Sunday 11 December 2011

REVIEW - CHRISTMAS IN TIME BY PEGGY WEBB


Title: Christmas In Time
Author: Peggy Webb
Genre: paranormal, time travel
Release Date: 29th September 2011

BLURB from Goodreads
Paranormal, time travel novella, a prequel to Only Yesterday. 

Everybody in her family and in the Gulf Coast town of Fairhope views Gilly as a woman whose life is plain and simple, one who has been content to spoil her great-niece Ann while living out her days in Windchime House. Only her best friend Margaret knows the heroic story of Gilly Debeau.

When Ann's Christmas gift of wind chimes catapults Gilly back in time, she finds herself seated at the cafĂ© Parisiene, having tea with her Papa, whom she had accompanied on a business trip abroad, and enjoying her eighteenth birthday gift -  return passage to America on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. As the string quintet entertains the passengers, Gilly can't take her eyes off the handsome, talented violinist from West Yorkshire. Under William's spell, she falls for both the music and the musician. But does an over-protected, unsophisticated girl from Alabama dare defy convention in order to become a woman? And how will she ever explain to Papa that she is planning a future with a man she's known only three days? 
On April 14, 1912, Gilly is wrenched away from everything and everyone she loves. Can she survive the icy Atlantic? Can William? Can their love survive a lifetime and beyond?


Goodreads Link

PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon US
Amazon UK


REVIEW
So this book is described as being of a paranormal, time travel genre, it is also a novella and the prequel to the full lenth book called Only Yesterday.

Gilly tells her niece all about the Debeau curse. . . The "you know when you are truly in love when your toes curl" Gilly's niece wonders how her Aunt Gilly would know as she is what some would refer to as an old spinster. Gilly is ill, in fact she is so ill that her mind drifts back in time and tells the story of the man she met and fell madly in love with that made her toes curl! Gilly had been on the Titanic, the trip had been an eighteenth birthday gift from her father. I really don't want to give much away, but even the infamous Molly Brown is tying to play matchmaker with her and a rather arrogant rich young man. Gilly helps Molly set up a "Christmas party" even though it's only April!

Then the fateful night arrives, the night that the unsinkable Titanic sinks at 2.20am.

We then come back to the present day and Gilly is in hospital, she talks to her niece and her best friend MArgaret into discharging her from the hospital and taking her down to see her
favourite thing one last time. Gilly chooses to go look out to sea one more time.

I loved this poignant, heart-warming and I have to say heart-breaking at times story. I don't mind admitting that there were tears in my eyes on more than one occasion during reading this book. My favourite character was the loud opinionated Molly Brown said and could do whatever a man could do just as well! I also loved Gill's heroic attempts and selflessness in helping others as the Titanic was going down. 

I must admit I am attracted by any mention of the Titanic and love reading Titanic related books, both fiction and non fiction titles. However when I chose to read this book I didn't realise it had the Titanic featured in it. I had chosen to read this book as it had a Christmas theme within it. I would say that this book has a story that could be read and enjoyed at any time of year. I think it just makes the story all the more poignant by reading it at Christmas. Just be prepared to need those tissues! What more can I say I truly loved reading this novella.

No comments:

Post a Comment