Dangerous Reflections: A Historical Fantasy through Time

by Karla Tipton

It's a mystery Martie Harris must solve, because her comatose grandmother left the strange request to save "Doctor Uncle" in a letter from her lawyer — and that letter came with a surprise heirloom: a magic wand.

But the only man in town with expertise in the occult is her former Ph.D. advisor Marcus, who put the moves on her when she was working on her dissertation. The professor informs her she's a wizard. It's in her blood. And she can time travel through mirrors. He admits he knew about her unusual heritage the whole time.

He offers her a deal: he will teach her how to use the wand to go back in time to find "Doctor Uncle," a wizard in possession of the Philosopher's Stone, under the condition that after they use the elixir to revive her family, she must hand it over to him.

Refusing to work with a man she loathes, Martie decides to try the wand on her own. She stumbles through the mirror into Edwardian London and the arms of a sexy but sarcastic wizard named Alastor. The two get off to a contentious start, as her magical powers go awry whenever they are in close proximity. Operating on the information gained from her professor, Martie intends to steal the elixir from Alastor that will save her family's lives. What she doesn't plan on is falling in love.

Dangerous Reflections has been named a Finalist in the Fantasy category of the 9th Annual National Indie Excellence® Awards (NIEA).

Genres: Time Travel, Fantasy, Romance, Historical Romance

558 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Karla Tipton cut her literary teeth on gothic romances, Edgar Allan Poe and the vampire soap “Dark Shadows.” Long before there were sparkly vampires roaming through the cultural consciousness, she wrote about ordinary women time traveling through history and falling in love with powerful men of myth and magic.

“Genre-bending” came naturally. Despite publishing industry advice to find a genre and stick with it, Karla shamelessly mixed it up, blending history, paranormal, time travel, fantasy and mystery into her novels.

When she became fascinated with Richard III, she made a research trip to England, so she could lend authenticity and historical detail to her novel about a romance between a modern woman and her favorite medieval king. “Rings of Passage,” a time travel romance set in medieval England, is Karla’s first published novel.

Time travel and magic are also at the heart of the project she’s just wrapping up, “Dangerous Reflections,” a romance about a twenty-first century post-graduate student and an Edwardian-era wizard. Karla is a member of Romance Writers of America, and her writing has earned top honors in several RWA chapter competitions. When not at her government job or writing novels, Karla plays guitar in a classic rock band.

Reviews

[Emmeline (The Book Herald) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was kindly given a copy of this book via Netgalley from Broad Universe and Karla Tipton, in return for an honest review.

I'll kick off this review, with the plot:

Martie has no idea what's happening.
She came back from University/ college on day to find her Father and grandmother in a comatose state.
Rushing them to the hospital, a solicitor arrives to offer her an ancient box.
Once Martie privately looks in the contents, she finds a wand, a necklace and a letter which says,
Save Doctor Uncle
Who is he exactly?
Finding no other option than to turn to Professor Marcus Cirksena, he tells her the wildest tale.
She has wizard blood coursing through her veins, and she can time travel through mirrors.
Blackmailed and determined to find a way to bring her family back to life, she jumps into a mirror and lands in 1910.
In the home of Alere a dark and angry magician.
She needs to find this doctor uncle, she needs to find the Elixir of Life- the philosopher stone.
Getting hunted by cults, learning magic and falling in love was never part of the plan.

Warning- This is decisively adult...if you know what I mean. Trust me, mature audience only. I blushed...a lot.

Overall, this story was pretty good. It was action packed and certainly kept my interest.

Tipton had such an original take on the cult- like behaviours, sacrifices and magic. Honestly, it was enough to make me shudder and want to remove every piece of glass from my house! It creeped me out!
Don't get me wrong, it was super creative, disturbing, but good.
You can tell she must have done so much research to write this.
She literally did a mash up of every religion and the cults that stem from that.

The romance was nice, it wasn't very original. However, it was sweet. The characters portrayed that they truly loved each other and would die for each other if need be.
I won't lie, it was a bit of an insta-like and at first i didn't know how I felt about them, because of family ties. (They're not related to each other but they've fallen in love in the past with people from each other's family.)

For once, the girl is not the one who brings all the boys in the yard. It's actually Alere who brings all the girls in his yard! I lost count of how many chicks were either his ex, or in love with him!
There wasn't a lot of description of him, but i'll assume he's handsome.

overall, it was good. Super creepy at some bits. Full of mystery and ugh..creepy/disturbing magic.

I won't say more so I don't spoil it for all of you.

Stay wonderful!

-The Book Herald

tweet me @thebookherald

[Amie's Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author: Karla Tipton
Length: 558 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Release Date: January 27,2015
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars


* I was lucky enough to receive an ARC of 'Dangerous Reflections' in electronic form free from the author in exchange for an honest review.* I had the privilege of reading and reviewing her previous book 'Rings of Passage' previously. I am happy to report that I rated that book as 4 out of 5 stars, so when I was offered the chance to read her newest novel I jumped at the chance.

SYNOPSIS:

Martie loves her grandmother and her father so, when she finds that the two of them have both fallen into comas at the same time with no explanation she is desperate to try to help them. When a lawyer shows up and hands her an envelope from her grandmother Martie isn't sure what to make of it. Inside the envelope she finds a witch's wand, a necklace and a cryptic note from her grandmother. The note tells her that she must save Doctor Uncle.

The only person she can think of that might be able to help is her Professor. They have a history and she is reluctant to approach him for assistance. However, she sees no other option. He tells her that she is a wizard by birth and that he will only help her if she does something for him. She reluctantly agrees and he tells her that using her wand she is able to time travel through mirrors.

Not sure that she believes any of what she has been told, she decides to try. And, to her surprise it works. Martie ends up in 1910 England.

She needs to find the Philosophers Stone for the professor and she needs to save Doctor Uncle. But, first she has to figure out who he is and then determine how to save him and from what.

She is a woman on a mission. She knows she will face dangers and many other obstacles during her quest. What she does not expect is that she will fall in love.

REVIEW:

DANGEROUS REFLECTIONS is a substantial book. At 558 pages readers will receive terrific value for their money. Too many books are being released that are 200 pages or less and I often feel that the cost of those books is too high for what I get back in quantity. But, I do not just want quantity, I want quality and this book offers both. The one drawback of lengthy books is that there are often entire sections that seem to drag. This DOES NOT happen in DANGEROUS REFLECTIONS.

This book has it all. There is intrigue, there is magic, there is a battle between good and evil, there is romance, there is adventure and there is drama. What more could a reader ask for?

The writing is vivid and readers will be entranced with this story. The amount of detail that the author included makes the setting seem to come alive. For instance, I had no idea that the word 'Okay' was not yet part of a person's everyday vocabulary in 1910. The author has also included details regarding the clothing of the time and the modes of transportation, as well as the differences in how people shopped for clothing during that era and how vastly different it is from the way we shop in modern society. These details and descriptions all lend this book an aura of authenticity.

if you haven't yet had the pleasure of reading a book by Karla Tipton, you are in for a treat. This book is a gem and should be added to everyone's MUST READ list.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Karla Tipton cut her literary teeth on gothic romances, Edgar Allan Poe and the vampire soap “Dark Shadows.” Long before there were sparkly vampires roaming through the cultural consciousness, she wrote about ordinary women time traveling through history and falling in love with powerful men of myth and magic. “Genrebending” came naturally. Despite publishing industry advice to find a genre and stick with it, Karla shamelessly mixed it up, blending history, paranormal, time travel, fantasy and mystery into her novels. Karla’s first novel, “Rings of Passage: A Time Travel Novel with Richard III,” is a historical fantasy set in medieval England, starring one of the most notorious villains in history as the romantic hero. “Dangerous Reflections: A Historical Fantasy Through Time” is her second novel. Karla is a member of Romance Writers of America, and her writing has earned top honors in several RWA chapter competitions. When not at her government job or writing novels, Karla plays guitar in a classic rock band.

To learn more about Karla Tipton visit her online at www.karlatipton.com

To read more of my reviews visit my blog at http://amiesbookreviews.wordpress.com

[Jeannie Zelos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dangerous Reflections, A Historical Fantasy through Time, Karla Tipton
Genre: fantasy/paranormal romance.
Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews
I enjoyed Karla’s last novel, which had the same time travel premise as this one. However I didn’t feel the historical part so well here, didn’t feel I was actually back in 1910.
Its a fun read, but there were too many odd things for me such as Rose. Both Alastor and Martie know she’s in real danger at one point, and yet she seems to get forgotten until she’s next useful for them...I didn’t feel that fit with the personalities of either. Likewise Martie’s reluctance to tell Alastor about her true reason for being there – at first it made sense but then once he knew more why withhold it? It fitted the story being discovered later, but I needed a reason why she didn’t tell earlier. There were too many disconnections of that sort for me to rate higher, and I needed more of the historical side, more reference to the time, to feel I was with her back in history as with the last book, but I didn’t, I just felt like a voyeur...
The magic too – it was fun reading about it, I do love stories that include magic, but there was a bit too much for me of Martie just knowing what to say, the correct incantations etc. and that’s always one of my pet peeves, when a MC gets some superpowers or skills just at the right time. I need them to be referenced earlier, to have been worked for not just an easy fix.
Its a fun read though, easy to follow and has an interesting plot that I needed to finish to see where the story went. I did feel Alastor was a little too ready to fall in love yet again – he seems to make a habit of it given the past ladies he’s loved, and not because he’s long lived either. Martie got quite caught up in the present ( 1910 past) of course, but she didn’t often give much thought to what was happening to her nan and dad who were so ill....and I couldn't see her as the sort to just abandon them, so I expected her to worry more about them even though she suspected time stopped when she left them, so she would return at the same time – she guessed that but didn’t know for certain.
Stars: Three, its a fun read but I struggled with the uncharacteristic (IMO) behaviours and the new found talents at times.
ARC provided by Netgalley and publishers.

[Bob Laerhoven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Multi-layered mélange of fantasy, mystery and suspense, thrilling twists and romance,


The whole time I was reading the entertaining novel “Dangerous Reflections”, I was reminded of my youth, when I read fantastic tales of classic writers like Conan Doyle, Poe, Lewis Carroll, Stevenson, Bram Stoker, H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde and the like. With her well written and exciting second novel, Karla Tipton doesn’t pale in this illustrious male company. I’m not someone who’s going to unravel the story-lines of a novel in a review. Every reader has its own accents and preferences in a story, especially in a multi-layered mélange of fantasy, mystery and suspense, thrilling twists and romance like “Dangerous Reflections” .
I love authors who color outside the lines. Tipton apparently has the cross-over novel in her blood, you can see it in the mixture of genres she deftly blends in this novel. Although the publishing industry casts a suspicious eye on cross-over novels, I do think that the cross-over has a bright future, especially when it is elegantly written and absorbing like this one. The story is fanciful, but Tipton presents it without any compunction as plausible. From the very start, she has a way of seemingly effortlessly immersing the reader in an engrossing tale that has much more panache than your run-of-the-mill fantasy stories. There’s vision and purpose behind the set-up of the novel and although the romance in it is rather unusual – a modern time young woman and a wizard living in the beginning of 20th century England under king Edward VII - there are moments filled with astute irony but also with heartwarming emotions. Time-travel, magic, history, angels, the mysterious Order of Thoth, an evil shrew speaking with a German accent, a lot of other baddies, and the imposing angel and counselor Kamael – to name but a few characters – render this novel its extraordinary flair. And you know what? Tipton describes the angelic being Kamael so vividly that I actually dreamed of it. Can a reader give an author a more earnest compliment? Highly recommended!

[Bondaramsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine that you are a girl entrusted by your grandmother to save someone from death, someone who lived in distant past, and the only man who can offer you help is a man you had a relationship with and had come to loathe; he offers a rather sick (but predictable, given their past) deal to you. What would you do? Well, an ordinary girl would fall for that deal, but Martie is no ordinary girl; unknown to her, she is a wizard (as revealed to her by Professor Marcus). She takes it upon herself to do everything on her own to fulfill her grandmother's wish. But will she be able to do it? And what misadventures would follow? Well, I would save the spoilers for you.

Right from the emotional manipulation of Martie by the crooked professor to her adventures with another wizard like her, Alastor, the writing is extremely focused and the characters highly engaging. The dialogs are appropriate for the situation. Martie speaks in one style, Judith (her grandma) in another and Alastor in an even odder way. There are plenty of weird characters in it (as one would expect from a time travel book) but no matter how weird they are, all of them have been carefully etched in a way that you feel that they come with their individual heart and soul. Look how easily a reader can comprehend the mind of a character as well as the situation she's in at the same time:

"She went in. It was warm and cozy inside, and the light muted. She shrugged off her cloak and hung it on the rack, as usual. Except something felt different, an odd sensation: a sharpening of her consciousness, a tightening awareness—a presence in the house."

This is a world where human beings, wizards, angels, and so on inhabit. There is both magic and realism, romance and fantasy in this book. I simply cannot recommend it enough. Whether you are old or young, you are gonna love it!

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think my true rating of this book is probably more like 2.5 stars. I enjoyed the plot the most; it was a different take on magic and wizardry, and I enjoyed the methods of time traveling. I had mixed feelings about the characters. I could never really get a clear picture of them, and I didn't feel a strong connection to them. I didn't feel that the characters had a lot of depth for they only seemed able to focus on one worry or thought or problem at a time. Martie's worries over her family, Professor Cirksena, and what was happening in 1910 were never compounded as they would be in real life; she only remembered and dealt with each problem discretely. Also one of the most important parts of a time-travel book for me is making the past feel and sound realistic to the reader and exploring the adjustments that the traveling character has to make to survive and blend in in a time that is not his or her own. I did not think this was particularly well done in this book. Often, the characters from 1910 spoke in a dialogue that was too modern, and after only a short amount of time, Martie almost completely gave up trying to even pretend to be familiar with the diction and customs of 1910. Despite these things, I might still have rated the book 3 stars if it had not been for all of the typos and editing errors in the book. There weren't enough to make the book unreadable, but there were enough to make it annoying. Hence, it slightly lessened my enjoyment. I don't think I would read a sequel (the ending of the book somewhat sets up the possibility for one), but I got enough enjoyment out of the story to make it worth having entered to win it. I received a free copy of this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

[Anne Monteith · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kindle edition has 561 pages but don’t let this deter you because the writing is quality entertainment. The story is a mixture of fantasy, historical romance ad time travel and has everything in it that readers love; adventure and drama, magic in addition to time travel and romance. It’s a world inhabited by angels, humans, wizard and others. The writing is meticulous and vibrant and very entertaining. It’s easy to read because of the characters, the time period and the details provided by the author. As for the romance, I felt that Alastor was a little to eager to fall in love again and that Martie feel in love with him too fast and too deep and almost forgot the main reason she was there. This is a common problem that I have with many romance novels; instant love just does not occur, that’s lust which fades not love which lasts. Despite this I still would recommend this book,

4.75/5 STARS **Receiving a digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley did not influence my rating or review of this book; all opinions are mine.

[Clarissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dangerous Reflections is one of the better books I have read in a while. The story starts slowly, but whips into a whirlwind as the magic, mystery,and romance increase. With characters that are easy to identify with, it proved to be quite the enjoyable read.
I would recommend it to anyone interested in magic, romance, and time travel.

Note:
I would like to thank the author, Karla Tipton for the opportunity to receive an ARC of Dangerous Reflections through Goodreads First Reads. I have had a great time reading it.

[Linda]

Time Traveling

Described as a historical fantasy. It was, delightfully so. Additionally a romance. I thoroughly enjoyed the "journey"! It did become a bit difficult to follow the character relationships, hence 4 stars rather than 5! All in all, a very good book that I would recommend!

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to thank the author for a copy of the book and the chance to review it through the GoodReads First Reads program.

I’m usually a bit leery of historical fantasy books. A lot of times, the author forgets what time period they are supposed to be in and the characters start using slang or mannerism not appropriate for that time period. After reading the good reviews of the author’s previous books, I thought I would give it a try. I’m so glad that I did.
I really liked this book. The time period stayed accurate. All the characters had their own personality and reason for being in the book. There were several twists and unexpected turns.
Martie made mistakes but was determined to do the “right thing”. She didn’t fit in well in that time period, she fumbled a bit, but she did the best that she could. Alastor was a bit too swarmy for me. And Martie falls for him too deeply and too quickly. I know it was a romance novel and it need that aspect. It was just a little too insta-love IMO.
I liked the magic aspect of it. It was a more realistic view of magic than sparkling vampires. Ugh! If magic really does exist, that is how I imagined it would be. More real than fantasy.
It has a definite ending. No cliffhangers; although, the door was left open should the author care to continue it.

I really liked the story, I would definitely recommend it.

[T. Atkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy the book. The book was well written and I loved the writers amazing use of the English language. I loved the story and can't wait to read the next installment. I however was a little disappointed. In the first chapter of the book we learn of Martie's second sight but she never uses throughout the rest of the story which would have been a great use to her in many of the sticky situations she found herself in. At the end of the book when Alastor comes back to her I felt lacking. I wish we could have been told this part of the story as it happened. The struggle and conversation he and Kamael had when he finally released him to come back. Without this part of the story I felt that when he did come back I had my guard up believing it might have been a trick at first and that he may have been an impostor. But other than that the story was amazingly written. It only took me a few days to read it and was very captivating.

[LYNN A. Pyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok that's cool

I had a hard time getting to the point where it was getting to hold my interest almost to chapter 17 ! Then it started to flow and I understand just what I was reading.