Time Travel

Blog Tour| Crossing In Time by D.L. Orton

June 17, 2020 Yvonne 1 Comment

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book contains themes unsuitable for readers under 17. Contains drugs, sex and or abuse

crossing in time by d l orton - Blog Tour| Crossing In Time by D.L. Orton

Crossing in Time by D. L. Orton
Published by Rocky Mountain Press on April 1, 2015
ISBN: 9781941368138
Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Romance, Suspense, Action & Adventure, Young Adult Fiction, Social Themes, Emotions & Feelings, General, Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic, Thrillers & Suspense, Young Adult
Pages: 480
Source: Author
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

three stars - Blog Tour| Crossing In Time by D.L. Orton

The past isn't over, it's an opening; the future isn't hidden, it's a trap. If she ever wants to see him again, she'll have to take the risk...
They say that true love transcends space and time, but what if your lover is murdered, and you're given the chance to go back in time to warn his much-younger self? You climb into the time machine, knowing it might kill you in a matter of hours...
Only to discover he doesn't believe you. In fact, he thinks you're one fry short of a Happy Meal. (Oh, and you're supposed to save the world while you're at it. Go figure.)
Fall into this "engaging, funny, romantic & harrowing" (Publishers Weekly ⭐️'d Review) time-travel love story and prepare to encounter a finicky time machine, a mysterious seashell, and a very clever dog (some sex, some swearing, some violence, but no vampires and absolutely no ditzes.)
If there's only one love story you read this year, this is it.

Crossing in Time truly does transcend genres, I never felt I was able to fully pin down a specific genre. It’s heavy in science fiction with a romantic element underpinning its DNA. It drums a love story through its veins, one that lasts the ages and time and you should be aware of this if you delve into its pages. I was gifted an audio copy of the book and I wasn’t disappointed at the realism and the sheer talent of the narrators in bringing this story to life. The passion they both felt for the story was conveyed and it made it a truly immersive experience.

I’m such a huge fan of dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels. It just taps into the part of my brain that thinks she would have the necessary skills it would take to survive in a ravaged world. Maybe therefore I love watching tv programs like The Walking Dead and Birdbox, or maybe I just have a masochistic way of thinking. There’s just something so frightening and different from the way we all know and the lives we are living that it is like my own personal drug. The story was hugely enjoyable, and it certainly got those synapses firing.

Crossing in Time does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s about time travel, one of my favourite science fiction tropes. Isabel is a Geneticist and Diego is a software engineer. What would you do if you were given the opportunity to salvage your relationship which would then in turn stop the impending apocalypse from destroying everything you knew? She has her crack team helping her build and develop a time machine. Everything hangs in the balance. Can she save her relationship and stop the earth meeting its doom? Stay tuned.

Truthfully, I wasn’t entirely sure that this was the right time to be reading this novel. Scarily, it seemed to have a lot of parallels to the life we are currently experiencing. God, wouldn’t it be amazing to have access to a time machine that would allow us to halt the deadly spread of Covid-19 and literally save hundreds of thousands of lives. Extreme food for thought and constantly I felt that Crossing in Time plunged me into instances of deep thought – liked it!

The characters were extremely likable, and you couldn’t help but root for them during the entirety of the novel. They could have been your mates down the street, a relation or a work colleague. They dealt with pain and suffering with dignity but had your heart cracking into hundreds of pieces – I’m not sure that I found all the pieces again. One specific scene really did have me in tears, the narrative was heartbreakingly traumatic, and I wanted to reach out and hug Isabel. I love a book that can break me like that!

I did find the Crossing in Time a bit slow at the start and the contrasting element of the present and the time travel had me in a muddle initially but the second half of the book more than made up for that. It was a stunningly breath-taking examination of love and hope and above all strength.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DL ORTON, THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR of the BETWEEN TWO EVILS series, lives in the foothills of the Rockies where she and her husband are raising three boys, a golden retriever, two Siberian cats, and an extremely long-lived Triops.♂‍

In her spare time, she’s building a time machine so that someone can go back and do the laundry.

D.L. Orton Website

Voyager (Outlander #3) by Diana Gabaldon

July 24, 2019 Yvonne 3 Comments

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon
Published by Doubleday Canada on December 17, 2010
ISBN: 9780385674683
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Time Travel, Fantasy, Historical, General
Pages: 912
Format: Paperback
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

three stars - Voyager (Outlander #3) by Diana Gabaldon

From the author of the breathtaking bestsellers Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber, the extraordinary saga continues.
Their passionate encounter happened long ago by whatever measurement Claire Randall took. Two decades before, she had traveled back in time and into the arms of a gallant eighteenth-century Scot named Jamie Fraser. Then she returned to her own century to bear his child, believing him dead in the tragic battle of Culloden. Yet his memory has never lessened its hold on her... and her body still cries out for him in her dreams.
Then Claire discovers that Jamie survived. Torn between returning to him and staying with their daughter in her own era, Claire must choose her destiny. And as time and space come full circle, she must find the courage to face the passion and pain awaiting her...the deadly intrigues raging in a divided Scotland... and the daring voyage into the dark unknown that can reunite—or forever doom—her timeless love.

We continue onwards with Jamie and Claire’s story with Voyager. Twenty years have passed since Claire passed back through the stones again leaving the love of her life behind and emerging back in the future Pregnant with Jamie’s daughter, Brianna. Can an absent love survive the test of time? A tale of a lost love, duty and pain. I was really looking forward to getting stuck into this one but there was a few things that left me feeling supremely disappointed, this is upsetting as I was fully invested in Claire and Jamie’s story.

I started this book over a week ago (this is an unusually large amount of time for me to spend reading a book -even in the summer holidays). The start had me gripped but as I got further into the story it did seem to drag a fair bit and it took a long time to get to the main part of the storyline. Undoubtedly the research that has gone into the storyline was impeccable and done with such passion I cannot fault it but on a more character arc building front it fell short in places.

Themes of domestic violence, abduction, changes of power and chaos and order run prevalent through the book and are done to great extent and gave great clarity to the run up of events to Culloden and the subsequent years of Jamie’s life. Jamie didn’t just suffer the injustice of having to lose Claire- who really is the other half of him, he lost the child that he would never see be born, grow up and marry herself. There obviously was an element of grief and suffering for those reasons alone. The living alone – Jamie was deeply lonely and craved for nothing but to be with Claire again was hard to read. Jamie is a deeply selfless human and the fact he put so many others before himself made him a hugely relatable character.

The story flits between Claire’s time and Jamie’s and that worked particularly well in my opinion. Up until now we didn’t know what happened in the time between Culloden ending and Claire returning and living her life bringing up Brianna and living with Frank. Did Claire just settle back into married life with Frank? How much did she tell him? Did Jamie escape his jail term? Did he move on from his one love? The timeline moved smoothly along for me and it didn’t have me confused to where we were in the story.

The one single thing that knocked my rating down to 3 stars was Jamie and Claire’s reunion in the printers in Edinburgh. This was meant to be the big moment – they hadn’t seen each other in twenty years. Neither thought they would ever see each other again and it was the most underwhelming scene I could have read regarding the hype of how they could never love another the way they do for each other. Seriously if it was me there would be no meek little hello…jumping bones would have been the order of the moment. That’s what I had expected for such a sexualised couple.

“Do ye want me?” he whispered. “Sassenach, will ye take me – and risk the man that I am, for the sake of the man ye knew?”

Lots happen in the book, but I don’t want to spoil the main plot for those that haven’t read the books yet. However, one character makes a reappearance and I was shocked to hell and how just god damn crazy that person is and the lengths that they would stoop to in order to get their own way. Overall, still a great addition to the Outlander story with a few surprises, a lot of loving and a whole heap of swashbuckling along the way!

Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander #2) by Diana Gabaldon

July 10, 2019 Yvonne 8 Comments

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon
Published by Doubleday Canada on December 17, 2010
ISBN: 9780385674669
Genres: Fiction, Historical, General, Fantasy, Romance, Time Travel
Pages: 976
Format: Paperback
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

four stars - Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander #2) by Diana Gabaldon

From the author of Outlander... a magnificent epic that once again sweeps us back in time to the drama and passion of 18th-century Scotland...
For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland's majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ...about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ...and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his ....
Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire's spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ...in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ...and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves....

Claire and Jamie return in a story of time travel, epic romance and historic foretelling. The second instalment opens with Claire returning to the Highlands with her grown daughter Brianna. Frank has passed on and Claire is a trained doctor. Brianna of course, doesn’t know the true reason for the visit, Claire plans on using the guise of the visit to tell her who her father really is…not Frank Randall. Claire promised Jamie that she would name the baby after his father, Brian.

Claire visits the reverends adoptive son, Rodger Wakefield Mackenzie (a descendant of Dougal Mackenzie). They visit all the old sites, criag na dun, Wentworth Prison, and a visit to Culloden. It is deeply upsetting for Claire, Jamie is the love she has never been able to get over. She obviously did love Frank, but nothing could hold a candle to the love she held for Jamie and him for her. God did I feel for Claire, Brianna was described as the double of her father, she left being completely sure that the love of her life was facing death and she could do nothing about it. I’m not ashamed to say that I cried ugly tears.

“I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower’s stem”.

Rodger discovers that his adoptive father kept quite extensive records on the period of time that Claire went missing. Records on Johnathon Randall (black Jack) and excerpts on one Jamie Fraser and newspaper clippings when Claire suddenly reappeared after a long period of time, pregnant and confused. Rodger has his suspicions regarding Claire’s behaviour, she seems sad, introspect and constantly seems in a different place. Claire takes them both to Criag Na Dun and confess that Brianna’s father is James Alexander Malcolm Fraser, not Frank Randall and explains the story of falling into the stones. The story then takes off from where book one finished.

“I will find you,” he whispered in my ear. “I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you – then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is the one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest.”

Their story takes us to France, Jamie was banished from Scotland due to treason and being wanted for murder, so they had no choice but to go to France. Claire, Jamie and Murtagh landed in France and from Claire’s knowledge of the future they aim to find some way to change the future of a very historic battle, Culloden. Jamie needs to save his Clan, he knows what the end result could be, and he’ll do anything to change it. The chapters based in France was so weird, Claire endured so much, Jamie had also been broke and now comes face to face once again with Black Jack Randall. Why the fuck can’t this sadist just die? Claire goes through hell (the baby, the king of France – what an absolute fruit loop that guy is.)

There is a large collection of secondary characters we are introduced to that melt your heart and love them just like you love Claire and Jamie. Fergus – the little French boy that Jamie takes him into his employ as a pickpocket. His personality is so very loveable and adores and love Jamie just like a father.

After the events in France Claire, Jamie, Fergus and Murtagh are sent back to Scotland. There are several battles (Preston pans and Falkirk), support for Bonnie Prince Charlie is growing and now has the support of the Mackenzie’s. Jamie has no choice but to lead his men in Culloden. The battle happens and by god it’s the saddest thing ever.

The ending, oh my dear heart. The ending tore me open and left me bleeding. Jamie sends Claire back through the stones back to her time. She’s pregnant and he needs her to be safe for the baby’s sake. The love making was heart wrenching. The absolute selflessness of Jamie, gah. Jamie cuts Claire at her request so that she always has his mark on her. This is a love story that transcends all time and space.

I really hope Book 3 doesn’t have this amount of heartbreak it in it.

His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me.

“Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.”

Outlander (Outlander #1) by Diana Gabaldon

June 26, 2019 coycaterpillar 16 Comments

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Published by Doubleday Canada on December 22, 2010
ISBN: 9780385674676
Genres: Fiction, Romance, Time Travel, Fantasy, Historical, General
Pages: 896
Format: Paperback
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

five stars - Outlander (Outlander #1) by Diana Gabaldon

Claire Randall is leading a double life. She has a husband in one century, and a lover in another...
In 1945, Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon—when she innocently touches a boulder in one of the ancient stone circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an "outlander"—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of our Lord...1743.
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire's destiny in soon inextricably intertwined with Clan MacKenzie and the forbidden Castle Leoch. She is catapulted without warning into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life ...and shatter her heart. For here, James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a passion so fierce and a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire...and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.

First of all let me start this review by saying that the characterisation and world-building by Gabaldon is stunningly beautiful. Your mind runs away with you imagining a dangerous but flawless highland countryside. It’s always a time I’ve wanted to have a peek at. Being a very proud patriot member of this wee country, it brought a sense of pride where we have come from.

For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary.

Claire Randall…Can stand toe to toe with any Highlander

We first meet English nurse, Claire in 1945 in the Scottish Highlands with her husband Frank. This is a second honeymoon for them after the spoils of war had kept them apart for the best part of seven years. Whilst collecting flowers for her keen interest in botany, she discovers a humming noise coming from the standing stones. She is transported back in time via a cleft stone to 1743. It is here that she comes face-to-face with her husband Frank’s evil ancestor, Captain Jack Randall (Black Jack). During their confrontation she is rescued/captured by a rival clan. Claire first meets a dashing, James Fraser whilst resetting his shoulder and nursing him back to health. The two are inexoribly intertwined when Claire is forced to marry young Mr Fraser to keep her out of the hands of Black Jack. Her strength of character is tested time and time again through perilous situations, witch trials and standing up for her own voice and concerns. She has the scottish strength of spirit instilled in her and she’s as fiery as the rest of us. She adapted well to the time and place, but better than I think I would and she brought incredible knowledge with her and used it for the greater good whilst she was in that time.

“You are safe,” he said firmly. “You have my name and my family, my clan, and if necessary, the protection of my body as well. The man willna lay hands on ye again, while I live.”

Diana Gabaldon is an incredible writer and although I haven’t read any historical fiction before, this has given me the gusto to try the rest of the series and possibly dip into the historical fiction genre more. The details pertaining to the 18th century and more particularly the events leading upto the Jacobite rising of 1745 were incredibly authentic. The character development was rich and fulfilling and each character had multi faceted elements which had me relating to the characters all in different ways. I was over the moon at Diana’s magical descriptions of the world she was building. I used to live in the highlands, about an hours drive from Inverness and everything was very realistic. I was very happy that she stuck to the true nature of the highlands.

There is so much to love about this story. Claire and Jamie, in my opinion, are the ultimate power couple to have ever graced the pages of a novel. They are the couple that the word Soul Mate were made for. Soul mates transcend time, they both just had to wait a long time for each other. This book evoked an emotional reaction in me with one particular scene upsetting me so profoundly. Jamie has to endure the worst kind of attack in order to protect Claire. I fully understand why he took this action but it was heartbreaking none the less. The retelling of what exactly went on and the mental and physical effect of this was just crushing for all involved.

Attention to detail – AMAZING

Meticulously Researched – ABSOLUTELY.

Time Travel

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Claire Randall…Can stand toe to toe with any Highlander

Footer