Love Once Again by Jo Ann Simon is the sequel to Love Once in Passing and continues the story of Christopher and Jessica Dunlap following their unexpected separation at the end of the first novel.

Having watched her husband vanish from her sight Jessica and their two months old son Kit find themselves taking a trip through time too.  Unfortunately she has no idea where Christopher went and he is nowhere in sight where she finds herself.

Mistaken for the new maid at the Beard Farm, Jessica finds that she is obliged to accept the position in order to feed and cloth both herself and her baby.  Settling in she realises that she is not far from her home but now in the year 1813. 

Making friends and silent enemies Jessica searches for Christopher in every face she sees, hoping to see him but having no idea if he is even in the same time.

Meanwhile in New York Christopher has also found himself in 1813.  He has no idea that Jessica has also been swept back in time although like her he searches for her without much hope that she had also been pulled from the 20th century.

Separated by relatively few miles the reader can tell through the connections each make that their paths will cross again...it is a question only of when.

Making new lives for themselves Jessica settles in as a maid and she and her son live day to day in the life they have found themselves in.

Christopher finds himself a job in shipping and using knowledge of the future makes money for himself and begins his own company.  Successful and rich he finds a place amongst the New York society.  However he shuns the company of women merely telling his close friends that he had lost someone. 

Time passes and Christopher eventually meets a woman who he believes he could make a new life with.  Partly as a business decision and partly passion he knows that he does not love Rhea. 

It is only natural that he is well ensnared by Rhea when he and Jessica are finally reunited.

But although he is easily able to break off his engagement to Rhea things are far from over and Rhea is determined to win back Christopher from her rival.

Jessica meanwhile leaves the Beard Farm and her friends there to make a new life with her husband.  But she finds it hard to fit into his world and when tragedy strikes they grow further and further apart, giving Rhea the chance she has been waiting for lure Christopher away.

Although this book is not particularly lengthy a long time span is covered in it and it comes across as a rather epic novel and each stage has its own unique flavour.

The shock and hardship of their initial arrival in the past, the progression of their lives, their reunion, their strained relationship and of course the obligatory happy ending, although in this case a rather bittersweet epilogue is included. 

In Love Once Again you will find that Jo Ann Simon is not afraid to tackle subjects which are rarely brought up in romance novels and in particular the unfaithfulness of Christopher and the well thought out reasons behind how it came about are very unusual in this type of novel.  It is one of those rare romance novels that is not afraid to have severely bad decisions made by the hero and heroine together with controversial actions made by them and yet still have you enjoy the book.

An excellent book which portrays very well the differences and difficulties in early 19th century America compared to the modern world. 

Although this book should be read after Love Once in Passing I feel that it can also stand alone too.  Both books are rather hard to find, however they have recently been re-released by Imajinn Books. I do not know if the new releases differ from these or not.

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Also by Jo Ann Simon: Love Once in Passing

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