A Twist in Time

I came across the book by chance and was excited to discover that the hero is the second son of Epona and Valgar from her older book, 'Danegeld'. It is a tightly-written time-travel story with realistic interaction between a twenty-first century woman and a tenth-century Viking warrior as they battle villains who want to use the wonderful time-travel machine for their evil purposes.

Absolutely fabulous, well written time travel romance that takes into account language barriers, cultural differences, magic, and turns an unlikely situation into an adventure to remember. Buy it, read it, love it.

I really like Susan Squires' novels. She has a writing style that is detailed and gripping and her stories are always well plotted and engrossing. 'A Twist in Time' continues this, but also had its differences - for example, it didn't contain any vampires (her 'Companion' series) but instead involved time travelling. When Lucy Rossano finds herself taken to see a time machine in the Super Collider Lab - a time machine apparently made by Leonardo da Vinci, which is detailed in an old book that she owns - she little realises that this is the start of a complete upheaval in her life. She is the one the test the machine, finds herself momentarily in England during the Dark Ages, and has an unexpected passenger on the way back to present-day America. Or is it present day? Lucy arrives in a hospital car park with a severely injured barbarian who speaks something like German or Scandinavian. He is treated in the hospital but Lucy realises things aren't quite right - she didn't make it back to the same date, for a start, and she is aware that she might be in trouble for not returning immediately with the time machine. Lucy escapes with her barbarian, getting help from a neighbour with his own secrets, and eventually instals herself on a sailing boat, trying to communicate with the man, Galen, a half Danish, half English man. Speaking a mixture of Latin and English, with some Germanic thrown in, they gradually being to understand each other. Galen is very quick to learn, and as he heals he begins to understand the situation that he is now in. But people are after Lucy for her knowledge of the time machine and she knows she can't 'disappear' forever. And Galen has his own regrets as he didn't achieve what his parents hoped for him. Can Lucy and Galen keep each other safe? Parts of this book reminded me of one of Susan Squires' earliest books, Danegeld, and her knowledge of this period of history comes through well, particularly with regard to the language - I very much enjoyed reading the old English and Danish as Lucy and Galen try to communicate. There wasn't actually all that much action in this book - a large part is set on the sailing boat in close quarters where Lucy and Galen are hiding. I felt the end was perhaps a little facile, with Galen finding his place in the world, but the overall story was enjoyable. It had less of the blood and rape that some of her more recent books have contained and that, for me, was also a benefit. Originally published for Curled Up With A Good Book © Helen Hancox 2010

As a first-time reader of Susan Squires, I was quite pleased with this book. I am now looking for the first book in the series and looking forward to the next book in the trilogy. I don't know what her vampire books are like (I am not a vampire-book lover) but I certainly enjoyed this genre. For readers who also enjoy Sandra Hill's Viking series, I think they would enjoy this one also.

I am quite familiar with her work and I thought this was another great effort. I wanted to keep reading and not put it down until I was finished. I loved the fact that it was about regular people this time instead of vampires as she usually writes. I was pleased overall.