Love Once in Passing by Jo Ann Simon is a time travel in which the hero of the novel travels forward in time to modern day America from Regency England.

I say modern day America, however this novel was in fact published back in the early 1980's and so is a little dated.  It is hard to find, however both this book and the sequel Love Once Again have recently been re-released by Imajinn Books.  Hopefully if you are looking for them you will find copies without too much trouble.  I don't know if the new books are different in any way to these ones.

The story begins with the appearance of Christopher Dunlap in the car of Jessica Lund as she drives home from work one night.  Unable to believe her eyes she at first fears the man who has appeared but quickly accepts his story. After all, when someone appears in your car whilst driving it stands to reason there must be an out of the ordinary explanation.

Taking him to her house she lets him stay with her until he can find his own way in the world in which he now finds himself.

Christopher Dunlap, 9th Earl of Westerham, explained to Jessica how he had been riding from London to his estate in Kent one night when he suddenly found himself in her vehicle. With Jessica's help he tries to make his way in the 20th century. 

Jessica finds that having an Earl in her house is not without its problems, he criticises her revealing clothes and is ever conscious of the gossip of the neighbourhood. However Jessica is beginning to care for Christopher and does not want him to leave her house.  She understands though that until he can find out whether he is to go back to his own time they can have no real future together.

Finding as much information as they can in the USA Christopher and Jessica grow closer and eventually marry but all the while they know they are on borrowed time if they find from the history records that Christopher lived out his life back in the century he came from.

Travelling to England they are determined to uncover the truth but when the trip begins with the tragedy of a car accident Jessica finds herself with a memory and does not recall anything of her husband at all.

Told in entirely the first person we only see Jessica's view point for this novel.  (Incidentally the sequel is not told in the first person).  That being the case this is an interesting perspective to have when she finds herself without her memory.  It adds a great deal to the suspense and I was pleased to discover a psychological reason for the memory loss and not merely an attempt at dragging out the story by the author.

One of the oldest time travel romances I have read this is in fact hard to tell but for a few small details...for instance Jessica's joy at a fur coat which would have the animal rights campaigners up in arms in an instant were it published  for the first time today.

One point I really did not like about this novel was when Christopher took Jessica to bed after her memory loss.  Not withstanding the fact that he is a man of an entirely different era and the extenuating circumstances of the situation...I felt that his actions were as close to rape as it is possible to get and it really did not progress the story in my opinion.  His actions did not bring back Jessica's memories and she was still not comfortable with him as they continued their trip.  In light of the date this book was published I would be curious to know how it was received when it first hit the shelves.

Other than that this is an interesting time travel romance with a strong story line and a dreadful cliff hanger.  A part of me was pleased I already had the sequel to hand and can't imagine what it would have been like for those who had to wait for it to be released over a year and a half later. 

RATING : 
(if you need an explanation of the hearts ratings see my homepage)

Also by Jo Ann Simon: Love Once Again

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