Customer Reviews

Promises from the Past

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From the back cover:

Her father smelled of the sea...

Her mother smelled of violets...

A faint scent, a distant memory, and an age-old hurt weren't much to go on, but lovely Maggie Westshire had no other recollections of her missing father. Now she found herself on a painful quest for answers--a journey that began in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and led her back through the years, into the strong arms of Shea Younger. His was a different era, a time of danger and excitement, and he promised Maggie a passion like none she had every known, and while she was determined, against all odds, to continue her search for her father, Maggie didn't know how much longer she could resist Shea's considerable charms, or the sweet ecstasy she found in his timeless embrace.

And my review:

What can I say? I tried to get into this, but couldn't manage to get past the first 20 pages. My mind kept wandering, and I had to keep forcing my attention back to the book. That shouldn't happen. In fact, I'm usually one of those readers who loses track of the real world while reading (people sometimes have to yell at me five times before I hear them). When a book can't keep interest, it isn't worth the work. I skimmed ahead, but still the book didn't get any better.

This book seemed like a knock-off of Gabaldon's OUTLANDER. After all, PROMISES FROM THE PAST was published four years after OUTLANDER, so one might wonder. (Of course, Victoria Bruce might never even have heard of OUTLANDER, so maybe she really did come up with the idea on her own.) Like OUTLANDER, we again have a book, written in the first person (argh!), where a woman with a husband (whon she loves, but not to distraction) travels back in time and falls in love with a splendidly handsome, dangerous man. Her new love is fueled by lust, and is superior to her old love, which was more about companionship.....yadda, yadda, yadda. If I wanted to read this story, I'd just read OUTLANDER again.

I can't really say I can recommend this book to anyone. Those who love OUTLANDER won't want to read a pale knock-off of the original. Those who hated OUTLANDER won't want to read a rehashing of the same kind of idea. So I suggest that you leave this one on the shelf and try something else.