#NetGalley Book Review: Time of the Rose by Bonita Clifton

This is a traditional (originally written in 1994) romance with suspense and time travel complications.

Time of the Rose
by Bonita Clifton

ASIN : B08MBFY4GV
Publication date : December 12, 2020
File size : 2711 KB
Print length : 401 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance, Sci Fi & Fantasy, Time Travel
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0.

This is the 2nd Edition of the compelling and beloved classic Time of the Rose, award-winning Holt Medallion finalist (Virginia RWA), dusted off, reimagined, with new material and *Bonus Epilogue, guaranteed to leave your head spinning! Prepare to feel good, laugh and fall in love...
A notorious gunslinger with a vendetta and an attitude. A divorced travel agent determined to heal. An extraordinary rose. 1878 and present-day are about to collide…
Colton Chase searches for the monster that murdered his parents. It’s been ten years and every day that passes only fuels his grit. When he plucks a single rare rose, a wicked thunderstorm catches him in its wrath, and after the clouds clear, his entire world has changed. Madison Calloway is on a business trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, when she quite literally stumbles into the biggest horse she’s ever seen. The rugged old man leading the animal looks like he stepped out of a historical Wild West catalog. Her love of antiques is piqued, and she strikes up a conversation.
He claims he’s from 1878 and she feels bad for him; clearly, he suffers from dementia. But there’s an uneasy undertone—everything from his clothes to his strange turns of phrase back up his story. So when another storm brews and he tells her he’s going back, she follows. The two find themselves in 1878 and the old man is gone—in his place a strapping young man, handsome, fascinating, and irresistible.
Can Madison adjust to life more than a century in the past, leaving behind the world she knows? Or will she return home and forever lose the man she’s falling for? Her biggest fears are realized when she’s abducted by Colt’s fierce enemy, and if she survives, this event may well send her running home for good.

Review:
Colton Chase is a gunslinger on a ten year vendetta to find and kill the man who murdered his parents. Recent cattle rustling brings Colton home to the family ranch that is being managed by his angry, dilatory, younger brother. Colton needs some down time to regroup. He rides to a favorite spot where he picks an unusual rose. He is caught in a wild storm and when he and his horse ride out of the mist, he discovers a new town that he didn’t know existed… because it didn’t in his time.

Madison is a twenty first century career woman who has invested her energy in her travel agency since her divorce from her cheating husband. She and her staff are visiting Jackson Hole, Wyoming for business. She is startled when she steps in front of a large horse and looks up into the eyes of an elderly cowboy who appears to be straight out of the historical west. The two are drawn to each other and Colton convinces Madison to spend a day out with him. She begins to see a young, rugged handsome cowboy rather than an elderly character. Colton is confused by his circumstances, but Madison fears he is suffering from dementia since he claims to be from 1878.

Colton is set on returning to his time and never expected Madison to accidentally follow him. Once she is there, Colton is ready to claim her as his wife. Madison isn’t so quick to commit to a backward time and she is still reluctant to let a man have any control in her life. Colton agrees to help Madison return to her time but first he has to follow a hot clue for his vengeance. Madison fears for his safety but in trying to help she gets captured. Can Colton save her and if he does will she agree to stay or still want to return to her own time, leaving him behind?

The time travel romance hit all the right genre buttons: Historical Fiction, Romance, Sci Fi & Fantasy. It is a romance with nice historical detail, a believable time travel trigger and well developed characters. I call this a ‘traditional’ romance as it contains some of the cliché’ description of the sexual encounters that I associate with romance from the 1990s. It was awkward to me, but it was still a nice story and easy read. I recommend this to fans of time travel romance who wouldn’t mind the older language and sexual descriptions.

Source: NetGalley 2020. This qualifies for 2021TBR, 2021NetGalley and 2021Alphabet goals.