Sandy M’s review of With Every Breath (The MacLeods, Book 11) by Lynn Kurland
Historical Time Travel Romance released by Jove 27 May 08

Once I pick up a time travel, the bug hits me all over again and I want another as quickly as I can put my hands on one.  Time travels are my favorite paranormals to read, and one of the best at them is Lynn Kurland.  I’ve not read all of her books yet.  I save them and savor them.  I don’t want to run out of her books and have to wait a year or more for the next to be released.  So, suffice it to say, I had a wonderful time reading this latest in her MacLeod series.

One of the things I really like about this series is that everyone in the MacLeod family knows there’s time travel portals all over their property.  Jamie has even mapped the portals out and hands out a copy to everyone living there.  That includes Sunshine Phillips, whose sister did her fair share of time traveling and ended up married to Jamie’s brother, Patrick.  Sunny has decided to stay in Scotland at Jamie’s request.  She loves the rain and tending her garden.  She also longs for a man of her own, a man just like Jamie and Patrick, but knowing medieval men are hard to find in this day and age, she keeps dreaming while staying away from those portals.

Until one night there’s a knock on her door from someone asking for help.  She agrees to accompany this handsome man who thinks she’s the MacLeod Witch.  Well, in a way she is.  He takes her to the Cameron keep where she finds a man dying and unfortunately she’s unable to save him.  Eventually she figures out she’s no longer in modern day Scotland, but there in a time when dying in such a way is all too common.  Robert Cameron is the laird who has a tenuous hold on his clan, and when she finds the portal near her home is not willing to allow her to return home, she has no choice but to stay with Cam and hope he can protect her from those who would do her harm.

Having lost his brothers in this latest battle, Cam now has no one at his back whenever his cousin decides to take Cam out of the picture and make himself laird.  He’s tired of all the fighting, especially now that Sunshine is in his life.  When things don’t quite work out the way he planned, he tosses his duty aside and goes to the future with Sunny.  But those plans don’t work out just right either.  Cam ends up in a time not his own, but there’s an eight-year time span between him and his love, a love he now can’t remember.  And as much as Sunny wants him to remember once she finds him again, as much as she tries to help him remember, nothing works.  Again, duty keeps him from her, so she decides to go back to the states where she won’t have to see him, long for him, knowing she can never have him.

Cam has other ideas, however, once he spends some time in Sunny’s company.  He doesn’t know why, but she’s so familiar to him and he begins to fall for her.  Even having to deal with those MacLeods is fine by him if he can be by her side.  Asking Sunny to trust him, he goes about cleaning up the mess of his life, but even as careful as he is, Sunny gets caught up in the craziness.  There’s a couple of interesting turns the plot takes, so if you think you have it all figured out, you’re going to be wrong.

I enjoyed reading about Jamie and Patrick and their families again.  In fact, Jamie has always been my favorite Kurland character for a while now, but Cam is definitely giving him a good run for his money.  Though he’s a medieval warrior, I love his sensitivity.  The scene where Sunny and others pledge fealty to him is just wonderful.  He holds his own with those MacLeod boys.  Sunny goes through the ups and downs a woman does when faced with losing the man she’s waited so long for, but she always picks herself up and keeps going, making a decision when necessary and doing what she feels is right.  As with all of Ms. Kurland’s books, I’m thoroughly taken with this one.

Grade: A+

Summary:

Sunshine Phillips’ heart lies in Scotland, a land of rain, legend, and dangerously handsome Highland lords. She longs to call the magical place home, but after a day which includes such delights as blackening the eye of her lecherous boss and changing a flat tire in a chilly spring deluge, she’ll settle for an evening spent curled up in front of a fire with a cup of tea. But what Sunny wants is not what Sunny gets…

When Robert Cameron pounds on Sunny’s door, he isn’t paying a social call. With one brother killed in battle and another fighting for his life, the medieval laird has braved a trip onto enemy soil to fetch the MacLeod witch, a crone rumored to have healing powers. But the woman who opens her door to him is enchanting and young—and not from his century.

Now, it seems that they’ve both found just what they need—if only time will let them keep it.

No excerpt available.

Other books in this series (in suggested reading order):