Donna Valentino

On a quest to capture and deliver a sacred pendant to his king, the hero leaps his horse into a time portal unknowingly and finds himself in the state of Kansas which is on the bring of the civil war. The heroine, a widow, lives her life focused solely on the wishes of her then dying husband to make her small town a thriving city. She avoids men at all cost but when she stumbles upon a man sitting in the direct path of an enraged buffalo, she has no choice but to save him. She's convinced the man is either bat shit crazy or a bad actor with amnesia. He wears heavy shiny metal, doesn't understand a word of her language and is clueless about things like buttons. Hospitality requires her to take him in, at least until he's fit enough to ride. The hero, a master study in languages, is very quick to learn English and speak it fluently. This is just one of the many outrageously unbelievable aspects of the story that made it very hard to become engaged in the story. He has no powers, no supernatural abilities yet he can master a complete language over night and no one bats an eye. How I wish the author had just let it happen gradually over the story. It would have made it so much more interesting but instead, she did what most romance novelists do, she just fudged her way through and quickly moved on to other things. I didn't like this story at all. It had such boring, emotionless characters and my god the thing dragged on. Honestly I quit after about 2/3rds of the way through and I hate that I couldn't convince myself to finish but I know I wasn't going to be missing much. The language was horrendous throughout the book with the hero just spouting out useless claims about his knighthood, using God's Blood and such for every dramatic moment. The heroine faded so much into the background that she was literally just a body standing in the scene. She had no depth and didn't contribute anything to the conversations. I don't know why I'm being this harsh. Maybe it's because of my recent reads that just blew my mind with their awesomeness. Unfortunately when you do read as many books as I do, it becomes glaringly apparent that some are light years ahead of overs and this one is a sure give away should I ever do a bit of spring cleaning. Which is a shame because I did think the time travel from the past to the past was interesting and different...Too bad.… (lisätietoja)