Elsingham Portrait

My opinion: Excellent time-travel romance. I was impressed. The heroine was someone likable and real; the hero was typical of his time and yet likable as well. The supporting characters were just that, supporting. They didn't take too much attention away from the hero and heroine. Just enough to advance the story. Very well written, and not too technical in the time-travel area. My only complaint is I felt a little stranded in regard to Nadine, Lord John's real wife. It was suggested in the book that perhaps her soul was actually switched with Kathryn's, therefore she was in the twentieth century. I would have liked to know what happened to her. From the back: A MOUSE OF A LIBRARIAN TURNED TO AN ELEGANT ENGLISH PEERESS --AND THAT WAS BUT THE BEGINNING.... Just jilted and very much mired in twentieth-century concerns, a rain-soaked Kathryn Hendrix sought refuge in a musty picture gallery whose only treasure was an eighteenth-century portrait of a stunning red-haired lady. Suddenly, Kathryn found herself mysteriously transported two hundred years into the past, to that lady's opulent home, with the sneering Lord Elsingham for a husband and Lady Elsingham's body--and complicated domestic life--as her own! Kathryn racked her poor, pretty head--how to return to her own time and place? But as Lord John's cold demeanor grew warmer, Kathryn began to hope she would be waylaid in history forever....

This is one of the earliest timetravel books I have read. It reminds me of "Linda Lael Miller's" That other Katherine (Haunting love stories). Katheryn Hendrix has been jilted, finds herself in a gallery staring at a portrait of Nadine Ellsingham. Suddenly she finds herself in Nadine's body 200 years in the past. She soon finds out that her husband hates her & is about to return her to Ireland with her servant, the evil Donner. After being threatened with bedlam Katheryn runs away. She has told her husband & some of his friends where she has come from. Of course none believe her. She tells a member of the government about an upcoming battle at the start of the American war of independance. After running away to prevent her being committed, news comes that what Kathryn predicted comes true that they believe her. By the time they find her she is in the hands of Donner again & being accused of witchcraft... Can John, her husband save her?.....