Review
Late 1800's: Tom Marshall was greedy. He had found gold and had hidden it in his cabin. All would have went well had it not been for Rose. He had no choice. She has stumbled upon his treasure. He couldn't have that. He trapped her inside and knew the consequences. He would pay for it, and pay he did, with his life, that very night. The Keeper of the Ozarks had seen to it. Present day: Tom's great great great grandson Dylan Marshall had inherited the family homestead. He was a doctor from a big city and had just gone through a divorce and now an identity crisis. He had been having recurring erotic dreams of a woman who could make his heart leap and his body respond with just a touch. She felt real, she smelled real, and her touch, well, that felt real too. Was it a dream, or was he just stressed out? What he didn't need was some stupid request from his grandfather that he live in the cabin for thirty days. He had been to that cabin and knew it was haunted. But, against better judgment, he agreed. The consequences were much grimmer, with the land being sold to his grandfathers nemesis. Poking around the cabin, Dylan stumbles upon a trap door, and after peering inside, discovers a human skeleton. All is blackness as he finds himself reeling down through trap door. He awakens to find the beauty that has been haunting his dreams for the past few weeks standing before him, in the flesh. She looks real, she feels real. And after kissing her, knows she is real. It didn't take him long to discover what had happened, and where he was. He was in the Ozarks, circa 1894. After being forced to marry on the spot, they come to terms with their arrangement. Dylan encounters relatives he has never met, his great great grandmother, whom he helps to deliver his great grandfather. He realizes his being there changes history, and he is able to prevent the murder of his great great grandfather. All the while, the hunt for the gold continues, pitting good against evil and husband against wife. Rose, a woman ahead of her time, seeks women's causes and is labeled different. But the two make beautiful music together as each comes to terms with their reason for being there. After accomplishing what he was sent there to do, and altering his family's history, he is summoned to go back to his own time. He cannot leave Rose, she has become too important to him. But will she trust him? Transported one hundred years into the present finds them at the cabin, and Rose confused. She is in all reality over one hundred years old, but is confused by the things she sees. After arranging for documentation, he registers her to vote, something that Rose had championed for in her time, and now is allowed to do. Will a love as timeless as theirs survive the modern twentieth century? Of course it will, when you have a treasure of a novel written so well and so thorough as this one.Ms. Stover tempts us with time travel, delights us with a hero named Dylan, and ravishes us with the lovely Rose. A little danger, a little romance, and a little excitement. Shades of Rose will enthrall you.Donna Arcand --
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From Literary Times
