WITH EVERY BREATH by Lynn Kurland

Lynn Kurland writes time travel romances like nobody’s business. Her latest doesn’t disappoint.

I can always expect three things from Ms. Kurland- one, lively dialogue with plenty of humor; two, characters I want to get to know and enjoy rooting for; and three, romantic scenes that end with the bedroom door firmly shut. She proves that an author doesn’t need to have her couples gasp their way through heave-and-throb scenes to be sensual, loving, and romantic.

If you’ve read any of her MacLeod series, this is the newest installment. It will stand on it’s own, but I go crazy if I don’t read it all in order. If you’re like that too, I’ll give a breakdown of that at the end of the review. In this story, Sunshine Phillips has followed her sister Madelyn to rainy Scotland. Sunny, an American, feels at home on the ancient soil- a place of legend, magic…and a lecherous boss to whom she gave a beautiful shiner.

Sunny lives in a little moss-covered cottage not far from her sister’s house. With it, she’s inherited the title of the MacLeod Clan Witch. Sunny doesn’t know spells, just herbs and holistic medicine, though in truth she doesn’t practice it often. When a man in authentic Scottish dress comes pounding on her door, she assumes her eccentric MacLeod in-laws have arranged a medieval dinner. But as this man puts her on his horse and rides for his holding, she discovers that his name is Robert Cameron, and the year is now 1375.

Cameron had ridden for the MacLeod witch to save his brother, injured in one of the many clan skirmishes. He expected the usual old hag, not this lovely young woman. It is too late for his brother, and may be too late for Sunny if he can’t move her somewhere safe quickly. Witches weren’t taken to very well, especially if their patients die. While spending weeks hiding from angry clansmen, Sunny cannot believe that she’s falling for Robert Cameron. He’s besieged on every side, trying to hold his family together, which seems more and more futile.

When he is finally able to get her back to her cottage, she falls through the portal to the present…but without him. She is consoled by her family, thinking that the brave Highland man is going to be nothing more than a troubling, wonderful memory. Until, that is, she runs straight into Lord Robert Cameron- a modern man with a fiancée, and no recognition of her whatsoever.

I feel like the MacLeods are my family, and I loved visiting them again. WITH EVERY BREATH is escapism at it’s best; the men are all noble and muscled and rich, and the characters take to time travel like my dog takes to my left over dinner. But, she writes such heartwarming, charming characters and old-fashioned breathless swooning romance that I can’t wait for a rainy Saturday of my own to dive in.

There are ten other books in the series, but if you don’t have time for them all, just read A Dance Through Time, Veils of Time, and A Garden in the Rain before this one. There’s some gore (medieval sword-swinging stuff) but it certainly isn’t graphic. And as I said, it’s definitely rated PG. Thank you, Lynn!