Customer Reviews

Legacy

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
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I just finished reading my first book by Jeanette Baker, Legacy, and now have another author to add to my favorites list. This book was enchanting and kept me up reading late. The author's style is elegant, which added to my enjoyment of the book. Her words flowed with beauty. The characters are three dimensional and well written. It was easy to be drawn into their situations and care a great deal about them.

Legacy is a book with parallel stories, a main one set in the late twentieth century, and three others set in different and fascinating eras in history. The present-day heroine, Christina, and her new love, Ian, are in serious danger due to an ancient curse on Christina's bloodline. Christina must get to the root of things, going back seven hundred years in discovery, or she is doomed.

Technically, this book can be considered a time travel, but Christina only goes to the past for about five minutes.

As she delves into the past and gets to know the stories of her tragic ancestors, she gets drawn deeper and deeper into their sad legacy. Can she possibly escape their fate? Their stories were heartbreaking, and as I read, I kept hoping she wouldn't follow in their footsteps.

The setting is important to this book: Scotland, present day and past. The reader is in for a treat, getting such an excellently drawn picture of this beautiful country and its exciting history. An author with a mastery of the language provokes a gorgeous but tragic atmosphere with her words.

Magic, love, and misfortune are themes woven well into the plot. It's quite entertaining and thought provoking. The various elements of plot are top notch. The subplots create great tension as the book races to its climax. Dialogue is realistic and exposition is excellent.

There may have been one or two small questions I had about the characters or scenes that didn't seem to be answered, so I read between the lines.

This is a wonderful book, and I'd highly recommend it.

Originally posted at The Long and Short Of It Romance Reviews

I will start by saying I don't think this cover did this book any good. If I had been book shopping I would have walked right by without picking it up and that would have been a shame. I would have missed out on a very enjoyable book.
I love time travel books and while this is technically not time travel it does involve people from the present tied to actions from the past and the need to correct wrongs to live happily ever after.
Fantastical fun all around.
The story is told in back and forth fashion starting in the past and bouncing between there and the present. Events surrounding the heroine, Christina Murray call her to the mysteries of her ancestors and how that past is impacting her present. Christina finds out that she has inherited an 800 year old Scottish manor house and has no idea why. She meets her neighbor, Ian Douglas and falls in love with him not knowing that his motives might not be pure.
The characters were very likeable - well except for the evil ones - and I found myself whipping through this book to get to the end. The mystery was quite satisfying and the magical aspects were fun. I would definitely seek out more books by Ms. Baker.

I knew that I had read this book back in 1996 when it was first published from the moment I read the first chapter. I usually do not re-read a book but I wanted to read this one again as I am fascinated with anything to do with Ireland and Scotland as I am a bit of both and the history portrayed in this book kept me turning the pages. The story takes place in four different time periods, late 1300's. 1500's, 1700's and 1993-95. The story revolves around The Stone of Scone and the Traquair House, which is said to be the oldest inhabited house in Scotland.


"The Stone of Scone , more commonly known as the Stone of Destiny and often referred to in England as the Coronation Stone, is an oblong block of red sandstone, used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, later the monarchs of England and since 1603, British monarchs. Historically, the artifact was kept at the now-ruined Scone Abbey in Scone, near Perth, Scotland." source: wiki


The Murray and Maxwell families lives and history's are intertwined with all the women in the Murray/Maxwell family's having a curse put on them, that each female member would have terrible hauntings and nightmares and eventually die horrible deaths. The story is well so researched and written that as each woman's story was told I felt as if I could imagine myself right in the story, which may be silly to some, but I often feel that way when reading a great historical story. I had to have the tissue box close by also..I highly recommend this book to anyone who has any interest in the history of Scotland/England in the four time periods portrayed.

Legacy combines historical romance with time travel and mystery. I was quickly drawn into the stories of the four women of different eras and their ill fated romances. The lead character Christina Murray is easy to like and sympathize with and her uncanny similarities with the three ancestors gives the Murray/Douglas mystery come to a head.

If you enjoy historical romances and unusual time travel novels, I recommend checking out Legacy by Jeanette Baker.

ISBN-10: 9781402255830 - Paperback $9.99
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca; Reprint edition (March 1, 2011), 384 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.

This is a great book if you're into Scottish history and/or time travel. The only drawbacks to me were I wish the story line had been extended at certain places (e.g. when one of the "historical" characters switched places with the "current time" character) and the only other thing that bothered me was that I thought the main character was a little "wimpy" (I mean, she's 40ish - not a teenager!)

But, having said that, I did really enjoy the book and would read this author's other works.

I really liked this book but was confused about the diabetes link. The author needed to do better research on Type 1 diabetes before she wrote this book. She really did not have a clue as to what she was talking about. It was kind of irritating. Other than that great story. Very imaginative.

LEGACY is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. The heroine is drawn deeper and deeper into the past as she tries to solve a mystery and save her own life. I couldn't stop reading

I'm delighted with Ms. Baker's style. It isn't often you find an author so adept at storytelling who also has a unique and beautiful command of the English language. I recommend this book to everyone. R

I really liked this book. The Scottish history and struggle for independance is always fascinating for me. The switch from present to past events was handled well. The characters were well developed and the story was wonderful.

Real good book. It was what I expected. Love like no other was found in this book. A hero and his woman that made everything seem so much better.