An artist with no palate for business, Margaret Masterson could create a world of excitement on canvas, but her love life was as dull as flat paint. Then a carriage ride on a foggy night swept her back to Regency London and the picture-perfect nobleman she'd always yearned for.
Preoccupied with marrying off his rebellious sister, Adam Coleridge had no leisure to find a wife of his own. Yet when fate dropped Maggie at his feet, the hand some earl was powerless to resist the desire she roused in him. But with time fighting against them, Adam feared that not even a masterpiece of love could keep Maggie from becoming nothing more than a passionate memory.
New York Times bestselling author Victoria Alexander was an award winning television reporter until she discovered fiction was much more fun than real life. She turned to writing full time and is still shocked it worked out.
Since the publication of her first book in 1995, she has written thirty-one full length novels and six novellas. The Perfect Wife—originally published in 1996 and reissued in March 2008—hit #1 on the New York Times list. Sixteen of her books are bestsellers hitting the New York Times, USA Today and/or Publishers Weekly bestseller lists. With books translated into more than a dozen different languages she has readers around the world and has twice been nominated for Romance's Writers of America prestigious RITA award. In 2009 she was given a Career Achievement Award from RT Bookclub and was named Historical Storyteller of the year in 2003. In 2008 she was the keynote speaker for the Romance Writers of American annual conference in San Francisco. Victoria credits much of her writing success to her experiences as a reporter. Her years as a broadcast journalist were spent in two radically different areas of the country: Nebraska and West Virginia. In West Virginia, she covered both natural and manmade disasters. She was on the scene when a power plant construction accident in a small town left 52 men dead. She once spent the night on a mountain waiting to learn of the fate of coal miners trapped in a mine collapse. Victoria was producing a newscast when her husband (who worked at the same television station) and several other journalists were held hostage by a disturbed Vietnam veteran. In Nebraska, she reported on the farm crisis and watched people lose land that had been in their families for generations. She covered the story that was the basis of the movie BOYS DON’T CRY and once acted as the link between police and a gunman who had barricaded himself in his home. Her investigative work exposed the trucking of New York City garbage to a small town dump in rural Nebraska.
During her journalism career, Victoria covered every president from Ford to Clinton. She knows firsthand what it feels like to be surrounded by rising floodwaters and inside a burning building. She’s interviewed movie stars including Kevin Costner, ridden an elephant and flown in a governor’s helicopter. She’s covered a national political convention and Pope John Paul II’s historic visit to Denver as well as small town festivals celebrating everything from walnuts to Glen Miller. Her work was honored by numerous organizations including the Associated Press who called a feature about a firefighter’s school "story telling genius". It was the encouragement she needed to turn from news to fiction. She’s never looked back.
Victoria claims her love of romance and journalism is to due to the influence of her favorite comic book character: Lois Lane, a terrific reporter and a great heroine who pursued Superman with an unwavering determination. And why not? He was extremely well drawn.
Victoria grew up traveling the world as an Air Force brat. Today, she lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband and her dogs. Victoria had two bearded collies, Sam and Louie (named from characters in one of her books). Sam (on the left), the best dog in the world for 13 ½ years, passed away in September 2010. Louie took on the position of loyal companion and did a fine job even though he doesn't understand that kitchen counter surfing is not allowed!
Now he's been joined by Reggie, also a faithful companion.
They all live happily ever after in a house under constant renovation and the accompanying parade of men in tool belts. And never ending chaos. Victoria laughs a great deal—she has to.
This was her first romance, and she chose time travel from 1995 back to the Victorian era. I really liked it. It had some errors, that I read right through. I loved all three main characters, and guessed the ending, but loved reading it through the epilogue. What happened to Lydia, and Kat ? I want to read what happens to them. Great story, and fun female characters. I really felt sorry for the hero. He had his hands, and heart full. I loved the ending.....The characters were all you would expect for each time period. I am always surprised when people find these books not realistic enough. It is time travel, with a young woman who is independent, and talks like the present, and knows very little about that time but Sherlock Holmes, and a few BBC productions on television. The brother and sister , who help her, start off believing she hit her head to hard. The back pack filled with some modern items were a nice touch, to push the believability, of the situation. Five stars of fun fantasy, with heart, and suspense.
Female Lead lacking - RECOMMEND (with reservations)
I kind of liked this book however I continue to be disappointed by the female leads in romance and this book is a perfect example. The lead is an adult who is lacking motivation, money, self esteem. Why, do romance writers continually put forward this female lead? I don't identify with her at all. Another issue that I find with Time Travel Romance is that when the female lead is American she lacks any kind of social graces, she seems uneducated, and her manner of speech is base even for modern times. This character is my age I found her infuriating and embarassing. I'm not adverse to cursing but unfortunately the author wrote her in such a way that I constantly found my lip curling in disgust. There were a lot of wasted words on storylines that went no where or were unnecessary.It didn't make sense how ignorant the female lead was for her to have such a depth of thought with her reason for not being able to stay. Then to have the main characters desperate to spend time together only for the reader to already guess that the sister was going to go forward in time was disappointing. The whole villian in the shadows was a head shaker. We knew who he was and his reasoning was ridiculous. If this is a series, I have no desire to read on. SEX SCENES - Yes, their decent. Not realistic given the time period but its a book about time travel with a lot of inconsistencies, so...
I read most of the book, but couldn't bring myself to read the last 40 pages. The book fell flat for me. Most of the humor comes from the snafus that the heroine makes, when magically whisked off to another time period. I have a soft spot for time travel books, but even I found the heroine's actions and the other characters' responses implausible.
Not a bad time travel romance at all. First the way the heroine travels back in time was very interesting. Mom liked a lot tha it was via a time traveling coach that she goes back through time. Secondly the hero and his sister/ward know that the heroine is from the future. This sometimes drops a time travel one down on mom’s time travel catnip meter. (Mom likes time trave where the heroine tries to keep it from the hero. It is just so fun!) Mom however did like how the author handled the hero and his sister knowing the heroine was from the future. Sometimes them know seems to sweep the heroine traveling through time under the rug and the heroine never confront being from a different time except when it is convent for the book, or for causing tension between the hero and heroine. This books constantly talks about it and shows/deals with it in every day 18th century. Lastly the hero and the heroine has great chemistry but sometimes the story went a little to hot and cold for mom. One moment the hero wants to marry the heroine and the next the hero acts like he never wanted to do that and is it not amazing that his friend has such an amazing idea of marriage. Lastly the ending just amplifies this book to a four or five star it is just so beautiful. It was a good book and the ending makes it more than worth the buy.
It was a fluffy fast read and I didn’t like it mostly because it was written like a joke and it felt flat and boring.The story and the characters were made formulaic and like silly teenagers which reminds me the same of the writing…everything was told not shown.There was no feeling to this book whatsoever.
Maggie was so fixated with the idea that one person back in time would upset the world's balance. No one in other time travel novels are concerned with that lol. Also the epilogue had me with tears in my eyes. It's sad that her Maggie is dead when her sister reads her letter.
I absolutely LOVED the premise of this book! The conversations and plot are intriguing and devastating. However, it is a wee bit erotic. I was fine with it because I just skimmed over those parts. I really wanted to give it 5 stars, but knocked one off for the wee bit of erotic scenes.
I read this book straight through and cried at the end. Absolutely fabulous. I wanted at least a series on the family. So much emotion in a book just floored me.
Yesterday & Forever by Victoria Alexander Published in 1995, this seems to be Victoria's first book and excellent as always. This is a time travel book. From 1995 to 1880.
Artist Margaret Masterson, Maggie, has not found her place in this world as of yet. She goes with her sister Kiki to London and one minutes she's getting in a unique carriage with what seems to be a Gnome like fellow and next thing she wakes up in a strange bedroom and world. Her hosts claim she is in 1880 England and she soon figures out that it's true. For an outgoing American Maggie has much to learn to survive in this new time era. She was zapped from May 12, 1995 and not it's April 12, 1880 so she has hopes of her Gnome returning for her in a month. It don't take long for her to butt heads with her host Adam Coleridge, a man use to woman being less intelligent. His sister Lydia on the other hand, always did like to flaunt the rules and enjoys learning of the future and how women live in Maggie's time.
Adam awaits for his guest to awake after she basically was thrown onto him from a carriage out of the fog. After investigating her clothes and what she carried in her odd satchel, he can't believe it but she seems to be from a time in the future. One hundred and seventy-seven years in the future. And he is effected by her in ways he never had been before, both good and bad. She does not understand their ways and she speaks like a guttersnipe at times. She leaves her room in her nightclothes!
When the month is over will Adam and Maggie be waiting to toss her back in the carriage, if in fact it returns, or will their hearts be breaking as they are torn from each others worlds? Towards the end I was glad to have a box of Kleenex handy, in case like me you are prone to tears you may want some handy as well. **Sexual situations. http://justjudysjumbles.blogspot.com/...
What would you do if you lived an empty life waiting for something important to happen and suddenly you found yourself in the past? This book was excellent. Time-traveling was something that I thought that wouldn't suit this book but apparently I've been wrong. After finding a carriage ride in modern time, the heroine ends up in England of the eighteenth century. She wished for love and now she got it. But what will she do when her time is up and she'll have to return in her time?? A touching romance story about finding our fates.
Outstanding! Superb! This book doesn't disappoint!
I have never been disappointed with any books by Ms Alexander whom I first read with books on the Effington Family! I quite adored the salacious American, Maggie Masterson and delighted in her face-offs with the Earl, Adam Coleridge! This book was riveting from cover to cover!
Five...This book has top any time travel book I have read. Love it! Maggie was a normal 1995 caught n 1818...Balance both worlds and they connect perfectly.
This book had the right balance of time travel and romance for me. I was also pleasantly surprised that the writing didn’t feel dated and cringeworthy the way reading a 1990s-era romance in 2019 sometimes does.
Despite it being older, I really enjoyed reading this book. Maggie is transported back in time from 1995 to 1818 where she meets Adam Coleridge and his sister, Lydia. It takes Maggie a few days to believe that she actually traveled back in time. While adjusting to living in 1818, she becomes good friends with Lydia and falls in love with Adam. Their love story has some ups and downs while Maggie comes to grips with whether or not she can stay.