Flirting with Forever by Gwyn Cready
Publisher: Pocket Books 2010
Genre: Romance
Sub-genre: Historical/Time Travel
Rating: 5 pints of blood
I like this cover, for its clean lines and non-jarring colours. You can always tell not just what kind of Romance it will be, the tone of it, but also, I think, how good it will be (touch wood), by the cover. It's a bit wishy-washy in the background but I quite like it, and it ties in with the fantastical premise.
There's no half-naked man on this cover, so you know the hero won't be Testosterone Man. The woman is clothed, merely showing an elegant leg, so you know she's sophisticated, mature, smart, and won't be easy to get in bed (but not bitchy either). The non-tacky colours show that it's a more intelligent story than those with lurid colours. Don't ask me if that's true or not; it's more a gut feeling. And from noticing the patterns ;)
I read Cready's second book, Seducing Mr. Darcy, on a whim and was treated to an absolute delight of a novel - witty, intelligent, exciting, sexy. Since one of my biggest complaints with Romance novels is the weak writing - which encapsulates everything from poor character development to clichés to insufferable dialogue - I was thrilled to find a writer of Romance I could trust, relax with and enabled me to enjoy the story.
This is the second book of Cready's I've read, and her newest release, and it's just as good as Seducing Mr Darcy. The royal portraitist to King Charles II, Peter Lely, has been returned from the Afterlife to a day in his life in the year 1673 by the Guild, which manages the time portals. He's been returned in order to run interference with a person who has found a new time portal, gone back in time to discover salacious gossip about Dick van Dyck, and, in their own time, writes a scandalous "fictography" about the famous painter. Lely, van Dyck's successor at Charles' court, is on the lookout for one Campbell Stratford. In the meantime, he's tormented by his old life: the death of his lovely Ursula is still raw, and he only agreed to come back so he could get Charles to sign a posthumous marriage certificate.
Campbell Stratford - Cam - is an art director at Carnegie Museum, in line for a promotion for which she needs to sell her biography of van Dyck. But her publisher wants her to "sex it up" a bit and she's at her wits' end. Tracking down a book on Amazon that might have what she needs, she's instantly zapped back in time to end up, completely naked but for her purse, in the home of Peter Lely. Lucky for her, naked models are a dime a dozen in Lely's home.
Cam resembles Ursula so much, right down to the fire in her eyes, that Peter is instantly drawn to her. A delicious evening together ends in Peter realising who she really is and what she's after: dirt on van Dyck. Little did he know that running interference for the Guild is only the start, and that he could have begun something even worse. For when he next turns up in Cam's own contemporary world of Pittsburgh, it's to stop her writing about him and Ursula in the worst possible light. Maybe it is out of revenge for screwing her van Dyck book, but Cam's got too much on her plate to back out of the book deal now: her ex, Jacket, a famous modern artist, wants her back; and her older sister Anastasia is her competition for the promotion to run the museum. Peter's presence coincides with everything becoming much messier, but Peter could also be the only one she can turn to.
The plot sounds complicated, I know, but really it's perfectly straight-forward. I'm curious about Cready's first book, Tumbling Through Time, whether it also features this Guild and the Afterlife and explains them more, but in the meantime you learn enough to just go with it. What matters is the use the main characters get out of this premise.
Peter is one of the most sympathetic and believable Romance heroes I've read in a long time. Cready deftly brings to life a historical figure, gives him flesh and feeling and a personality to call his own, and in his artistic temperament we find joy; in his depth of feeling we find sorrow; in his hope and clarity of vision we find solace. To me, he was like a warm snuggly jumper that smelt of someone close and endearing. There was just something about him that made me want to take him home and feed him soup. Okay maybe that could be taken the wrong way, for him and me, but I'll take my chances ;)
What makes these books such incredible comfort reads for me is the humour. There are some pithy lines, some witty quips, and those kind of funny situational gags that work so well and delight so much without being in the slightest bit annoying. (I always feel the need to justify and defend good Romance novels - it's a shame, but it's because there really are so many badly-written ones that I want you to understand how well this does by comparison, as well as how well it does for its own sake.)
As well as the humour, there's the chemistry. It resonates through the pages, and has a bittersweet edge to it because it's not straight-forward. Cam and Peter have a wonderful, wicked night, then in effect betray each other, so that when they meet up again in Cam's world they're far from being on the best of terms. A relationship between them isn't forced, it occurs gradually, organically, as if it can't be stopped no matter what happens. And I can't end this review without also saying how much I enjoy Cready's non-lip-nibbling heroines: Cam is neither over-the-top klutz nor too sweet and "good" - she's a modern woman, a bit incompetent at eating hotdogs and naïve when it comes to the adulterous Jacket, but she's someone you can instantly understand, sympathise with and care about.
The last thing I want to say is how refreshing it is that neither Cam nor Peter face their predicaments, as unreal as they seem, with denial, stupidity or useless questions. They're human: they adapt. They rise to the occasion. It's actually much more believable for someone to face the situation head-on than to have them wander around telling themselves they just happened to stumble on a period movie set. Which makes even less sense that what's "really" happened!!
Genre: Romance
Sub-genre: Historical/Time Travel
Rating: 5 pints of blood
I like this cover, for its clean lines and non-jarring colours. You can always tell not just what kind of Romance it will be, the tone of it, but also, I think, how good it will be (touch wood), by the cover. It's a bit wishy-washy in the background but I quite like it, and it ties in with the fantastical premise.
There's no half-naked man on this cover, so you know the hero won't be Testosterone Man. The woman is clothed, merely showing an elegant leg, so you know she's sophisticated, mature, smart, and won't be easy to get in bed (but not bitchy either). The non-tacky colours show that it's a more intelligent story than those with lurid colours. Don't ask me if that's true or not; it's more a gut feeling. And from noticing the patterns ;)
I read Cready's second book, Seducing Mr. Darcy, on a whim and was treated to an absolute delight of a novel - witty, intelligent, exciting, sexy. Since one of my biggest complaints with Romance novels is the weak writing - which encapsulates everything from poor character development to clichés to insufferable dialogue - I was thrilled to find a writer of Romance I could trust, relax with and enabled me to enjoy the story.
This is the second book of Cready's I've read, and her newest release, and it's just as good as Seducing Mr Darcy. The royal portraitist to King Charles II, Peter Lely, has been returned from the Afterlife to a day in his life in the year 1673 by the Guild, which manages the time portals. He's been returned in order to run interference with a person who has found a new time portal, gone back in time to discover salacious gossip about Dick van Dyck, and, in their own time, writes a scandalous "fictography" about the famous painter. Lely, van Dyck's successor at Charles' court, is on the lookout for one Campbell Stratford. In the meantime, he's tormented by his old life: the death of his lovely Ursula is still raw, and he only agreed to come back so he could get Charles to sign a posthumous marriage certificate.
Campbell Stratford - Cam - is an art director at Carnegie Museum, in line for a promotion for which she needs to sell her biography of van Dyck. But her publisher wants her to "sex it up" a bit and she's at her wits' end. Tracking down a book on Amazon that might have what she needs, she's instantly zapped back in time to end up, completely naked but for her purse, in the home of Peter Lely. Lucky for her, naked models are a dime a dozen in Lely's home.
Cam resembles Ursula so much, right down to the fire in her eyes, that Peter is instantly drawn to her. A delicious evening together ends in Peter realising who she really is and what she's after: dirt on van Dyck. Little did he know that running interference for the Guild is only the start, and that he could have begun something even worse. For when he next turns up in Cam's own contemporary world of Pittsburgh, it's to stop her writing about him and Ursula in the worst possible light. Maybe it is out of revenge for screwing her van Dyck book, but Cam's got too much on her plate to back out of the book deal now: her ex, Jacket, a famous modern artist, wants her back; and her older sister Anastasia is her competition for the promotion to run the museum. Peter's presence coincides with everything becoming much messier, but Peter could also be the only one she can turn to.
The plot sounds complicated, I know, but really it's perfectly straight-forward. I'm curious about Cready's first book, Tumbling Through Time, whether it also features this Guild and the Afterlife and explains them more, but in the meantime you learn enough to just go with it. What matters is the use the main characters get out of this premise.
Peter is one of the most sympathetic and believable Romance heroes I've read in a long time. Cready deftly brings to life a historical figure, gives him flesh and feeling and a personality to call his own, and in his artistic temperament we find joy; in his depth of feeling we find sorrow; in his hope and clarity of vision we find solace. To me, he was like a warm snuggly jumper that smelt of someone close and endearing. There was just something about him that made me want to take him home and feed him soup. Okay maybe that could be taken the wrong way, for him and me, but I'll take my chances ;)
What makes these books such incredible comfort reads for me is the humour. There are some pithy lines, some witty quips, and those kind of funny situational gags that work so well and delight so much without being in the slightest bit annoying. (I always feel the need to justify and defend good Romance novels - it's a shame, but it's because there really are so many badly-written ones that I want you to understand how well this does by comparison, as well as how well it does for its own sake.)
As well as the humour, there's the chemistry. It resonates through the pages, and has a bittersweet edge to it because it's not straight-forward. Cam and Peter have a wonderful, wicked night, then in effect betray each other, so that when they meet up again in Cam's world they're far from being on the best of terms. A relationship between them isn't forced, it occurs gradually, organically, as if it can't be stopped no matter what happens. And I can't end this review without also saying how much I enjoy Cready's non-lip-nibbling heroines: Cam is neither over-the-top klutz nor too sweet and "good" - she's a modern woman, a bit incompetent at eating hotdogs and naïve when it comes to the adulterous Jacket, but she's someone you can instantly understand, sympathise with and care about.
The last thing I want to say is how refreshing it is that neither Cam nor Peter face their predicaments, as unreal as they seem, with denial, stupidity or useless questions. They're human: they adapt. They rise to the occasion. It's actually much more believable for someone to face the situation head-on than to have them wander around telling themselves they just happened to stumble on a period movie set. Which makes even less sense that what's "really" happened!!