Isobel MacInnes is visiting her grandfather in Scotland
when she uncovers a strange metallic box in a peat bank.
She is an archaeologist, and knows she shouldn't, but she
still unearths it and brings it back to UCLA.
FORGED IN DREAMS AND MAGICK is the first of a time travel -
Highland romance series. I'd read the second, set firmly
in thirteenth century Scotland, and decided I needed to
read the first to see exactly how the time travelling took
place. Well, apparently it occurs when a woman kisses a
Scottish man while holding the box. This particular Scot,
Iain Brodie, has already made a similar journey forward to
Isobel's time. Isobel, reeling from her first real kiss,
is shocked to find herself in a crude stone room with a man
in plaid clothing. Iain tells her that the clan laird uses
the box to find his soul mate to strengthen the clan. She
insists on trying to go home at once, but it doesn't work
again... seems she's stuck.
Sensibly for a time traveller, Isobel decides she had
better blend in with the locals, and accepts hospitality
from Iain. I liked the way that this academic adapted to
medieval life in a cold castle. She finds Iain attractive,
but she doesn't want to marry him! Isobel's accent and
manners are explained by stating that she is English, as
these people don't know of the Americas. However the
English are not universally popular in Scotland, and Isobel
has to watch her step, even among friendly red-haired
lasses and the handsomest men she's ever seen. Besides
which, she's caffeine-deprived. At least she has one
advantage; she's taken archery lessons. But time travel
isn't finished with her - she's yet to meet primitive
Picts.
There is so much to read that it is hard to pick
out what I enjoyed the most, with battles, romance and a
love triangle through time. If you like action in your
highland tales or just enjoy time travel with good solid
characters FORGED IN DREAMS AND MAGICK is a fine read.
Kat Bastion's award-winning debut in the Highland Legends Series:
Isobel MacInnes wakes up in present-day California, lunches in medieval Scotland, and by ten days’ end, falls in love with a man and his country, only to lose them in a heart-wrenching twist of fate . . .
Found in the arms of her second soul mate . . .
Forced to balance the delicate strands of time between two millennia . . .
Shocked by revelations rewriting the very foundations of history . . . of everything.
Isobel, a rising-star archaeology student, is dropped into two ancient worlds without warning . . . or her permission. Her fiery spirit resists the dependency thrust upon her. Amid frustration at her lack of control, she helplessly falls in love. Twice.
She struggles to adjust to the unimaginable demands of two leaders of men—a laird in the thirteenth-century Highlands and a Pict chieftain in a more ancient Scotland. Isobel transforms from an academic, hell-bent on obtaining archaeological recognition, to a woman striving to care for those she loves, and ultimately . . . into a fearless warrior risking everything to protect them.