I was very excited to read this book, and it was a Christmas gift I was glad to receive. It taught me that I should read more than the book jacket summary when I am not familiar with the author. I guess I should read the first chapter before I buy now, unless I have more reasons to think that the story will be a good one.

The premise started out as a good one - it is about a mother and daughter who move away from London to a small village, to start their own antiques visit. This is done in the wake of a divorce when the mother (Flora) has health problems and financial problems thanks to her ex-husband.

The daughter is swept up in the new village - into time travel that deals with some of her worst fears and the nightmare happenings of her former life.

What I couldn't get past is the selfishness of the daughter, Xanthe in spending an exhorbitant amount of her mother's money on a whim. That is the premise that takes her back in time - the item she buys - but it's hard to believe she cares for anyone but herself.

The story is a bit forced with characters paralelling the past and present. I didn't enjoy the book as much as I would have hoped because I couldn't identify with the main character. I needed a little Danielle Steel magic in order to care here and I didn't get it.

Something big was lacking, for me, and it was having a sympathetic main character, not one I was annoyed with from the beginning. Also, she did not make good connections with characters in the present - the ones in the past seemed to be more meaningful and that didn't make much sense to me. Liam seemed more appealing than Samuel in a lot of ways that were never dealt with.

The transition to the 1600s could have been smoother also, rather than falling into a jail-like structure. I like the title and the premise and the character of the mother best. Moving on to other reading now.

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Created Jan 07, 2019 at 10:49am • Submit your own review...