A theft of antique lace and an American student visiting
England are the triggers for a tale of time travelling
ghosts and romance. Samantha, who has a degree in textiles
due to her domineering mother, manages to sneak out of the
family home and go to England to house-sit. Unfortunately
for her Theodore, a young man of her acquaintance, has
followed her and insists on giving her a guided tour with
Samantha paying for the taxis.
ROSES IN MOONLIGHT presents us with Scottish ghosts who
travel through time, and a man named Derrick who works with
them to restore stolen antiques to their owners. There are
a lot of characters from previous books, and they have long
conversations about actors and previous exploits. Not
having read the earlier instalments I could not get into
this aspect and I also could not work up much concern about
some stolen lace. Focusing on Samantha helped; she tours
a castle in the centre of Newcastle, which is in northern
England near the Scottish lowlands, and notices a man
dressed as an Elizabethan re-enactor - only nobody else can
see him, and he gets up to mischief with Theodore. For some
reason Derrick thinks Samantha is a textile thief and
follows her around as she visits York, then heads for
London.
Samantha is not only a doormat for her pushy parents, she
has taken degrees in subjects that don't interest her and
wears polyester although she likes textiles. I don't know
anyone who wears unpleasantly scratchy polyester. So she's
a contradiction in terms, and when Derrick speaks to her in
broken German, she replies in better German. She's spotted
him following her and doesn't know what to do about it;
breaking the cardinal rule of shadowing he's followed her
by himself for three days. But that's not against the law,
is it? And she's a stranger in England.
Lynn Kurland has written several time-travel romances and
this book may delight her fans, but I did find it hard to
get into, reading as a standalone. Her settings are filled
with copious detail and she gets into the minds and
motivations of her characters, however there is not much
action and she refers to unhackable phones and other
gimmicks. I liked the concepts she presents in ROSES IN
MOONLIGHT and I might read it again after trying her
earlier works.
From the author of Dreamspinner and A Dance Through Time...
ESCAPING INTO THE PAST
Derrick Cameron, antiquities dealer and adventurer, is
furious when the priceless piece of Elizabethan lace he's
been pursuing slips right by him, in the improbable custody
of a mousy textile historian! But he will retrieve it, even
if it means dragging a very skeptical, albeit adorable,
Samantha back in time with him. After all, he is used to
living dangerously—in whatever century he finds himself.
Conscientious Samantha Drummond never dreamed the package
her British employer gave her would lead her into places an
ordinary gal should never go—like Elizabethan England!—or
throw her into the company of one extremely attractive, but
highly suspect Highlander who not only thinks she's a thief,
but insists on involving her in his mad schemes to retrieve
his stolen treasure.
CAN LEAD YOU STRAIGHT INTO YOUR FUTURE
Trapped first in Elizabethan England, then caught in a web
of modern-day intrigues, Samantha and Derrick are forced
into an unlikely alliance by peril, never imagining that
what they're forging is a timeless love....