees a deer in the road and swerves to avoid it. Losing control of her car, and banging her head on the steering wheel.
When she wakes up she is no longer in her own time. She finds that she has landed herself in the 1600’s in a puritan town. Taylor Kendall not only finds her self smack dab in the middle of this puritan town, but with in moments of arriving she meets the man of her dreams who warns her against getting involved in a scene she is witnessing, with little self control she finds herself defending a group of children who were caught singing Christmas carols by the local law man. The man seems to be bullying the children because Christmas carols are not to be sung. She then finds her self singing carols loudly and making a scene and then finds herself in jail.
Having witnessed the whole episode and wrestling with his emotions the towns Smithy Jared Branlyn (the dream guy) decides to bail Taylor out of jail and take responsibility for her, hiring her on as an apprentice but in order to do this that fact that she is a woman must be disguised. Of course working the two of them begin to have a deep bond and begin to fall for each other.
Was it all just a dream, and her dream man just a dream man, or was it true, or was it all a Spirit of things to come?
The Ghost of Christmas Past
The Ghost of Christmas Past by Eugenia Riley
Jason Burke was a hard nosed reporter who after seeing one too many tragedies had lost his edge. His work load was changed to more simple assignments purposely until he could get himself back up to par again. Regretfully for him he was placed on an assignment covering the Christmas Candle Light Tours; which included traveling to well to do homes, taking tours, and celebrating in Christmas celebrations. One of the invitations to one of the tours caught his eye right away. It appeared that the tour was to be given by an actual ghost. This got his attention and he set out to tour the home that evening. He was greeted by a beautiful woman who gave him a private tour. The woman claimed to be a ghost and gave the tour accordingly, concluding the tour immediately after she explained where she had died.
Jason was intrigued by the young woman, whose acting was so superb she almost had him believing that she was a ghost. He returned again to the home the next night and found himself sent back in time. Back to a time where his tour guide had indeed been a living breathing woman, a woman he could easily love. He is drawn in to the entire scene and realizes that he was sent back in time just a few weeks before the death of the woman he was falling in love with was to occur. Was he sent back in time to save her?
Sorry I am not going to answer that one for you either. You will have to get the book if you want to know what happens next.
Twelfth Night
After Aline Bennet’s Grandfather death, she is looking through his book of hours, which is a historical book that contains painting of the Medieval Times. Mourning and missing her Grandfather she throws all her concentration into the book, and tries to envision herself as part of that day and age. She is fixated on a certain painting and transfixes herself upon it. Eventually she finds herself actually living in the times she has been envisioning.
When she arrives of course disoriented she is found by the handsome Lord Adam of Shotley. Fearing she is hurt he offers to bring her back to his castle before an on coming storm approaches.
The strange woman and the handsome knight fall in love. But will she return to her own time, or will she stay in his. Or perhaps all is completely different than you might imagine? Sorry I will never tell.
My Thoughts
Since having to give a brief summary of each story made this review quite long as it is I will skip a lot of the usual information that I provide such as a little information about each author. I will say that for the most part they are experienced authors of these types of novels, that are referred to as Time swept novels, where there is some type of time travel involved.
This was a new experience for me but I must say I enjoyed the book very much. I read the entire thing in three days. Each story drew me in and I found myself not being able to put the book down until I came to the conclusion of each story. Of course I liked some more than others. The first story drew me in right away. But I must say it was the 3rd story the Ghost of Christmas past that I loved the most. Since the stories are a bit on the short side there is for the most part no explanation of how these characters time travel. But the Ghost of Christmas past gives a vivid description of why, and has a very interesting story line. I would recommend this book just based on that story alone.
Although I have my obvious favorite all of the stories are worth a read, and are quick reading. If you like romance novels, or time swept novels, I think you will enjoy this book I also enjoyed the fact that book was comprised of holiday stories or of stories that occurred around Christmas time, it made it a very appropriate read for the season.
Misc. Info.
This book was published in 1993, it is a Mass Market paper back, ISBN 0-505-52186-5. The book is a total of 443 reading pages. The book retailed for $5.99 in 1993 but can now be bought for a few cents on any of your used book buying sites such as Amazon.com, Half.com, or Alibris.
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