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Once Upon A Rose
While shooting a music video on location in England's Hampton Court Palace, country-western star Deanie Bailey ducks into a castle for solace and finds herself 400 years in the past. A force has brought Deanie into the duke of Hamilton's life, and to a bygone era to change the future--and to fall madly in love.
338 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
2 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Judith O'Brien
19 books46 followersWriting romance novels has got to be the way to make a living in the world. What other career allows you to send the kids off to school, walk the dog, and vanish into the most fascinating of historical times and places, with the most glorious of men, to escape danger and find everlasting love for the rest of the day?
Like most writers, I knew early on that I wanted to be a writer. Well, almost. Actually, writing was the third choice on my short list of career possibilities, right after Fairy Princess and Prima Ballerina. The first two didn't work out. So after college I moved to New York, where I worked for Seventeen Magazine. Not only had I never really been to New York before, but I believe I was the only editorial assistant in the magazine industry who still wore knee socks. Soon I was promoted to Editor of the "Letters to the Editor" department. Yes, there really IS an editor for the letters to the editor column. But it allowed me to write articles, answer the personal problems of teens (boys and zits were the big topics of concern), and rummage through the back files of the magazine. I found Sylvia Plath's original carbon of a short story she submitted while still in high school. There were articles on up-and-coming talents with names like Judy Holiday, Marlon Brando and Elvis. And very occasionally I was employed as a last-minute makeover subject. That was me looking miserable after getting the "Brideshead Revisited" bob.
Then I lucked into a fabulous job - as a jacket copy writer at a publishing house called Pocket Books. There I first read Jude Deveraux, Judith McNaught and Julie Garwood in manuscript form, and from those I would compose the blurbs for the book covers. It was heaven. I would read straight through my lunch hour, thus accounting for the chicken salad and iced tea on the returned manuscripts. But as much as I loved reading those marvelous stories, what I really wanted to do was to write one. Just one. Just to see what would happen.
Life interfered. I went back into magazines, this time at Self as an editor and writer. I got married, then had my son. I was still on maternity leave, writing general health articles while bouncing a newborn on my knee, that I began to dream once again of writing a romance novel. So that is exactly what I did. And I modestly claim to have written the most horrendous first three chapters of ANY book, in ANY genre, at ANY time in history. Unfortunately, still addled by the turmoil of being a new mom (hey, it's an excuse), I actually sent the wretched chapters to agents and publishers.
The rejections were polite form letters. Dozens of them. I shoved them into a bottom drawer and stuck to articles, becoming a free-lance writer and full-time mom. A few years later I gave romance writing another try. This time I sent it to only one person, Linda Marrow, with whom I had worked at Pocket Books years earlier. I certainly did not expect her to accept the manuscript. But I did hope she would let me know which editor at whatever house just might be interested in my time-travel romance.
Instead, I received a call from Linda three days later, offering me a two book contract.
Now I am a single mom. My son is twelve. I live in Brooklyn. And I'm lucky enough to write romance novels for a living. So please excuse me while I slip into something more comfortable. Such as Civil War Atlanta, or Tudor England, or Georgian Ireland, or....Did I mention how much I love this job?
Like most writers, I knew early on that I wanted to be a writer. Well, almost. Actually, writing was the third choice on my short list of career possibilities, right after Fairy Princess and Prima Ballerina. The first two didn't work out. So after college I moved to New York, where I worked for Seventeen Magazine. Not only had I never really been to New York before, but I believe I was the only editorial assistant in the magazine industry who still wore knee socks. Soon I was promoted to Editor of the "Letters to the Editor" department. Yes, there really IS an editor for the letters to the editor column. But it allowed me to write articles, answer the personal problems of teens (boys and zits were the big topics of concern), and rummage through the back files of the magazine. I found Sylvia Plath's original carbon of a short story she submitted while still in high school. There were articles on up-and-coming talents with names like Judy Holiday, Marlon Brando and Elvis. And very occasionally I was employed as a last-minute makeover subject. That was me looking miserable after getting the "Brideshead Revisited" bob.
Then I lucked into a fabulous job - as a jacket copy writer at a publishing house called Pocket Books. There I first read Jude Deveraux, Judith McNaught and Julie Garwood in manuscript form, and from those I would compose the blurbs for the book covers. It was heaven. I would read straight through my lunch hour, thus accounting for the chicken salad and iced tea on the returned manuscripts. But as much as I loved reading those marvelous stories, what I really wanted to do was to write one. Just one. Just to see what would happen.
Life interfered. I went back into magazines, this time at Self as an editor and writer. I got married, then had my son. I was still on maternity leave, writing general health articles while bouncing a newborn on my knee, that I began to dream once again of writing a romance novel. So that is exactly what I did. And I modestly claim to have written the most horrendous first three chapters of ANY book, in ANY genre, at ANY time in history. Unfortunately, still addled by the turmoil of being a new mom (hey, it's an excuse), I actually sent the wretched chapters to agents and publishers.
The rejections were polite form letters. Dozens of them. I shoved them into a bottom drawer and stuck to articles, becoming a free-lance writer and full-time mom. A few years later I gave romance writing another try. This time I sent it to only one person, Linda Marrow, with whom I had worked at Pocket Books years earlier. I certainly did not expect her to accept the manuscript. But I did hope she would let me know which editor at whatever house just might be interested in my time-travel romance.
Instead, I received a call from Linda three days later, offering me a two book contract.
Now I am a single mom. My son is twelve. I live in Brooklyn. And I'm lucky enough to write romance novels for a living. So please excuse me while I slip into something more comfortable. Such as Civil War Atlanta, or Tudor England, or Georgian Ireland, or....Did I mention how much I love this job?
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 20, 2025
Finally, after years of being passed over and used for her song writing abilities, the heroine has her chance to make it big. On the set of her new music video, however, deep in the maze, she suddenly finds herself tossed back in time to 1540.
Stunned and confused she is met immediately by a tall and friendly man who takes one look at her and brings her under his protection. She finds it a bit odd that he should believe her time travel story so easily but he tells her that she's not the first to come through the maze and she's grateful for him because he turns out to be her only friend.
Pretending to be his cousin from Wales, they have to make up a story of a head injury to explain the heroines odd way of speaking and the stranger words and phrases that come out of her mouth. A girl from Nashville with a southern twang trying to understand tudor English is hard enough let alone learning all the customs and politics that go with the time. Under the rule of King Henry the Vlll, the castle if full of tension and question about if the Queen Anne will survive.
The heroine tries to rhyme off in her head if Queen Anne of Claves gets beheaded or divorced. But life with the hero is very interesting and fulfilling-especially when she finds out he himself is a time traveler from the 40's. He seems pleased by just the idea of another person understanding what Airplanes are and even if he didn't come to love her for her sweetness and beauty, he'd love her for bringing him news that Hitler lost the war.
When all they have is each other, it makes for a consuming and passionate love affair-even if there isn't any real sex scene. But when politics really heat up and the hero finds himself kidnapped, the heroine refuses to accept his desire for her to return to the future without him and mounts a rescue. Little does she know that a prison break is far from the most pressing concern, it's how to get back to the future in one piece with the man she loves.
There were parts of this book that very much intrigued me. Number 1? The whole tudor Henry the 8th plot line that presented the King as a child like, almost handicapped man who could have a soul and some decency regardless of how history portrayed him. Number 2? The heroine herself who very much reminded me of Dolly Parten. Country music singer, kind and generous spirt always quick to make friends and who at heart is a marvelous human being. It's her lightness and open character that makes it believable to have King Henry better himself from being around her. Number 3? A passionate, kind and loving hero who is just as lost and confused as the heroine is, he's just had more time to cope.
However lovely these 3 points are, there were flaws. The most pressing flaw was she storyline itself, which was so focused on King Henry and Anne and the history of it all that it took away from the relationship between the hero and heroine. It felts like as a result of this distraction their love was rushed and could have been more evolved. There was also a pacing issue as I felt it dragged its feet a bit here and there.
But overall, my enchantment with the heroine couldn't make it rate it any lower than a 3 star. This author is odd to me as her books typically have a pattern of starting out great and finishing okay.
Great ideas but perhaps not fleshed out as well as they could be. Still, it was a cute story.
Stunned and confused she is met immediately by a tall and friendly man who takes one look at her and brings her under his protection. She finds it a bit odd that he should believe her time travel story so easily but he tells her that she's not the first to come through the maze and she's grateful for him because he turns out to be her only friend.
Pretending to be his cousin from Wales, they have to make up a story of a head injury to explain the heroines odd way of speaking and the stranger words and phrases that come out of her mouth. A girl from Nashville with a southern twang trying to understand tudor English is hard enough let alone learning all the customs and politics that go with the time. Under the rule of King Henry the Vlll, the castle if full of tension and question about if the Queen Anne will survive.
The heroine tries to rhyme off in her head if Queen Anne of Claves gets beheaded or divorced. But life with the hero is very interesting and fulfilling-especially when she finds out he himself is a time traveler from the 40's. He seems pleased by just the idea of another person understanding what Airplanes are and even if he didn't come to love her for her sweetness and beauty, he'd love her for bringing him news that Hitler lost the war.
When all they have is each other, it makes for a consuming and passionate love affair-even if there isn't any real sex scene. But when politics really heat up and the hero finds himself kidnapped, the heroine refuses to accept his desire for her to return to the future without him and mounts a rescue. Little does she know that a prison break is far from the most pressing concern, it's how to get back to the future in one piece with the man she loves.
There were parts of this book that very much intrigued me. Number 1? The whole tudor Henry the 8th plot line that presented the King as a child like, almost handicapped man who could have a soul and some decency regardless of how history portrayed him. Number 2? The heroine herself who very much reminded me of Dolly Parten. Country music singer, kind and generous spirt always quick to make friends and who at heart is a marvelous human being. It's her lightness and open character that makes it believable to have King Henry better himself from being around her. Number 3? A passionate, kind and loving hero who is just as lost and confused as the heroine is, he's just had more time to cope.
However lovely these 3 points are, there were flaws. The most pressing flaw was she storyline itself, which was so focused on King Henry and Anne and the history of it all that it took away from the relationship between the hero and heroine. It felts like as a result of this distraction their love was rushed and could have been more evolved. There was also a pacing issue as I felt it dragged its feet a bit here and there.
But overall, my enchantment with the heroine couldn't make it rate it any lower than a 3 star. This author is odd to me as her books typically have a pattern of starting out great and finishing okay.
Great ideas but perhaps not fleshed out as well as they could be. Still, it was a cute story.
March 13, 2023
Very interesting
July 24, 2014
While shooting a music video in England on the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, Country Music star Deanie Bailey is walking through a maze when she is swept back in time to Tudor England and the Court of Henry VIII. Befriended by the Duke of Hamilton, Christopher "Kit" Neville, Deanie soon finds out that he has also traveled through time from 1940. Together Kit and Deanie must navigate life at the palace, just trying to keep from losing their heads before finding a way to get back home.
Judith O'Brien did her homework when giving us the facts about Henry VIII and his court. This book takes place in 1540 when Anne Boleyn has been beheaded and Henry has just began his unhappy marriage to Anne of Cleves. I found this part of the story very interesting. My problem with the book was the heroine, Deanie, who was a bit of a ditz. While Kit is trying to keep them out of trouble so they're not sent to the Tower of London, she is off on her own, worrying about the futures of the Queen and Princess Elizabeth. So, unless you are a big fan of Tudor England, I'd give this book a pass. My rating: 2.5 Stars.
Judith O'Brien did her homework when giving us the facts about Henry VIII and his court. This book takes place in 1540 when Anne Boleyn has been beheaded and Henry has just began his unhappy marriage to Anne of Cleves. I found this part of the story very interesting. My problem with the book was the heroine, Deanie, who was a bit of a ditz. While Kit is trying to keep them out of trouble so they're not sent to the Tower of London, she is off on her own, worrying about the futures of the Queen and Princess Elizabeth. So, unless you are a big fan of Tudor England, I'd give this book a pass. My rating: 2.5 Stars.
March 29, 2017
This is one of my favorite Time-travel... historical fiction novel!!! I really enjoyed reading it.. aside from learning a lot in history!! It is very well-researched.. and it has a really unique story line.. especially the ending.. that was the best part! I mean unlike in the other time-travel novels.. this one.. the author allowed the hero from the past be with her in the present!!! What more could you ask for?!! :)It's great to know that they end up together.. in the PRESENT.. it is really the perfect happy ending.. an ending I always wanted to happen in every Time-travel I read. It's not depressing unlike with the other Time-travel novels.. in which most of the heroes are stuck in the past.. and the the heroine must of course be back in her own time. Then she'll meet his reincarnated version.. that sort of thing.. all I can say!! This is a must read for those who love Time-travel romance with a perfect ending!!! :)
April 6, 2013
I LOVED this book!!! Time Travel is a favorite with me, but this one was a hoot!! The heroine is very modern day, and the hero medieval, but there's a twist, and it was just such a cool concept..to those of you who recently slammed this book, I'm just sorry that you have no imagination! I would recommend this historical time travel romance to anyone interested in those themes, it's a REALLY GREAT read, and I will definitely be looking for more books by Judith O'Brien!
November 24, 2012
Most hilariously terrible romance I think I've ever read. Even as someone who doesn't know that much about this time period, there are a billion glaringly anachronistic details, but somehow that just makes the entire thing funnier.
June 2, 2016
I LOVED this book!!! I've read it several times and will probably read it again soon. It is a non-graphic romance novel with a fun plot line and an interesting cast of characters. The last two chapters fly by a little too quickly for my taste, but its still one of my favorite books of all time.
August 5, 2008
Fun, fluffy romance without any smut :) Recommended to me by Sarah. I enjoyed it, but it definitely strayed from what I normally read!
November 18, 2013
Sometimes silly but on the whole inoffensive time-slip romance.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews