Where Genres Collide Traci Dowe YA Author

Book Review: Love Across Time by Anne Meredith

Traci Kenworth

376 pages        St. Martin’s paperbacks 1995

Hook line: In her dreams, the man calls her name.

Lindsey runs in fear of a portrait Jonathan showed her. It’s the man from her dreams

every summer she returns to Windsor Hall(Jonathan’s aunt owns, Lindsey’s Grandma brings her there.). The ghost haunts the grounds the keeper says. His granddaddy knew him and he was the saddest man alive. He was also a murderer.

Years pass and Lindsey is hiding from her father, Edward Quinn at Windsor Hall. She

doesn’t remember him. All he cares about is himself her Grandma says. His super model wife won’t have children. She thinks it’ll ruin her body. Grandma sends Lindsey to hide out with Joanathan and Irene. Lindsey hasn’t seen Jonathan in six years.

Jonathan finds her and hides her down passageway leading to the old room in which

Confederate soldiers had been hid from Union patrols. It had been the painting that kept her away. Her grandmother parted ways with her telling her to trust the legend of the Callahan women for it’s true.

“In saving his life, hers will be saved, and a new life be found.” The legend is that a

Callahan woman saved King’s life by betraying the man she loved. He granted one wish to her ever century. She asked for the man who tried to kill him, to be freed. They were banished from England forever.

A knock sounds on the door they came through. Her daddy knows she’s in there.

Jonathan is shot in a struggle with her father’s men. He tells her to make a good wish before he dies. She wishes to go back, to change the man who made Jonathan’s family unhappy. A peculiar woman appears telling her about three centuries, three wishes, the last to save the heir to the rightful throne. She leads Lindsey into fog and tells she must change a heart, to save a life, to fulfill a wish.

She finds Devlin Windsor and tells him it’s all right, she’s there. He lets go of her and

she finds herself escorted by Miss Cora Brody, Shannon Windsor’s great aunt. She’s there to be a governess to him by word of Emily Van Kirk, the wish granter. Shannon never knew his father (Devlin’s brother), he died in Civil War and his mother died giving birth to him. Agrees to one month trial or she leaves without pay.

Devlin rides in and looks up at her window with such yearning. She finds spiders in her

bed. Devlin enters. Miss Brody mutters about “that boy.” Shannon looks like Jonathan as a boy. Lindsey instantly loves. Lindsey learns from Cora that she expects Devlin to be engaged to Cynthia McKenzie in a month.

Lindsey takes Shannon for a ride and gets a hard-to-control mount. Devlin saves her from

cliff. She expects him to fire her after she kisses his throat on an intimate double ride but he doesn’t. Cora determines to fire her but Devlin hires her back. The copperhead penny she wears is a symbol of Southern sympathizers, Devlin tells her. She removes it. Kendrick was not Devlin’s older brother but his younger twin. He died not in war, but defending a woman of ill repute’s honor. He does care about Shannon. And he’s not at all anxious to marry Cynthia.

Devlin’s father was no blue blood. He was illegitimate. He married an Irish barmaid and

came to a new world. Devlin and Kendrick were on opposite sides of the war. Devlin, Union; Kendrick, Confederate. War changed Kendrick. Both suffered shrapnel to back. They fought and loved same woman since birth. Devlin murdered Kendrick over her.

Devlin shows kindness to Shannon and Lindsey gets her first glimpse of Cynthia. The

two seem intimate. Cora is angry over Devlin’s change in attitude and the fact that Lindsey doesn’t know Latin. Devlin says there’s a teacher in town. Devlin had forgotten how old Shannon is. He sends a new wardrobe Lindsey’s way for a ball for Shannon. He refuses to let her not attend. He says women are deceitful. She tells him a woman would be a fool to love him.

At the dance, Lindsey realizes she loves Devlin. When she returns to Shannon and he

opens her gifts, Cynthia McKenzie enters. Lindsey is shocked to see Cynthia is Shannon’s mother. Cynthia is very ill. The woman bids Lindsey to visit her. She lives on the landing. Lindsey dances with Cynthia’s brother, Colin, who is bitter about loses his family’s estate. Colin says Cynthia will never marry Yankee Devlin.

Devlin and Lindsey end up on a balcony in an alcove thanks to Shannon. They kiss and

more. The curtains open to an audience. Lindsey is mortified. Devlin believes Lindsey set up the scene with the help of a servant. Now he will marry her but it will be a bitter marriage he tells her, no love. She pleads her innocence, agrees because of Shannon, and tells him in the end he’ll regret that her love will never be his.

I just have to say that Anne Meredith is a superb storyteller. Her characters are haunting

and so larger-than-life. I’m a big fan of Time-Travel Romance and this is no exception. I loved it from cover to cover. Every time I picked up the book, I was transported back in time to a romance that is truly magical. It’s a tale about forgiveness and how love can heal even the darkest past. I like to think that’s true in real life as well. I am definitely going to look up other stories by Anne Meredith. I believe this was the third book in a series by her, but you don’t have to read the others to read this one. Although the legend wasn’t filled into detail as I’d have liked, I had no trouble following it. So, yes, I highly recommend this author and this book. Enjoy.