Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book is definitely polarizing. The story has potential, and perhaps with much more generous editing, it could be decent. It starts out quite promising, but after a few hundred pages of meandering story, I began to wonder when the time travel mythology would kick in. Well, it doesn't. I loved the potential of it, but details of her time travel are not explored. It seemed more a device to get a modern-era woman to the 1700s so she could be swept off her feet by this rugged man Jamie in his kilt. This book would be better off with more straightforward cover art - just show the brute shirtless male in a kilt with the submissive woman. It masquerades as something more, but sadly, it isn't. While many of the supporting characters have some depth, the main character Claire seems shallow; I found it difficult to care about her as she doesn't seem to reflect on much more than her present circumstances. For example, the situation with her multiple husbands. She "forgets" her present era husband fairly quickly, a hundred pages could go by with barely a mention of his name. She seemed too readily agreeable to abandon her old life. The explanation for why she must marry Jamie seems even more implausible than time travel. As for the violence, I felt it made sense historically that a husband from the 1700s would beat his wife for not obeying him. What is disheartening is Claire's total devotion to him regardless. Her husband has violent sex with her, numerous times, and it is supposed to be clear to the reader that it is acceptable since Claire can also behave violently and yell back at him. He also spanks her, not in a sexy way, and her response is to throw a fit. But then has sex with him again, later. It's also disheartening that Jaime is viewed as some sort of perfect man. I was disappointed because the marital rape was not presented as such, instead being more of a temporary character flaw for Jamie. I felt it wasn't treated with the scrutiny and severity it deserved. Not only does he force his wife to have sex, we also get to read about his own rape and torture in copious detail. The end of this book is a total trainwreck. If you make it this far, it's almost comical if you have a dark enough sense of humor. The torture rape of beloved Jamie by the guy who looks like Claire's husband because they are distantly related, the absurd scene where she fights off wolves, her own torture and captivity for witchcraft. It's like the author used a plot device meme and kept writing scene after scene to make the book heavy enough for a doorstop (where was the editor?) The wandering plot eventually tried to tie up the multitude of secondary character's loose ends, most of whom I had either entirely forgotton or no longer cared about. To each her own, but I call this one a hot mess.