Book Review: The Return of Black Douglas by Elaine Coffman

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About the Book:


New Scottish time travel romance written in response to reader demand by award winning and New York Times bestselling author Elaine Coffman (5 million books sold). When Isobella Douglas is pulled back in time by the ghost of her infamous ancestor The Black Douglas, she encounters a Highland laird who’s completely captivated by the modern lass...


About the Author:


Since the release of her first book in 1988, New York Times Bestselling author Elaine Coffman has helped define the historical romance genre.  Elaine has received numerous awards, including the Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award, Best Western Historical Romance of the Year and the Maggie Award.  She is the author of twenty historical romance novels (Lord of the Black Isle is my 21^st book), one suspense novel and four novellas’.  She resides in Austin, Texas.


My Opinion:


I would like to start by saying that I love time travel books. To love time travel books one has to be able to let reality go. 'Cause time travel just doesn't happen. Nor do paintings come to life or any of the other things that tend to happen in this genre of novel. But that doesn't mean that the book can't still be grounded in some semblance of its own reality. The world outside of the time travel still has to make sense for the book to work. And that is where this book let me down.


The tale starts with the visit of twins Isobella and Elizabeth Douglas to Scotland to explore their ancestors. One of them is the famous "Black Douglas." Isobella has studied Celtic history and she wanted to know more about the past of her family. She had also just been dumped by her fiance; he ran off with their dance instructor! She wanted a Darcy but didn't think she'd ever find one in modern times. She felt she was born hundreds of years too late.


Erm, we all know what happens next, right? Both Isobella and Elizabeth are sent back into the past by their ancestor The Black Douglas to the 16th century. A bit before Mr. Darcy to say the least.


While I liked the characters and I enjoyed Ms. Coffman's writing there were just too many stupid plot points that spoiled the book for me. I don't want to go into them in detail because I don't want to ruin the book for anyone that reads it. Things that were obvious to the reader that just were ignored by the characters. Again, I realize that these books are inherently fantastic but there must be some sense of protocol. For example:  The hero finds the two girls from the future in a field wearing 21st century clothing. He captures one of them but doesn't search her bag even though he thinks her a spy? Makes no sense...


This is just one of many small little things that helped to distract me from totally enjoying the story.


The Return of Black Douglas is available at Sourcebooks.
The Return of Black Douglas is available at Amazon.com


Disclosure:  I received a copy of The Return of Black Douglas gratis. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by my receipt of the free book. I received no monetary compensation for this post.