Title: Straight to Heaven
Author: Christine Young
ISBN: 978-1-62420-278-0
Email: achristay@aol.com
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Excerpt Heat Level: 1
Book Heat Level: 4
REVIEW: LibriAmoriMiei
My
Review:
It 's a
wonderful romance with an incredible time travel, a romantic love story, two
charming characters, lots of suspense and a little adventure.
To escape
an assault Alexandra falls into a strange vortex and finds herself living in
1868. She is a strong and independent woman of the XXI century and it is not
easy for her to adapt to the mentality and to the limited means of 1800. While
trying to survive, she meets James and she falls in love. But their love story
is full of difficulties, James has many open wounds suffered during the
civil war.
I really
liked the style of this author, she knows how to capture the reader's
attention, once you start it, it's really hard to put it down. Her stories are
full of magic and she is able to create atmospheres full of suspense.
This was a
truly engaging and delightful read. The story had a good pace, the plot was
clever and the dialogue was witty.
I
highly recommend this book!
REVIEW:
Straight To Heaven by Christine Young
Publisher: Rogue Phoenix Press
Genre: Historical, Time Travel
Length: Full (389 pgs)
Heat: Spicy
Rated: 4 stars
Review by Poppy
A solid entry into the time travel genre.
James, an honorable man who was left
damaged by the Civil war makes a wonderful hero. His honor is indisputable, as
shown the by the way he devotedly takes care of his young, orphaned niece, Jessie.
Alexandra is a sweet woman who is pursued
through time by a villain who wants her for his own. She unexpectedly falls
into a vortex when running from him in 2015 and finds herself in the past, just
following the end of the war between the states.
The villain, Sean Cassidy, is truly
reprehensible. And single minded. All he wants is Alexandra, and he doesn’t
care what he has to do to get her.
I enjoyed watching Alex trying to find
her way around the past. It’s remarkable how many little slang sayings make no
sense out of context, like when she wants to keep James from the treehouse
where she and Jessie are talking, and gives as her reason that “it’s Grand
Central Station” up there. Of course, the way women behave now and how they
were expected to behave in the late 1800s was also an issue. Ms. Young does a
good job painting the past through Alex’s eyes.
The romance between James and Alex is
bittersweet, since Alex intends on returning to her own time. But neither can
help falling for the other and it’s sweet and heartbreaking and helps both
James and Jessie to heal from their emotional wounds.
The only “complaint” I had with the story
is that James is so good and Sean Cassidy is so bad. I wish James
had been more flawed and that the villain had a few redeemable qualities. Oh,
and the other thing that made me a bit crazy is how the author seldom referred
to him as simply “Sean” and mostly called him by his full name, Sean Cassidy.
Not only did it feel a bit odd, but every time it happened I ended up picturing
him as the teen idol from my youth.
Overall, though, Straight To Heaven
was a well-written, interesting book that should appeal the time travel romance
fans. And it should certainly touch your heart. It did mine.
TAGLINE
Running from demons,
Alexandra McMurdie stumbles into Forbidden Ground and is transported from the
twenty-first century to life in the 1800s, a life she is unprepared for.
Running from demons, Alexandra
McMurdie stumbles into Forbidden Ground where up is down and elements of nature
are contested. Though a strong independent woman in the twenty-first century'
she is unprepared for life in the 1800s. Her first sight of the formidable
James Lawrence makes her heart skip a beat, giving her cause to reconsider her
desperate need to find a way home.
Born with a silver spoon, James’
life was torn apart during the War Between the States. Moving west he vows to
put the life he once knew in the past. When he discovers a half-frozen woman
near Gold Hill, his heart begins to thaw. His love for Alexandra and his need
to keep her from a man who has pursued her through time might cost him his life
as well as hers.
EXCERPT
Jacksonville,
Oregon 1868
Midnight...the witching hour, a time to
ease one's conscience and look to the next world for answers. Wild tales of a
vortex told by the Native Americans where up was down and large was small,
intrigued the valley settlers. One had only to expect the unexpected and it
would occur. A ball could roll up hill but not down. No one ventured through
the vortex unchanged, simply because the site defied the human mind. Here there
were no limits set and no boundaries defined.
Mysterious tales ran rampant among the
Native Americans. Fantastical stories portrayed visitors from other ages, other
worlds, and even other dimensions passing through time and stopping here for a
moment of rest before continuing their journey. Difficult to comprehend,
impossible to believe unless one met his fate head on at the appropriate hour.
Midnight. When spirits roamed the earth, anything could occur and anyone could
vanish.
Midnight...an hour to be wary of, to
remain at home and hope it passed by without
illusions floating on the stairway, of distinctive flickering in the
candlelight, or a hesitant knock on the door from some invisible apparition. No
one would wander out at this hour or challenge another, unless faced with no
other choice.
Captain James Lawrence had sworn to uphold
the law. Tonight, he might have to venture into the unknown; meet any
challenge. He might stumble upon an innocent unsuspecting traveler, perhaps
encounter a miracle and find a path straight to heaven.
The deserted countryside lay as a freshly
painted picture bathed in the moonlight, and the crystal ice that coated the
laurel trees shimmered, sending prisms of light toward the heavens. Even
February's freezing rains paused as if paying homage to the hour.
Midnight.
James watched the moisture hover in a
mindless drizzle of mist; low lying clouds floated and swirled in gossamer
veils near the earth, entwining themselves in the manzanita and laurel, around
the blackberry bushes, and the fields of grasses and weeds that dotted the
hillside.
"Not tonight. Not again..." He
pounded his fist against the railing, hoping he heard wrong.
From the west, James Lawrence could hear
the low baying of hounds and the steady beat of horses as he stood on the porch
of his home surveying his land. Charles Majors would bring his hounds, six of
them, merciless in their intent, and trained to hunt man. They did not give up
and he'd never known them to fail.
"Son of a bitch!" he said
fiercely, "not tonight!" His fist landed squarely on the wooden beam
holding up the roof. He stared into the night, cursing the situation. Duty and
honor in the forefront of his mind, he knew he would join the posse.
Soon the men would stand at his porch
expecting him to mount and ride with them. They were law-abiding men from town.
A couple of them owned stores, some panned for gold. One was the saloon owner
and another owned the town newspaper. He owed the community, knew he couldn't
avoid this responsibility. If they would only come without the dogs, the
nightmares might stop.
He rubbed his temples and wished the
hammering within would vanish, but the pounding hooves grew louder, the
hammering worse. His muscles flexed and as a brittle tension radiated through
him, he held his breath, purposely waiting.
Staring into the cold night, he reflected
on another time. A time during the war when the dogs had hunted him and they
had come so perilously close to his heels. Now, on this moonlit night, even his
home offered him no protection, no safe retreat. They came to him for his
help—for his expertise. James shivered, yet the sensation wasn't caused by the
cold.
He had hoped they wouldn't call on him
again, but now it seemed as if the trail lay fresh and in his direction. He
hated the look in a man's eye when cornered with nowhere to go; loathed the
utter despair that accompanied it.
And the fear.
"Poor wretched soul," he said.
"He'll know what hell feels like before the morning sun rises."
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