Starred review from March 5, 2012
Wall Street analyst Kate Wilson is good at her job, good looking, smart, and while she’s somewhat out of place in her shark-filled firm, she’s hardly the sort of woman the handsome billionaire investment genius Julian Laurence would be expected to take an interest in. Yet from the moment he sees her, he’s smitten. Equal parts mystified and attracted, Kate’s left to wonder why he backs off as suddenly as he appeared. Is he just some rich jerk blowing hot and cold? No, he’s deeply in love and stuck with a secret: he’s from a different time, and they’ve met before. Williams’s pacing is excellent: as one question is answered, another arises, and soon, like Kate herself, readers are in too deep to argue. When the book starts moving between Wall Street (where Kate is accused of leaking information to Laurence’s firm) and the WWI front (where Julian is an officer in the British Army), and the lovers face difficulties on all sides, we’re happy to suspend disbelief. Some of the book’s many plot threads get dropped, but it doesn’t matter; at heart this is a delicious story about the ultimate romantic fantasy: love that not only triumphs over time and common sense, but, once Kate overcomes Julian’s WWI-era ideas about honor, includes mind-blowing sex. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
May 1, 2012
An engaging romantic debut cheerfully bends the rules to unite soul mates Kate and Julian, separated merely by an ocean, a world war and a century. Pivoting on a time-slip even more unlikely than most, Williams' full-throated love story demands absolute suspension of disbelief for maximum enjoyment. Operating in both 1916 and 2007, it introduces a couple who cross the time/space continuum to find--and protect--their other halves. Kate Wilson, an investment analyst in modern Manhattan, can't believe her luck when blond, rich, honorable, single, athletic, British hedge-fund wizard Julian Laurence falls for her. But Kate doesn't yet understand her destiny. She is also seen in alternate chapters visiting Amiens in France during the Great War, searching for iconic war poet Capt. Julian Ashford in an effort to change the course of history. Mysteries abound, and Williams dodges explanations for too long, opting instead for an excess of conversations about trust and commitment which drain suspense and create a sagging, stalled middle section. When answers finally come, they arrive in a rush of derring-do and credulity-stretching chicken-and-egg explanation. Williams' terrific premise proves impossible to sustain, but with her gift for humor, snappy dialogue and swooning romance, there's plenty to enjoy and the promise of more enjoyable escapism to come in future work.
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December 1, 2011
In 1916 France, a lovely young American named Kate gives British officer Julian Ashford some crucial information. In 2007 New York, Wall Street analyst Kate Wilson falls frantically for rich but mysterious Julian Lawrence. What's the connection? Promotional references to Diana Gabaldon and a love that transcends time should give you a clue. This debut novel won two Romance Writers of America awards before it was even sold and boasts great quotes from the likes of Anne Fortier and Karen White. Likely a winner.
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