Finalist

Assessment:

Plot: Despite solid plotting overall, some of the complications thrown at the romantic leads feel forced, as if the author is providing reasons for the couple to fail. Still, the pacing and structure serve the story well.

Prose: This is the perfect marriage between a contemporary romance and a Regency. The miscommunications that result from the clashing worldviews, so well captured in the prose, are by turn humorous and tear-jerking.

Originality: While time-travel romances are not uncommon, this combination of elements—a magical manuscript that creates the spark of true love, a passionate woman so devastated by the scandals of her past that she'll run away to the future for a chance at independence and happiness, and a workaholic whose kind heart only needs to open up to find true happiness—works together in a unique and satisfying way.

Character Development: Although some development happens surprisingly quickly -- Amara's adjustment to the modern world pushes against the limits of believability -- both primary characters are well-built, with histories that make their reactions understandable if not always sympathetic. The rest of the cast is overwhelmingly supportive, so much so that the drive of the story relates to internal conflict, which concludes in a neatly tied up epilogue.

Blurb: A satisfying mash-up of contemporary romance and Regency with a determinedly independent heroine and a workaholic-with-a-heart-of-gold sure to please fans of both subgenres.

Date Submitted: March 07, 2017