Beth Art From the Heart: Hands of Time by Irina Shapiro----Tour

Genre: Time-travel romance

When a young woman vanishes without a trace from a quaint fishing village on the coast of England only one person knows the truth, but he remains silent allowing the authorities to search for her in vain.
Meanwhile, Valerie Crane finds herself transported to the year 1605. Terrified and confused she turns for help to the Whitfield brothers, who take her in and offer her a home. Both Alexander and Finlay Whitfield fall in love with the mysterious woman who shows up on their doorstep creating a love triangle that threatens to consume them all. Valerie must make her choice, deciding between the brother who will lead her down the path of destruction or one who will give her a love she couldn’t find in her own time.

Author Info:

I made my entrance into the world in a little known hospital located within walking distance of Moscow’s famed Red Square. For the next eleven years I lived the life of an ordinary Soviet child, in then communist Russia, until my family’s emigration to the United States in 1982. It was a difficult adjustment, but eventually I became an all American teenager who loved to watch soap operas and listen to pop music. Due to my love of reading I was able to pick up English very quickly and was an honor student throughout my school career.
After graduating from Bernard M. Baruch College in 1992 with a Bachelor’s degree in International Business I worked in advertising for two years before coming to realize that long hours and low wages were not the life for me. I shifted my focus to Import/Export and worked my way up to the position of Import Manager in a large textile house before leaving the work force in 2006 to focus on my autistic son.
It wasn’t until I had been at home for some time that I began to write. Eventually my characters began to take on a life of their own and have conversations in my head. Once I started writing my musings down the stories came easily enough. I incorporated my love of history and travel into my writing to create a rich and detailed background for my characters. Since then I have written five novels. I am currently working on a sequel to “The Hands of Time.”
I live in New Jersey with my husband and two children.

My Review:

I really do not read much about time travel. But I was pleasantly surprised when I read the story of Valerie Crane Whitfield. Valerie turns to her sister after her divorce and the two travel to England...Valerie trying to overcome her failed marriage and Louisa on a business trip. While shopping, the unimaginable happens and Valerie finds herself in a different time and place. What would you do? How frightened would you be? She seeks help from two brothers living at Yealm Castle and both brothers fall madly for their mysterious and beautiful visitor. This is one tale about true love. Religious and political betrayal, what one brother will do for the other and a secret shared between man and wife and a thirty year old disappearance of another woman are just a few of the highlights of this tale.

I enjoyed the strong characters developed for this story. Valerie found in this new time and age what her heart truly desired and what she could not have in her own time and place. She was portrayed as strong and yet true to her heart. I loved how she handled the love of two brothers. Finnlay was not who I wanted her to fall in love with...I wanted her to love Alec, from the start, but eventually.... Anyway, the characters came alive for me as did the world of 1605. I enjoyed meeting the house staff from Mrs. Dobbs to Betty...they were great secondary characters! And of course, Valerie's sister, Louisa....how devastating to lose your only sister and not know how or why, was she still alive? And I now understand Guy Fawkes Day...so even though this was a work of fiction, I learned something! I thought it was a great story and recommend it as a fantasy, fun,

and romance at it's best! I rate it at 4 out of five winks! Enjoy it for yourself!