Customer Reviews

Shades of the Past

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For me, the plot of this Regency was strong enough without the time travel. The time travel doesn't really hurt the way the story moves along, but it's not a necessary factor. Ms. Heath does do a skillful job in describing the heroine's feelings as she goes back & forth. But I think I would have enjoyed it more as straight Regency with the wrongfully manipulated heroine/trick-the-hero plot. Ending kind of veers into melodrama, but that's the kind of plot it is. This was my first time reading anything by this author and I do look forward to reading more of her work. Even though this review isn't the strongest rave, I confirm that I enjoyed the author's storytelling ability and the tension between the hero and heroine.

Much less detailed than many of Sandra Heath's other novels, this one follows an American actress who's unlucky in love and out of work as she travels to London using a recent inheritance. Money is not all she inherits as her ancestry vaults her back in time where she finds true love. Unfortunately, the length of the book doesn't allow this competent author to develop either location sufficiently.

Although I love both regency and time travelling novels, I must say that this book is a rather poor combination of the two of them and would have been better without the time travelling part. The present day heroine is kind of sex-starved, the transitions between present and past are unconvincing and sometimes even confusing. The regency part (with a regency heroine) itself would have been a nice enough story.

It happened again!!! So often I have read a book and the hero was great, stupendous, out of this world. And the heroine???? Slightly less than perfect. This would have been a good book, but the heroine seemed to me to have fallen in lust with the guy, not love. She had been living with her boyfriend (an automatic turn off for me, right off the bat) and it seemed like she just had an itch that needed scratched. Anyway, short story--he was great and the book would have been great with a different type girl. The time travel was a bit jarring as well. I agree with the other reviewers. This would have been a strong Regency without it. And for me, with a different female lead.
Also, not complaining, but this seemed a bit racy for a Regency. At least the Regencies I've read.

Excellent book reaching back to the authors better days. Short on foppish irregularities and long on action and sex. I recommend it highly.