This is the 2nd time travel romance I've read in a week and both have the same problem. Both completely miss the endless, creative opportunities the premise of time travel provides them. In both books, the heroines are passive weak nitwits with no skills, common sense, active input, or knowledge of history. Really frustrating!!!!



In this book, Elaine, a 39 year old data analyst is married to a very nice, boring, passionless husband who loves her but is terribly dull in bed. Luckily, Elaine is transported back in time within the first few pages of the book to 1883 and into the body of Morrigan, a beautiful 19 year old who has just been deflowered by her sex starved, English Baron husband, Charles. He finally has put his foot down after letting her remain a "virgin" for the first year of their marriage hoping she'd eventually become willing, which she never does. Morrigan is cold and has secrets of her own. But don't get too excited about the premise. My frustration started almost immediately upon Elaine going back in time. Elaine first thinks she's dreaming, then figuring out what has happened, decides not to talk because she fears her Yankee accent (coming out of Morrigan's mouth) will make people suspicious and they'll throw her in an insane asylum. (Please! Lame!) So for the first half of the book, Elaine doesn't talk claiming a "putrid throat". She also meekly takes all sorts of abuse from Hattie, her scottish Servant (or whatever Hattie is) whose nonstop ranting verbal abuse quickly becomes excrutiatingly tiresome , especially since Elaine does absolutely nothing to stop her SERVANT from abusing her. Again, this is compounded by her refusal to speak or exert her own will. Why??? You'd hope as a woman from the 21st Century she'd be smart and resourceful and have knowledge that would put her at a distinct advantage, or at the very least, be entertaining. Yet this is never really explored. In fact the fact that she's from the future is barely part of the book at all. No mention of history to come or even a reference to pop culture or technology in the future. Worse, Elaine acts more like she's from the 11th century rather than the 21st. She seeming has a total inability to exert her mind or will...if she even has a will of her own. It was so insanely frustrating to read! Also at age 39, having been married for numerous years, (before going back in time) she is incredibly sexually niave and acts like a dumb virgin. Give me a break. Her 1883 husband teaches her all about sex and the kama sutra, like she's never heard of it or oral sex before, etc. It's stupid.



To top it off, the "rules of the world" are never really defined. How did Elaine get into Morrigan's body? And how is Morrigan able to all of sudden start jumping into different bodies? Elaine is going along having great explicit sex with her 1883 hubby, Charles, when suddenly Morrigan starts leaving Elaine troublesome notes in her bedroom. Through the notes she describes how she was transported into Elaine's body in the future, was committed to an insane asylum by Elaine's 21st Century hubby for being so different, and then died. But somehow Morrigan comes back to 1883 and inhabits another body and is watching Elaine...the big mystery is whose? Elaine has to find out. Regardless, it's clear Morrigan's bad and wants to destroy Elaine. Elaine, of course, can't figure out how to do anything let alone how to transport herself anywhere, and to be honest, the author wasn't explaining it either. By this point, I was maybe 3 chapters from the end but I got fed up and stopped reading. I'm actually mad I bought the book.