Wednesday, June 30, 2021

HISTORICAL (time-traveling) ROMANCE BOOK REVIEW : Time's Dagger by Margot Hovley

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ABOUT THE BOOK

After a rough stint at work in the ER, Dillon Kelly is more than a little ready for a vacation when he packs his bags and sets off on a camping trip in the wilds of Ireland. But when a mysterious dagger covered in druidic markings appears in his backpack, Dillon finds himself hurtled into the fourteenth century. Thrust into the legends and politics of ancient Ireland, he is rescued from suspicious locals by a beautiful young woman named Ailish.

Ailish has always dreamed of being a bard, but there’s just one problem: women aren’t allowed. Determined to follow her heart, Ailish has fooled everyone into thinking she’s a boy—everyone, that is, except for Dillon. He’s agreed to keep her secret in exchange for her help in finding his way home to his own time. Despite the impossible barriers between them, feelings beyond friendship soon blossom. But more than just their budding romance is in danger. Ailish isn’t the only one who recognizes the dagger’s druidic significance, and there are those who would stop at nothing to harness its time-bending powers.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Margot Hovley grew up a country kid in Washington State, where she filled the tedious hours of farm chores with an overactive imagination. She loves her work with her church’s international magazines, but fiction writing is her favorite creative outlet. Time’s Dagger is her third published full-length novel. She lives in northern Utah at the foot of her beloved mountains, where she chases chickens and grandchildren and teaches piano to the somewhat willing. Helping run the family business is hectic, but she loves working with her husband, Art, and several of the Hovley children. How she finds time for writing is both a miracle and a mystery.

REVIEW

Time travel can be a tricky plot device to get right.  It combines fictional science or magic (depending on the approach) with history and is difficult to make believable.  That's why I don't read a lot of stories involving time travel.  When I started reading this one though I was immediately intrigued.  Dillon makes a great sympathetic character who is tired and frustrated with his life and travels with his brother to Ireland for a holiday of backpacking and enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside.  What he doesn't expect is to be called to a hospital where a total stranger calls him by name and insists he take a dagger.  Leaving the dagger behind, Dillion is later surprised to find it in his backpack.  He shrugs off the strange encounter until a nap under a tree next to the dagger sends him back in time to the fourteenth century.  There he runs into Ailish, an Irish lass, who is disguised as a boy so she can pursue her dream of being a druidic bard.  When she sees the Druidic markings on his dagger she immediately wants her Druid teacher to see it.  She also hopes to convince her teacher to keep teaching her once he finds out she is a woman.

Things get complicated though when Ailish must take Dillon back to the castle where she works as a bard, and Dillon meets and befriends the son of a baron, whose life he saved.  Dillon isn't comfortable in this time period and he hopes Ailish's teacher can help him figure out how to get home.  But with the man away from home, he and Ailish must wait for his return.  In the meantime, things take a turn as Dillon and Ailish's feelings take a turn for the romantic.  And it turns out that Dillion has shared a little too much information with the wrong person putting both him and Ailish at risk.

In addition to the sweet romance and fun time confusion that Dillon experiences, the historical details are fascinating.  The natural scenery that Hovley describes made me want to visit the time and place (not the castle or society so much).  The author includes enough details to give the reader a feel for the difference in time and place that Dillon experiences as well as the life that Ailish has lived.  But there aren't so many details that the story gets bogged down.

Dillon and Ailish are great characters who find themselves connecting strongly despite the rather large differences between them.  When it comes to time travel stories, romances can always be a bit tricky.  I mean does the person from the future stay in the past, the person from the past travel to the future?  Or are the pair doomed to be separated forever?  So I was curious to see how the romance played out.  I'll admit I was a bit surprised by the way the story turns out, but it works for this particular story.  

The supernatural elements introduced throughout the story made the time travel elements acceptable and suitable for the story.  I enjoyed this quick read, especially the humor of future technology and knowledge in the past as well as the romance and historical details.  The author does a fine job creating an entertaining, enjoyable story for those looking to escape our own time for a short read.

GIVEAWAY




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