TIME FOR LOVE - Kelly Kirch
Cerridwen Press
ISBN: 978-1-41991-306-8
February 2008
Time Travel Romance

Present Day Minnesota; England, 1821

Sarah Hanson lost her job to Martha Mullen, a young woman with too many physical attributes for her male co-workers to ignore, and who baits Sarah as she is clearing out her desk to go home. Martha callously tosses Sarah’s precious snowglobe into the air after pulling it out of a box, but Sarah manages to catch it.

The inclement weather and thoughts of her single sister, Beth, who is pregnant and dependent on Sarah, add to Sarah’s misery. She has tuned out the voice of the cab driver and is on the edge of sleep when the vehicle skids on the slick pavement and Sarah is slammed against the door which swings open, launching Sarah onto the sidewalk. The snowglobe, too, is flung out and shatters.

When Sarah comes to, she is in a strange room filled with people dressed in what she thinks at first are costumes. The reality is she is in the year 1821…the year that was on her treasured snowglobe…which had a miniature manor house inside it. Those around her assume that Sarah Billington, whose body Sarah Hanson now inhabits, has fainted and are concerned about her welfare and urge her to rest.

After sleeping for more than a day, she pretends to be disoriented and asks her maid, Mary, to tell her where she is and what is happening. She is at Grantham House, home of widowed Lady Sarah Billington’s cousin, Elizabeth. Sarah is helping to get Elizabeth’s daughter, Alexandra, ready for the big season when the young blonde will have her coming out. Sarah is to serve as chaperone, although she is not much older.

When she is alone, Sarah thinks about the gorgeous man, Lord Drake Hayworth, who caught her when she fell and carried her to her room. She pinches herself to make sure she is not dreaming. Sarah could easily become accustomed to the Regency lifestyle, even without chocolate, but does she dare? She could easily be transported back to her own life. And there is the socially insurmountable reality that Drake is soon to be betrothed to Alexandra, but when Sarah and Drake find that they cannot resist each other….what then? Will she give in to Drake, or will she help Lord Nigel Milstoke who is in desperate need because of a secret? What of Beth and the other Sarah with whom she changed places? Villains Dilwirth and Smithe further complicate the situation as Sarah tries to keep her sanity.

Kelly Kirch keeps all her threads untangled as she weaves a modern woman into the social mores and manners of the Regency era. She throws in emotions and decisions that are not typical and shakes up the world of rigid rules and regulations. Hurt and danger threaten happiness, and responsibility takes on new meanings as situations arise that could very well mean Sarah’s life. TIME FOR LOVE is a keeper that I recommend.

Vi Janaway