Ancient Echoes

Ancient Echoes #1

by Barbara Monahan

Samantha McKinley suddenly inherits a fortune from an unknown benefactor. She recieves a mysterious letter telling her that she alone must come to Scotland to rennovate a castle which is now in ruins. After traveling to the Highlands, Sam learns there are many rumors about Rosestone Castle, all involving the paranormal. She becomes caught up in a timeless love affair with an immortal warrior, finds herself the object of a 500 yr. old curse, and travels back in time to the 1600's, to finally face the dark one who has cursed her and her castle. In doing so, Samantha discovers her prior life and involvement with the proud Clan who lived there during that time.

Genres: Time Travel, Romance, Time Travel Romance

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

I love writing paranormal time travel filled with fantasy and romance, especially if the story has anything to do with Scotland. My first series, Ancient Echoes, is about a group of angel warriors who have come to this world to fight dark magic. Each book is a different adventure, and centers around the magical and mysterious castle where they live.
I can be reached at: barbaramonahan350@ yahoo.com.
I'm always looking forward to your ideas, comments and suggestions!

Reviews

[Maryclaire · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that was recommended to me by my sister-in-law, who could go on for days about it and she was right. Time Travel at it's best. The book has you hooked the minute Sam lands in Scotland and approaches the run down castle. The author is very descriptive in the views of the castle and ocean cliffs. She also describes the people in the book, their homes and all their surroundings. You feel like you are there in this century and the past.

[Shanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. I only read the whole thing because I hated to leave it unfinished. There seems to have been no editing whatsoever. Some of it didn't make any sense at all.

[P.J. Roscoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, I could not get further than chapter four. I would normally give a book a minimum of three as writing a book is an achievement of hard work, research and getting it down on paper to be proud of. I just could not do this for the book. Within a page I saw mistakes, typo's and repeats almost within the same paragraph. This author has not even bothered to check her own story. It's as if it was written and published without any editing. Even a friend would have noticed these obvious mistakes that detract from what I hoped would be a great story and had wanted to read it so badly as it's my kind of story but instead of 'enjoying' it, I found myself getting annoyed at the lack of care and attention.
Chapter two - it is not correct to use numbers and 'yr' old instead of twenty-two years old. The taxi driver slammed the trunk, then apparently slammed the trunk closed yet again in the next paragraph!! How does she know the views are breathtaking? The character hasn't arrived??
I won't go on, these were the most obvious and annoying to me so far, I want to enjoy my read so I won't be going any further. A real shame this book wasn't cared for. :(

[Cherie Melbourne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The same central characters you can't help liking, the story line again kept my interest. References to story line covered in the first book were inaccurate in the 2nd book ie the year Katie traveled back in time to Duncan varied. I read Rosestone & Ancient Echoes back to back so these discrepancies hit me straight away. Both books had quite a few typos which was annoying.
BUT, I did enjoy the book & will continue on with the series to see how the story progresses.

[Vanessa Mackey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was going to try to finish it but just cannot do it. Time is too short to waste on this. This is a good example of how important a good editor is to a published book.

[Carol Fair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story

I read this book in 2 days.....it's a great story about love, lost, grief and New beginnings.
I recommen this book

[Miriam C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was the one book I couldn't finish. The editing was terrible or the lack of thereof! One star for the part I did read. The story was interesting.

[Laura]

I am just not into this book, I mean I'll finish it (so it doesn't win)but it is pain full. There is no other way of saying it.
the writing is poor, the editing non-existent. The characters are flat and say and do ridiculous things. I know it's fantasy, but there are degrees of okay..... this misses them all.

[Jamie Voetsch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Its like a first draft was released, rather than the actual, edited book.

The words timeless, ageless and priceless are used over and over again, in places where its just an overkill.

Things were repeated over and over from one paragraph to the other.

The author keeps referring to "the 16th century" however that would have been in the 1500s, not the 1600s where the story takes place. Research was not done properly for this book.

I barely made it through to 30% of the book, however I forced myself to finish it.

As mentioned in other reviews, its just annoying when you are trying to get into the story and you keep coming across typos or confusing information.

I think that if the author actually proof read this and edited it, it would be a great book. It just was not well thought out.

I have only ever read 2 books that I did not like. Sadly, this is one of them.

For me, this was disappointing. It is WORTH it to have someone read and critique your book before you publish it.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I enjoyed about Ancient Echoes was the storyline. This tory had tons of potential for being an amazing read. What destroyed this reading experience was the repetition of words and sentences used over and over and having characters strong at one point and then acting childish the next. If the author can tone down her descriptions about writing the leading characters attributes more than once, I get it when it's written once but actually prove their attributes in writing for instance, you can say the character is intelligent but I need actual proof written that shares this image not just writing this over and over. I wanted so much for this book to read like a movie in my head and in some cases it did and that's why I'm giving this a 3 star read. I want to move on to the next book and I will at some time, but not now. I want to read a book that isn't so frustrating.

[jackie frye · Rating 4 out of 5]

What would you do if out of the blue you inherited a falling down castle in Scotland that dated back the sixteen hundred and the funds to restore it? Samantha McKinley went to Scotland to restore the castle and turn it into a B and B. Those were her plans … what actually happened was she met her soul mate, time traveled, and defeated an evil sorcerer.

I love books with time travel and reincarnation themes and this one had both.

[Cindy gerdes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love time traveling with angels

If you enjoy angels and time traveling you must read. Throw in some highland and Celtic history and you have the making of a great book.

[Kathie Renick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply amazing!

A beautiful story of a family who is not separated with a twist here and there. A must read for anyone who likes time travel with a twist.

[Denise Hendrickx]

I liked the story. Not original but nice. As a European I do not like that feeling of grieving, tears, bad christian conscience. A lot but so American ...... but I like it because due this the imagination is wondrous.
So thanks and please go on with less tears, I cannot imagine the bumber of kleenex boxes used .....