Sandy M’s review of Ladies Prefer Rogues by Janet Chapman, Sandra Hill, Veronica Wolff and Trish Jensen
Time Travel Romance anthology published by Berkley 2 Feb 10
I’m not a huge fan of anthologies. Sometimes they work for me, but most of the time they don’t. It takes an exceptional author to pull off a short story in the same vein as a novel, giving a reader characters to love, an intriguing storyline, and all those other things we look for. I had pretty good hopes for this time travel anthology. Two of the authors have given me great stories before, one hasn’t, and one I had yet to read, so I didn’t know what to expect. You can say I’m certainly surprised now that it’s all said and done.
Man from the Moon by Janet Chapman
Ms. Chapman is one of my favorite time travel authors. I’ve read her entire Highlander series to date and have loved every one of them. This novella is futuristic, so just slightly different from her Highlanders.
Warriors travel to present-day earth to try to save mankind from a catastrophic event that will happen in the future. When one of them is injured, they mistake veterinarian Isobel for an M.D.
Isobel is a strong, intelligent, and very capable woman, although one who has not been lucky in love. As she spends time with these extraordinary men, she begins to believe their story and eventually agrees to help them the best she can in their monumental and incredible task.
In the end she may have to make the ultimate sacrifice, or will she find the love that has always been out of her before?
Grade: B
Summary:
In Maine four men abduct Isobel the veterinarian because their leader Daniel has a tree limb rooted into his body. She is to care for him although she is not a human doctor. They conceal they search for an extinct animal to save mankind in their time, 2243.
No excerpt found.
Tomorrow Is Another Day by Sandra Hill
At the time I read this Sandra Hill story, I’d read only one other of her books and I didn’t care for it much at all. In fact, I didn’t finish it. So things didn’t bode well for me when I began this short one. And things did not get better.
As the title indicates, there’s a sort of leaning toward Gone with the Wind, but even that doesn’t save this mess. The time travel portion is actually okay. The heroine is thrown back to 1870 where she meets a man who looks eerily like someone she met in present day. What I didn’t like about this story is the attitudes of both the hero and the heroine.
Laurent is a man of his time, struggling to keep his plantation up and running. Margo, being the modern woman she is, doesn’t try to blend in other than donning clothes she’s not used to. He wants nothing to do with her, she pities him at times, but they end up in bed in no time flat. She even goes behind his back in what she calls helping out, not bothering to think ahead about how Laurent might react to such a thing, which turns out to be an over-the-top reaction that didn’t endear him to me one bit.
From the beginning there wasn’t anything that made me like these two characters, so I never really cared what happened to them throughout the story. There’s just too much silliness going on that I didn’t enjoy much about them.
Grade: F
Summary:
Navy Seals Cage LeBlanc and Sly Simms register their buddy Larry Wilson on the Extreme Dating web site. He is unaware why women keep showing up to date him until his buddies explain what they did to him. He travels to New Orleans to meet owner Margo Baptiste. When an elevator crashes with her inside, she ends up in 1870 where she meets siblings Lette and Laurent Duvall. Margo quickly becomes a matchmaker though she is attracted to Laurent who looks like Larry.
No excerpt found.
The Drowning Sex by Veronica Wolff
I’m becoming more of a fan of Veronica Wolff with each book I read, especially due to the fact I wasn’t all that thrilled with her first two. She gets better and better with time. This novella is my second favorite of the four.
What is done so well is how Ms. Wolff connects past and present for these characters, and love and death which transcend time. Iain has spent twenty years trying to forget how his love died at the hands of her father and also wanting to avenge her death. He’s now an infamous pirate when fate once again intervenes in his life.
You have to read this one for yourself, because to say any more will just give too much away. Let’s just say you’ll love the twists that you’ll never expect.
Grade: A
Summary:
In 1662, Iain sees his beloved love, Cassie die from a stab wound as her father prepares to hang him. He escapes becoming a cabin boy for a privateer. Two decades later he is notorious pirate Black John MacNab still waiting to avenge his loss.
No excerpt found.
Sixteen Decades by Trish Jensen
I’ve not read Ms. Jensen before, but after such enjoyment with this short story, I’m pulling her books from the TBR pile as soon as possible. This one is my favorite.
Maggie has just learned she’s inherited a brothel. Before she has time to really figure out what her father was thinking, she’s knocked out, trussed up and thrown into a shed, only to awaken sixteen decades in the future. She knows the sheriff did it.
Investigating a missing person case, Ty discovers a woman in a shed on the the Rooster Ranch property who believes he’s the culprit behind her captivity. She insists she’s a teacher from 1850, and as he gets to know her, he begins to believe every word she says and fall in love with her in the process.
Learning that it’s a world of difference for women between her time and present day, Maggie is getting used to being her own person in this strange new land. The only thing is, can she trust that sheriff’s ancestor with her heart?
Grade: A
Summary:
In Little Fork, Nevada, Sheriff Ty Coltraine is with Rooster Ranch madam Fannie Mae investigating a missing person’s case. He hears a plea for help and finds Margaret “Maggie” Prescott who insists she was a teacher in 1850 who inherited a ranch from her father only to learn it was a brothel; someone knocked her out and locked her in a shed. She thinks his ancestor is the guilty party.
No excerpt found.
So this anthology is just so-so on one hand for me, but on the other I’ve found a new author to enjoy and two others who I know will keep giving me great stories in the future. I do have to confess that since reading this book I have read one of Sandra Hill’s Viking novels, and I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. So I’m going to be giving her another go when I come across another of those books I have stashed away.
All-in-all, not as bad a time as I thought I’d have with an anthology.
Overall Grade: B
