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Tangled Memories
Dr. Alexander Dominican needs a mother for his infant daughter. Motherless himself from birth, he refuses to let his daughter grow up without one. He's convinced kindergarten teacher Mary Adams is the answer to his dilemma. When he offers Mary a marriage of convenience, he has no idea he's setting into motion a destiny that has taken him seven hundred years to fulfill.
Mary Adams needs to pay her deceased husband's gambling debts, and Alex's offer of marriage seems to be the answer to her prayers. But on the day of their marriage, Mary begins to have strange hallucinations - memories of another woman's life. A life that had taken place centuries before and somehow seems frighteningly familiar.
Before Mary can figure out why she's hallucinating, it becomes clear that someone in Alex's house is out to destroy her. Could it be one of Alex's sinister servants, or could it be Alex himself? Until she can learn the answer, Mary knows she must keep her distance from Alex, but he's reawakening a hidden desire - a deep longing - that she can't ignore. But will following her heart lead her to eternal love or to a nightmare that will never end?
The only way to discover the truth is to unravel centuries of... Tangled Memories.
Mary Adams needs to pay her deceased husband's gambling debts, and Alex's offer of marriage seems to be the answer to her prayers. But on the day of their marriage, Mary begins to have strange hallucinations - memories of another woman's life. A life that had taken place centuries before and somehow seems frighteningly familiar.
Before Mary can figure out why she's hallucinating, it becomes clear that someone in Alex's house is out to destroy her. Could it be one of Alex's sinister servants, or could it be Alex himself? Until she can learn the answer, Mary knows she must keep her distance from Alex, but he's reawakening a hidden desire - a deep longing - that she can't ignore. But will following her heart lead her to eternal love or to a nightmare that will never end?
The only way to discover the truth is to unravel centuries of... Tangled Memories.
238 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
17 people are currently reading
465 people want to read
About the author
Jan Scarbrough
52 books102 followersWhether it is the Bluegrass of Kentucky, the mountains of Montana, or Medieval England, Jan Scarbrough brings you home with romances from the heart.
The author of two popular Bluegrass romance series, Jan writes heartwarming contemporary stories about home and family, single moms and children, and if the plot allows, about another passion—horses. Living in the horse country of Kentucky makes it easy for Jan to add small town, Southern charm to her books and the excitement of a Bluegrass horse race or a competitive horse show.
The Ghost Mountain Ranch series is a contemporary western series with a good blend of mystery and happily-ever-after romance. The Dawsons of Montana is another four-book contemporary western series.
Jan leaves her contemporary voice behind with two paranormal gothic romances, Timeless and Tangled Memories, a Romance Writers of America (RWA) Golden Heart finalist. Her historical romance, My Lord Raven, is a medieval story of honor and betrayal.
Jan holds a M.A. in English from Western Kentucky University. A member of Novelist, Inc., Jan self-publishes her books.
The author of two popular Bluegrass romance series, Jan writes heartwarming contemporary stories about home and family, single moms and children, and if the plot allows, about another passion—horses. Living in the horse country of Kentucky makes it easy for Jan to add small town, Southern charm to her books and the excitement of a Bluegrass horse race or a competitive horse show.
The Ghost Mountain Ranch series is a contemporary western series with a good blend of mystery and happily-ever-after romance. The Dawsons of Montana is another four-book contemporary western series.
Jan leaves her contemporary voice behind with two paranormal gothic romances, Timeless and Tangled Memories, a Romance Writers of America (RWA) Golden Heart finalist. Her historical romance, My Lord Raven, is a medieval story of honor and betrayal.
Jan holds a M.A. in English from Western Kentucky University. A member of Novelist, Inc., Jan self-publishes her books.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 25, 2019
Great story. I read this book in two days. Mary and Alex are compelling characters, each with a past more broken than they realize. Their back stories are rolled out slowly, creating a page turner that's hard to put down. What I missed was more of Alex's point of view. The author did an excellent job showing his feelings, I only wish I could have spent a little more time in his head. He was that terrific of a character. Mary too!
June 25, 2022
Incredible
Very well written!! This is part romance
with a ton of mystery that keeps you
guessing throughout the entire book!
Other than that I'm not quite sure how to
describe this one. Part of it is set way
back in the 1200s England the other
part modern day USA and the way she
melded the two together is impressive
Very well written!! This is part romance
with a ton of mystery that keeps you
guessing throughout the entire book!
Other than that I'm not quite sure how to
describe this one. Part of it is set way
back in the 1200s England the other
part modern day USA and the way she
melded the two together is impressive
July 29, 2021
Tangled Memories
This was a really great book. I couldn't figure out how this would work but Jan did a great job pulling it all together. Loved the ending and highly recommend reading.
This was a really great book. I couldn't figure out how this would work but Jan did a great job pulling it all together. Loved the ending and highly recommend reading.
December 21, 2019
Excellent
January 25, 2012
Reviewed By~Robin
Review Copy Provided By~Publisher
Ms. Scarbrough writes a lovely tale of reincarnation. If you weren’t a believer before reading this story you just make think twice about it after this story.
In writing this story at times I felt as if I could actually feel and smell the things that were happening as the descriptions were very vivid. Each time Ms. Scarbrough took us back to the 14th Century and back again it was if you were right there with the characters.
The characters were very alive; their emotions were so real and raw that I found it easy to get caught up in their story.
The crossover from the past to the present was also very believable.
Right away it is easy to fall for Mary plight. Having just lost her husband she is being eaten alive with his debt from gambling. Mary had a miscarriage which left her unable to have children and left her with a void she couldn’t fill.
Alex, Dr. Alexander Dominican just lost his wife shortly after she gave birth to their daughter to cancer.
Mary needs money to survive and Alex needs someone to be a mother to his daughter. Can a marriage born from need grow into something more?
Two desperate souls destined for each other through time as they are always brought back to one another.
Once they are married Alex finds that Mary is the best mother he could have hoped for and maybe just a little he wishes he could have had a mother like her.
As their marriage starts Mary starts having these vivid dreams and visions. She finds that she is strongly attracted to Alex in these dreams and visions and they leave her wanting him. She longs for the love that she shared with her husband.
Mary finds herself anxious at times and who wouldn’t be. The home is very gothic, like a medieval museum to the past. It has all those dark tapestries, complete with suits of amour. If that wasn’t enough to scare someone add in a housekeeper that is hateful, a servant that is mute and an invalid father that is tucked away.
Every time that Mary is taken back into time she feels as if she is observing someone else’s life but she soon realizes it is her own life that she is actually watching. Things parallel her life and the more she goes back the more she is awakened and wanting a real marriage and not just a platonic one.
She soon begins having attacks on her sanity. These attacks are real, her things are beginning to be destroyed. As this takes a toll on Mary she threatens to leave but, this only puts Alex’s daughter in danger. Alex doesn’t believe Mary she has nowhere to turn.
Because of the bond between the two of them Mary chooses to stay. As she begins to believe that the bond between them transcends time and that they are the couple from her visions.
Ms. Scarbrough weaves a very spellbinding tale that keeps you riveted to your seat, turning those pages to find out if Mary and Alex can survive the test of time and fall in love all over again. I loved how she grabs you and keeps you very entertained. A story that spans many genres for the reader in everyone.
Review Copy Provided By~Publisher
Ms. Scarbrough writes a lovely tale of reincarnation. If you weren’t a believer before reading this story you just make think twice about it after this story.
In writing this story at times I felt as if I could actually feel and smell the things that were happening as the descriptions were very vivid. Each time Ms. Scarbrough took us back to the 14th Century and back again it was if you were right there with the characters.
The characters were very alive; their emotions were so real and raw that I found it easy to get caught up in their story.
The crossover from the past to the present was also very believable.
Right away it is easy to fall for Mary plight. Having just lost her husband she is being eaten alive with his debt from gambling. Mary had a miscarriage which left her unable to have children and left her with a void she couldn’t fill.
Alex, Dr. Alexander Dominican just lost his wife shortly after she gave birth to their daughter to cancer.
Mary needs money to survive and Alex needs someone to be a mother to his daughter. Can a marriage born from need grow into something more?
Two desperate souls destined for each other through time as they are always brought back to one another.
Once they are married Alex finds that Mary is the best mother he could have hoped for and maybe just a little he wishes he could have had a mother like her.
As their marriage starts Mary starts having these vivid dreams and visions. She finds that she is strongly attracted to Alex in these dreams and visions and they leave her wanting him. She longs for the love that she shared with her husband.
Mary finds herself anxious at times and who wouldn’t be. The home is very gothic, like a medieval museum to the past. It has all those dark tapestries, complete with suits of amour. If that wasn’t enough to scare someone add in a housekeeper that is hateful, a servant that is mute and an invalid father that is tucked away.
Every time that Mary is taken back into time she feels as if she is observing someone else’s life but she soon realizes it is her own life that she is actually watching. Things parallel her life and the more she goes back the more she is awakened and wanting a real marriage and not just a platonic one.
She soon begins having attacks on her sanity. These attacks are real, her things are beginning to be destroyed. As this takes a toll on Mary she threatens to leave but, this only puts Alex’s daughter in danger. Alex doesn’t believe Mary she has nowhere to turn.
Because of the bond between the two of them Mary chooses to stay. As she begins to believe that the bond between them transcends time and that they are the couple from her visions.
Ms. Scarbrough weaves a very spellbinding tale that keeps you riveted to your seat, turning those pages to find out if Mary and Alex can survive the test of time and fall in love all over again. I loved how she grabs you and keeps you very entertained. A story that spans many genres for the reader in everyone.
January 22, 2016
I loved this book! At the beginning Dr.Alexander Dominican is marrying Mary Adams. The marriage is just to be a marriage of convenience so that Alexander's infant daughter whose month died during childbirth, will not grow up without a Mother as Alexander had to. Mary's husband died and left a lot of debts, Alexander offers to pay those bills, that she can not afford to pay, in exchange for marrying him to become his daughter Elizabeth's Mother. The marriage is one of convenience, after the wedding ceremony they go to his home and she is left to sleep in his dead wife's room as it is across the hall from the baby's room. It seems almost immediately that Mary starts having these wildly real dreams of being in a hall married to a knight, who is much older than her. Pretty soon it isn't just while she is sleeping that she goes back in time, pretty soon it is not only when she sleeps that she sees herself back in the middle ages, married and very pregnant. In addition to having this happen regularly she finds that someone in the home is trying to get her to leave. They cut her suitcase to shreds and dump perfume all over her clothing and some other pretty nasty pranks, and her new husband doesn't seem to believe her. There is a lot of tension in the home and Mary's life is not what she thought it would be. The book was written with a suspense filled drama and you don't know what is going to happen next. I did not expect what happened at the end. I really am glad that I've discovered this author I'm going to enjoy reading her books!
Description as found here on Good Reads: After losing his wife, Dr. Alexander Dominican is determined his infant daughter will not grow up motherless as he did. Offering sensible, kind kindergarten teacher Mary Adams a marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution. The widow’s husband left her with a mountain of debt. For Alex, paying it off is a small price to pay for his daughter’s happiness. Until his sensible new wife begins to lose her mind.
On the day of their marriage, Mary starts having frightening hallucinations of medieval England—visions that feel more like the memories of woman who lived centuries before. More terrifying, someone—or some thing—is stalking the new mistress of Marchbrook Manor. Could it be one of the sinister servants? Or Alex himself? Alex is reawakening hidden desires and longings in Mary, but until she can untangle the web of nightmares and secrets, she can trust no one. Not even Alex.
Alex has no idea he’s unleashing a destiny that’s taken him seven hundred years to fulfill.
If Alex and Mary are to salvage their future, they must first unravel centuries of…Tangled Memories.
(less)
Description as found here on Good Reads: After losing his wife, Dr. Alexander Dominican is determined his infant daughter will not grow up motherless as he did. Offering sensible, kind kindergarten teacher Mary Adams a marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution. The widow’s husband left her with a mountain of debt. For Alex, paying it off is a small price to pay for his daughter’s happiness. Until his sensible new wife begins to lose her mind.
On the day of their marriage, Mary starts having frightening hallucinations of medieval England—visions that feel more like the memories of woman who lived centuries before. More terrifying, someone—or some thing—is stalking the new mistress of Marchbrook Manor. Could it be one of the sinister servants? Or Alex himself? Alex is reawakening hidden desires and longings in Mary, but until she can untangle the web of nightmares and secrets, she can trust no one. Not even Alex.
Alex has no idea he’s unleashing a destiny that’s taken him seven hundred years to fulfill.
If Alex and Mary are to salvage their future, they must first unravel centuries of…Tangled Memories.
(less)
August 13, 2012
Reviewed By BlackTulip for Booked Up
I never read contemporary romance. But I had two good reasons to try this one. First, I LOVED Jan Scarbrough's first historical novel My Lord Raven and second - Tangled Memories promised a Gothic undertone and flashbacks to the fourteenth century. Truth be told, I don't regret it! But frankly I never thought I would be blown away by it!
I often complain about the lack of atmosphere in a book but here it was as tangible as you could want. You can feel it, you can even smell it, you are surrounded by it.
The author has definitely succeeded in creating a true atmosphere mixed with an incredible range of emotions. You cannot help but be touched and moved by it.
The two main characters are perfect in their interaction, so believable, so genuine. There is an invisible bond between Mary and Alex and even in her worst moments of doubts and questioning, she is irresistibly dragged back to him like a magnet.
You really want to believe in this everlasting love, you need it ... and at the end you cannot stop yourself from believing!
Without a doubt I recommend it. For myself I can't wait for her next historical novel. I give this one a 4/5.
I never read contemporary romance. But I had two good reasons to try this one. First, I LOVED Jan Scarbrough's first historical novel My Lord Raven and second - Tangled Memories promised a Gothic undertone and flashbacks to the fourteenth century. Truth be told, I don't regret it! But frankly I never thought I would be blown away by it!
I often complain about the lack of atmosphere in a book but here it was as tangible as you could want. You can feel it, you can even smell it, you are surrounded by it.
The author has definitely succeeded in creating a true atmosphere mixed with an incredible range of emotions. You cannot help but be touched and moved by it.
The two main characters are perfect in their interaction, so believable, so genuine. There is an invisible bond between Mary and Alex and even in her worst moments of doubts and questioning, she is irresistibly dragged back to him like a magnet.
You really want to believe in this everlasting love, you need it ... and at the end you cannot stop yourself from believing!
Without a doubt I recommend it. For myself I can't wait for her next historical novel. I give this one a 4/5.
January 22, 2016
This is known as a gothic romance, but there is a touch of the paranormal to it because of past lives becoming a reality in the present time. Mary becomes Alex’s second wife as a “business arrangement” in order to care for his infant daughter. And then vivid, scary dreams from Medieval days started disturbing Mary’s sleep, slowly gathering momentum until she had “blackouts” (dreams) during the daytime too. At the same time, Alex and Mary began falling for each others’ charms, although they still were uneasy with each other due to dreams and past tragedies. The entire story was a mystery with suspense building steadily from the beginning to the very end when fate in search of truth took its turn and all became clear. I loved this mysterious romance!
July 3, 2012
Tangled Memories took me a little bit to get into.
Once I finally got to sit down and get inot the book it became really good. To be able to come back and do your life over again with the man you loved and nothing went right until you finally found them again. I'm not saying it was easy and everything worked out. It took time to figure out what was going on and to make it right the second time around.
It's a miracle Mary just didn't give up on Alex. To have someone tell you that what you're going through isn't really happening. I just wasnt to say that I really enjoyed this book. It was the first that I've ever read from Jan Scarbrough, but it won't be the last
Once I finally got to sit down and get inot the book it became really good. To be able to come back and do your life over again with the man you loved and nothing went right until you finally found them again. I'm not saying it was easy and everything worked out. It took time to figure out what was going on and to make it right the second time around.
It's a miracle Mary just didn't give up on Alex. To have someone tell you that what you're going through isn't really happening. I just wasnt to say that I really enjoyed this book. It was the first that I've ever read from Jan Scarbrough, but it won't be the last
June 11, 2016
What a wonderful well written gothic romance read! Once started, I could not put it down. The story of Mary and Alex was a love story entwined between now and 700 years ago. It was a story that while reading, you could almost see it and believe it. I have not read anything gothic in very long time, but I am so very glad I was gifted this book by the author, Jan Scarbrough. I would highly recommend this to anyone that loves romance, mystery and a story "tangled" with a long ago past. Although I rarely give a 5 star review, this book is worthy.
October 7, 2016
Strange but interesting
I read this story not quite knowing what to expect. The basic premises was good but at times there was confusion in the transitions. Also I felt that's the ending was a missed opportunity. There needed to be another chapter or epilogue set a year or more into the future showing the relationship in a positive space, possibly having left the house for one with no memories etc..
I read this story not quite knowing what to expect. The basic premises was good but at times there was confusion in the transitions. Also I felt that's the ending was a missed opportunity. There needed to be another chapter or epilogue set a year or more into the future showing the relationship in a positive space, possibly having left the house for one with no memories etc..
December 9, 2013
I fell in love with Mary from the very start! She is very easy to relate to and doesn't leave me wanting to face palm myself. Most of her actions are those that would be made in real life. I honestly thought the book was a very good read and left me wondering what would happen next! You should read this!!
October 7, 2011
Jan did a fantastic job of weaving a wonderful story full of twists and turns. I loved how she was able to cross between the past and present without losing me. And I was guessing up until the end "who done it"!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews