Sandy M’s review of Only You by Laura Glenn
Historical paranormal romance ebook released by Cerridwen Press 28 Feb 08

It was very difficult for me to get into this book. The time travel part of it is pretty good, the way the heroine is thrown back into time and the era the author has chosen to write about. It’s the main characters that fell a little short. There’s not that extra something that makes them characters you love and you’ll remember later.

When these two characters meet after Kaitlyn has traveled back into the time of America’s Civil War, there is an immediate attraction, but then everything moves too fast and these two strangers have their hands all over one another when Kaitlyn should be more worried, frightened, amazed — something — over the fact she’s 200 years in the past. And Gabriel is an officer and a gentleman of his day, so he should be showing a little more restraint so early on. There’s always time later for growing passion and loss of control — at the right time. It just felt like Kaitlyn’s travel isn’t fleshed out enough in the beginning before jumping into the sexual part of the book.

Katilyn and Gabriel are likeable characters. We get to know them only a little bit and we need to know so much more to make us love them. I would have preferred that over the vacillation of Kaitlyn worrying whether Gabriel really cares for her or not. That type of scene is played out once or twice too many. Gabriel even does the same thing but just not quite as often. They need to be delved into much deeper to make us relate to them more than we do.

The secondary characters aren’t bad. I did enjoy Gabriel’s mother, especially when she’s seen through Kaitlyn’s eyes. James Clark is a nice addition for some friction between the main characters. I think Eileen is a character that could have been used to a better extent, especially when we know early on something happens to her, just not what. But I’m thinking that could be a second book for the author. If not, then using her more effectivly and not telling us what happens to her is a grave mistake. I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt at this point.

I would have liked to have seen some of the action of war from Gabriel’s point of view while he’s actually in the midst of it instead of just thinking about it. Even once would have been fine, just something to show us what it’s like from a soldier’s perspective, especially much later in the book when all Gabriel wants is to get back to Kaitlyn. The one scene we are given is the end result of some fighting and is described quite well, an aftermath of blood and death, and it adds so much to the story. Another scene or two of actual battles would have added a lot more depth.

As an aside, there’s way too much eye rolling going on in this book. Between practically every character rolling their eyes at another character in exasperation or either Gabriel’s or Kaitlyn’s eyes rolling back in their heads in the throes of passion, I started rolling my eyes every time that phrased was used after the first couple. It’s apparently contagious. There’s so many other ways to express sexual heat or irritation with another character, I couldn’t figure out why this one way is used so darned often. It gets a bit monotonous after a time.

If Kaitlyn and Gabriel were more developed to make me care more than I did, this would have been a much better book. As it stands, it’s only average.

Grade: C

Summary:

     As soon as Kaitlyn McCann finished her PhD dissertation on women’s contributions to the American Revolution she would be on her way to a comfortable and predictable existence in the world of academia–just as her father had wanted. A life stuck in a library all day was the perfect routine for a shy, aspiring professor.

     But when a strange fog sweeps her two hundred years into the past and into the arms of the heavily-muscled, gallant older brother of one of her research subjects, she begins to see how much pleasure can be found in unpredictability.

     Irish-born Captain Gabriel O’Connor is a man who values his control. But when he rescues Kaitlyn from an attack by drunken soldiers, the combination of brains and beauty in this one headstrong woman is enough to send his well-ordered life into a tail spin. All he has to do is survive hell to ensure she remains his forever.

     Read an excerpt.

[Ed.:  I drooled all over my keyboard looking at that cover.  Here it is in larger format for the visually impaired (a.k.a. the rest of you pervs who join me in my lust).]