Constance O'Day-FlanneryReseñas

How much do I love historical romances? A lot! And if there's time travel? Woot, even better! I love "A Time for Love" because the romance isn't shoved in my face.

When it comes to historical romances, I like it when the physicality isn't so wa-pow, in my face... it's nice to see romance unfold slowly.

This is one of my favorite books - it's really heartwarming and made me cry. Not a lot of books have accomplished that. :)

Ah yes, the queen of time travel romance, as they say about this author and it's so true! I've always enjoyed her writing because it conveys the undulating slowness of courtship so beautifully.

In "Once and Forever," I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of pagan history and knowledge in it, and my pagan heart soared when the author wrote "So mote it be." Woohoo! :)

One of my favorite quotes from the book:

"I think humility is seeing the truth and not denying it, with the gracious ability to thank the observer. Perhaps that is what I might teach you... not to give your power away so easily." (Once and Forever, Constance O'Day-Flannery)

I am a fan of time travel books, but I could not finish this one because it was so bad. It was like a never ending episode of the old tv show, Kung Fu, "snatch the pebble from my hand..." where the hero is constantly advising the heroine.

Time travel is one of my favorite genres. I was eager to read TKP because I have been looking for a copy for a long time. It starts out with our modern day(1988) heroine, Kristine, getting sucked into the past(1871) and meeting Sean. I really enjoyed this part of the book. It was interesting and the pace was good. Eventually our hero and heroine plunge into the heroine's time in her modern day. Here is where the book just dies for me, a slow, tortuous, agonizing death. It was awful. There was a lot of description of modern day marvels, etc.: this just made the book sound 'dated' and younger readers may not even know the items being referenced (but that didn't bother me that much). The description of Kristine getting back to her career and daily life was dull. Finally the hero and the heroine get some romance going and the story picks up a little, with some conflict. Some of this was pretty hard to swallow, but it, of course, came to it's conclusion with more craziness. I liked the epilogue. This would not be a keeper for me. I gave it 3 stars, because I really liked the hero and heroine.

Knowing that she'll never escape the small mining she was born and raised in, the heroine feels completely trapped and without hope. Surrounded by horrible memories and people who look down upon her-judge her and find her lacking, she wants to explore the world before she's sent to hell for her sins. In the town where men slave underground for 10 or more hours a day and day young due to coal inhalation, she's called upon her brother to aid him and his group in bombing the records department of the business so to wipe clear the debts of all the people of the town. In the process of trying to plant the bomb, dressed as a nun, the charge goes off early and the heroine is sucked into blackness. She wakes up in a strange aircraft on the way to heaven-she believes, and in the presence of her guardian angel. The hero, a wealthy new York business man who's disenchanted with life and lonely, finds the nun who just suddenly appeared next to him to be a healthy mix of burden and life saver. Her complete innocent and doe in the headlight eyes make him want to protect her-and if he's being honest, kiss her as well but he feels enough guilt over lusting for a nun to stop himself. When she turns up at his apartment wounded, he takes her in. Then truly bizarre things start happening. He has a dream that he's in historical Pennsylvania, fighting her brother in a bar and going to work in the mines. He wakes up to the startling revelation that not only did the heroine share his dream but in fact it wasn't a dream at all. She's come forward from the past and somehow, someway, she begins to take him back to the past. Only in short bursts, just enough for him to understand the hardship of the life for the people of her town and to feel righteous anger with the fat cats who willingly allow these people to suffer. He befriends her brother and involves himself in the campaign to bring the mistreat of the workers to the public. The heroine finds herself invisible during their trips back to her time and it pains her to see the grief and torment in her brothers eyes over her death. The heroine and hero sleep together. The hero professing his love for the heroine and she in turn does the same-but not before telling him she's not a nun. She came clean finally because she never wanted to keep up the life but didn't want to hurt the hero either. And she wanted him to know that she'll always be honest with him going forward. But her confession drives them apart. He's hurt by what he considers her betrayal and feels the trust is gone, especially once he learns that she birthed a child in her young only to have the enfant stillborn. During the tense and awkward afterward, the heroine finds out she's pregnant. Remembering the heart ache the last time she brought the news to the man she loved, she instead gets a job cleaning houses. The hero desperately searches for her and once he finds her, he begs her forgiveness and pleads with her return. But life isn't that simple and circumstances draw them back to the past and tragedy strikes, leaving the hero to find a way to survive with the grief. I almost for thought this book would end with the heroine being truly dead and it unleashed a fierce anger within me. But luckily it does right itself and the end-mind you pretty much the last page. The passion, the heartache and the drama of this book drew me in and held me tight within it's coils from start to finish. I thought the time travel aspect was unique and refreshing. It was so much more than just a heroine travels to the future, 'whatever will she do?' novel. This story and these characters had true heart and each suffered but gained understanding within themselves because of it. I'll start with the heroine. So damn innocent and mousy and completely dependent on the hero for survival for most of the book, when it was time for her to fend for herself she did strike out on her own and was determined to survive. I admired her greatly. She was so kind-too kind in most things which is why she had such trouble when she was separated from the hero. But she was passionate about her family, protective of anyone who thought to disrespect her brother of the hero in her presence. The hero was so lost from the second he laid eyes on her. She had him completely under her spell but she didn't even know it. Sure he could be a bit of a jerk sometimes and totally overreacted to the new she wasn't a nun or a virgin but when she left him, he realized what he had lost and his love for her shined brightly through the pages. This book had the whole package. It made me laugh (when the hero is drunk and stumbling down the street on the arm of an invisible woman). It made me cry (when the heroine lays dead on the sheet and the hero cries out his anguish). And it made me feel all warm inside watching their love bud and then blossom. Awesome book.

Left heavily pregnant and alone after husband ran off with her best friend, the heroine goes down the river to contemplate her life and her future only to find herself in labor. Typical of a movie pregnancy, the labor is hectic and urgent and over in about 1 hour. Very unrealistic but during this crisis, she finds a man in the river and saves his life. He’s obviously lost and has strange clothing and speech but he’s her only of of getting to the hospital in time. The hero is struck stupefied to find himself in a strange new world but he’s level headed enough to calm his himself and solve the problems. He’s very clever and is eager to learn about his new surrounds and manages to drive the lady in distress to the doctors. After the baby is born, the heroine is distraught over the magnitude of her new responsibilities but the hero’s calming nature proves to be her salvation. Because it’s clear that the man has nowhere to go, she hires him to help her around the house with her new baby. They settle into a comfortable life based in friendship and companionship and more than a little sexual attraction. The hero is not your typical time travel character as he’s calm and reasonable and involves himself to suit his new surroundings. I enjoyed him and how he treated the heroine. He boosts her low self-esteem and confidence and she’s able to get over her scumbag husband. Eventually the hero finds himself getting restless. He’s not used to being so dependent of anyone else, letting alone the woman he desires. It makes him feel less of a man and he leaves to earn his own way. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will read it again in a second if given the choice.

Very nice time travel romance. The heroine goes to the dentist to get a tooth pulled only to wake up in the old west. She's immediately mistaken for a mail order bride to a rugged cowboy. I loved the western story line. The hero was your typical cowboy, reserved at times, vocal at others, honest kind and sexy as hell. I was soo glad when the heroine realized he didn't look like Mel Gibson after all. Big relief. You got the feeling that the guy would be able to handle anything. In situations of panic he was always the level headed hero coming to save the day. The poor heroine spent the complete first half of the novel in pain. First with having her tooth pulled and next with the fever. My only complaint is I felt like the story was way too long. It didn't really have all that good of pacing.

The heroine wakes up in pain and blinded and in the middle of a sand storm. She then sees a hansom man appear out of a bolt of lightning and thinks she's going insane but he's her only hope for salvation. The hero brings her to safety but tells her she's traveled back in time and must blend in with the locals. Of course, typical for your B-plot book, she throws a hissy fit and adamantly denies she's now in the 1800's and that the hero is crazy despite all the prove around her sayings he's right. They travel to the big city at her demand so she can meet up with her sister, only to discover, shocker, that he was right all along. They becomes gets a villa and the hero slowly teaches the heroine patience, understanding and the ability to find joy in life. I'll say now that I didn't enjoy this book at all. For a hero who's so adamant about the balance of light and dark, the author wrote a very muted, happy go lucky book that featured little to no struggle. I despise easy going characters when they have no darkness in them and the hero was so one dimensional. He was so sickly sweet and understanding that I wanted to smack him especially since I know for a fact that no one could bare to be in the heroine company for that long without kicking her in the face. She was ghastly. She whined about everything and thought that just because she crossed her arms or put her hands on her hips that everyone was supposed to take her seriously. About halfway through the book she got it into her head that she wanted the hero's baby...just out of the blue. Known the guy for 4 days, seen him hold 1 child and thought he's be a perfect sperm donor. It was madness and it made no sense considering she's still trapped in the past with no idea how to get home or what to do with a child even if she got one. Top that off with a boring plot and cook cutter setting and characters and it makes for a 1 star rating. I wasn't a fan of this addition to the series.

I spent the first half wondering if anything would happen that I hadn't already guessed and/or read in other books of similar genre, and whether any of the characters would get beyond 2 dimensions.

The book gets marked up because the answer to the first question is 'Yes.' However, the answer to the second is, 'No!' Jack is at least fairly consistant in himself, if somewhat unlikely. Mairie's actions are so varied that there isn't even any inconsistancy to them - she never gets focused enough for us to know what to expect from her.

What is the genre? Time travel and government conspiracy could make you think Science Fiction. But the elements borrowed from there are watered down to the point where they don't feel like Science Fiction any more. The historical parts are similarly thin. Woman meets gorgeous hulk and falls in love with him in spite of... except that Jack is the stronger character, and the one who wins the reader's (at least this reader's) sympathy. There is also not enough sex to match that template. Women's lib, Gay rights, and technological progress get their say as well. But I alway felt the author was saying, 'This is a good thing and you should know that anyway, and I'm obviously a good person because I have worked it into the story.'½

A romance with the twist that the main character, Magdalene O'Shea, is a business woman and shapeshifter. She is involved with this group that has her use her unique talents to teach unhappy men how to love again. She has a hang up on the her male mentor who taught her to use her skills, so when he contacts her with a new assignment she is not thrilled. She is tiresd fo helping these men out then moving on and vows to make this her last assignment. But then she discovers just how special her latest assignment is.
Definite beliefs about the role and power of love come across, which is a bit refreshing from the usual emphasis on the physical in romances. Still, not quite my cup of tea, but a romance reader who is looking for something out of the ordinary would probably enjoy it.½

This is a book that I had quite a hard time finishing. Usually I enjoy shapeshifting stories, especially romances, but this one didn't really work for me. I think my major problem is because I found all the characters to be so sanctimonious, they drove me crazy. I also don't usually like books with strong political themes even if I agree with those views to a certain extent. When I'm reading romance I want to feel entertained and I felt there was more preachiness than entertainment.

Maggie is a shapeshifter who works for a mysterious sect called "The Foundation" where her job is basically to get cozy with men who may be usefully influential to the foundation's agenda so she can heal their hearts and allow them to move on to successful relationships. Maggie is sick of this job (who could blame her? Certainly not me!) but agrees to take on one last assignment, Julian McDonald, a rich businessman whose heart was broken when his wife and son died in a plane crash a decade earlier. There is just one problem with this new assignment, Maggie is always supposed to be "the one who comes before true love" and losing her own heart to Julian has no part in her job.

I did manage to finish the book which, I guess, goes to show that I didn't totally hate the story although I am at a loss to point out exactly why I read all the way through. The writing itself wasn't bad, the plot was easy to follow and it didn't get boring so that could account for it. I just didn't like the storyline or the characters very much and the ending bugged me as well.½

I enjoyed this book, but I really disliked the secret "foundation" angle and the hero's reaction to the heroine's gift. The whole book rang with the idea that everybody knew what was better for everyone else and the manipulation behind the scenes set my teeth on edge.½

There are many who'd say that I shouldn't be surprised to have enjoyed a book by Ms. O'Day-Flannery. I have not been particularly impressed by Tor's offerings for their line, but this was pretty good. I felt it was a bit heavy-handed with the political aspects, and there are a few actions that are taken that I didn't like at all, but I enjoyed reading about Julian and Maggie, and appreciated that, for once, the hero is the persistent one.½

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13926063

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12556445