A Once and Future Love: a time travel romance

Anne Kelleher knows how to draw a reader into a story. From the opening battle scene, I was completely hooked. Indeed, I had to read that paragraph several times - it is the most gruesome, and I imagine, the most realistic description of a medieval battle that I have ever read. There is a gritty reality to the entire narrative, the author gives the impression that she has studied this period in great detail and displays an admirable ability to transport her readers there. Her writing is clear, crisp, and evocative. It is a charming story without a hint of the corniness, so often found in this genre. I highly recommend this book to my friends - even to those who are wary of reading romance or time travel! I would like to be able to share this book with more people. Any chance that the publisher will print more?

I hope they'll do another print run of this book for those of you who haven't read it yet -- it's a wonderful blending of accurate history with romance. It reminded me a bit of Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," with the hero's modern sensibilities hitting up against a medieval environment. I adored the love story, and found it easy to suspend disbelief because the author did a great job of having the romance unfold naturally. Full of visceral detail, this book almost made me wish I could step in an English castle and vanish into the past.

This is probably one of the best time-travels I've ever read. It's rich with history, and the characters are completely believable. I thought the author did a particularly great job with the hero--I could really fall in love with him!

Did you ever wonder how in most time travel stories, the time-traveller always seems to fit in so seemlessly and effortlessly into their new environment? Did you ever wonder how time-travellers always seem to be able to speak the language of whatever environment they are thrust into? Did you ever wonder what it would really be like to find yourself in another time, where you didn't have a clue what anyone around you was saying?In her latest novel, A ONCE AND FUTURE LOVE, Anne Kelleher has created a story which actually seems to take the reader into the past, with all of its uncomfortable realities, sights, sounds, smells, and customs.Anne Kelleher's novel revolves around a middle-aged 20th century man named Richard Lambert, who after his wife passes away, travels to England only to fall to his death while exploring a medeival castle, and awakens in the body of a cruel, young ancestor in the 13th century. But unlike most time travel stories, Richard quickly realizes that he cannot speak the language, has no understanding of the customs, and has to deal with the reality of a 20th century man finding himself in a barbaric and primitve period with almost no understanding of the world around him. And to make things even worse, the body he finds himself in is severely wounded, near death, and it quickly becomes clear to him that everyone around him would rather see him dead that alive.As in her previous three novels, Anne Kelleher demonstrates that her sense of the medeival world is detailed and acute. She forces Richard to deal with the harsh realities of the time period that he has found himself in, from the smells of the people around him and the ill tasting foods, to a 13th century wife who both fears and loathes him as a slave would feel towards its master.The only convenience Anne Kelleher takes is to have Richard conveniently wounded in the neck long enough to slowly pick up the language and get some sense of bearings in his new world. But aside from this, her writing is extraordinary with almost poetic imagery and detail.A ONCE AND FUTURE LOVE is clearly one of the best works of its type that has been written in modern literature. Kelleher's novel is far beyond just another time-travel romance.....rather, it is a story which truly makes the reader feel that they have visited the world that she has created, and by the end of the novel, makes the reader want to go back for even more of an absolutely unique experience.

Six months have passed since his beloved Lucy died. In order to honor her, Richard Lambert travels from their American home to his deceased wife's beloved land of her childhood in England. As he wanders around a medieval tower, thinking of Lucy, the grieving Richard slips off of some steps into oblivion.However, instead of joining Lucy in heaven, Richard awakens in the fatally injured body of an ancestor. The man's wife, Eleanor, loathes the cruel man, but nurses him back to health anyway. Eleanor apparently is his Lucy in a previous lifetime. She soon falls in love with the gentle Richard. However, he is put to several new type of tests when the Welsh kidnap his beloved Eleanor's brother, the Magna Carta begins to be formed, and he is accused of being the devil's puppet.A ONCE AND FUTURE LOVE is a passionate time travel romance that is based on a love that flows forever. Both incarnations of Richard are fabulously drawn, but especially intriguing is the modern day soul coping with the loss of a loved one. The transformation from fifty-year old American attorney to twenty-year-old accomplished soldier seems a bit farfetched, especially when this reviewer places her huggable but fifty-year-old spouse in the warrior role. However, that fit of whimsy does not stop Anne Kelleher's novel from being a spectacular Medieval romance with a time traveling twist.Harriet Klausner