Review: Tumbling Through Time by Gwyn Cready

It's pretty ironic that on this Fall Break 2010 that I would be reviewing a book by the same author that I read two years ago at this time.  Being the big Jane Austen fanatic that I've finally acknowledged that I am, based mainly off the number of reviews I've posted on Austen-related material, I picked up Seducing Mr. Darcy.  Yes, for purists this could seem the grandest of sacrilege to place Darcy in a romance novel.  I couldn't help myself though, and had to see how in the world someone could take this on.  Honestly, I thought Cready's style was snarky and flat out hilarious.  My original thoughts on Mr. Darcy were not abolished, nor affected at all. 

This past summer I was asked to read Cready's newest novel that came out in March, Flirting With Forever, and which I still have to review.  However, I had already picked up a copy of her first novel, Tumbling Through Time and wanted to read that before I tackled her newest installment.  Interestingly enough, Cready just put out a fourth novel in September, Aching For Always.  I don't know if I'll be reading her newest as well, but we'll see.  I'm hoping that her characteristic "snarky" style carries out, which I'll see when I read that third novel.

Synopsis:  From Goodreads, "Wandering the Pittsburgh airport before a business trip, Seph decides to kill time with some preflight shopping -- anything to get her mind off Tom Fraser, her irresistible, dimple-chinned coworker turned travel buddy. So when a pair of to-die-for pink stilettos calls her name from a store window, she tries them on -- only to be swiftly transported back to the eighteenth century and flung aboard a turbulent ship sailing the Mediterranean!
There, Seph is stunned to meet Phillip Drummond, an arrogant British pirate and the spitting image of Tom. Phillip has summoned her back in time to straighten out his complete mess of a life -- for he is the burly hero in the romance novel she someday hopes to write, and she is responsible for his destiny. But in the midst of turning things right so she can get back to reality, Seph starts to fall for the smoulderingly sexy Phillip. And when Tom is thrown into the mix, she doesn't know what -- or who -- she wants. Seph soon realizes that spotting the perfect pair of shoes may be easy, but finding the perfect man can be a real trip."

Review:  Having read Cready's Seducing Mr. Darcy, and genuinely getting a good laugh out of the premise, I was eager to go back and pick up her first published novel.  Cready's tongue-in-cheek style and sarcastic come backs are still, delightfully present in this story of Seph, Tom, and Phillip.  I still laughed, smiled, and even rolled my eyes a bit at the main character's antics.  The idea of going back in time and creating out of the main hero the love interest in your present day is pretty cute.  Outside of the personal voice that I enjoy (could that be because I've developed a good deal of snarkiness in teaching teens?), I have to say that I actually got mixed up a good deal in the plot.  It wasn't an easy story to follow for me, as it went from present day to the past, with two different male leads.  I mainly got mixed up in the past when it delved into the history that Phillip was caught up in.  Seph had the stress of trying to save her male lead's life, literally, through the way they shaped time (you know, like in Back to the Future).  This made for a somewhat confusing storyline for me, and one that I didn't connect to very quickly. 

While I can't say that I particularly loved Tumbling Through Time, I do like Cready's personal voice, which comes through her main female lead characters in this novel and Seducing Mr. Darcy.  If you're interested in a funny time travel sort of romance, I'd try her Darcy story first.

*FTC Disclosure:  This review based off of a personal ebook copy of the novel.