A Garden in the Rain

Yesterday I finished A Garden in the Rain by Lynn Kurland. Just what is it about Scotland, I wonder, that inspires all of these tales of ghosts and time travel? There seem to be so many of this new sub-genre popping up.

In this story, Madelyn has just been dumped and fired by her ex-fiance, a high-powered and spoiled lawyer. She arrives in Scotland to take her dream vacation of a lifetime only to find that the jerk has usurped her hotel reservations and gotten her credit card revoked.

She's rescued by Patrick MacLeod who seems to have a strange attraction to her, something that seems like a past life memory.

The usual romantic yo yo ensues, with both of them falling in love but not quite sure enough about it. Patrick gives up on the relationship twice and sends her home but of course, he loves her too much to make it stick. Somewhere along the way she falls through a time gate and is kept for several weeks in a cage, captive to enemies of the MacLeods. Patrick finds his way through after much difficulty and rescues her. Even her nemesis, the ex-fiance, has a brief and unpleasant stay in a medieval dungeon, which very much serves him right.

Naturally it all works out in the end and it looks as though she will devote herself to family rather than going back to her fast lane attorney position.

I liked the book overall though it became slow in places. The formula works but at times I wanted the two of them to just get on with it. Sometimes it's maddening reading these romances and knowing pretty much what is going to happen. And yet, it's fun, and the time travel element as well as the paranormal spices it up for me. I always loved science fiction and time travel was my favorite type of story.

While it's a little overly long for its own good, A Garden in the Rain is worth reading.