Having read Cready's Seducing Mr. Darcy, and genuinely getting a good laugh out of the premise, I was eager to go back and pick up her first published novel. Cready's tongue-in-cheek style and sarcastic come backs are still, delightfully present in this story of Seph, Tom, and Phillip. I still laughed, smiled, and even rolled my eyes a bit at the main character's antics. The idea of going back in time and creating out of the main hero the love interest in your present day is pretty cute. Outside of the personal voice that I enjoy (could that be because I've developed a good deal of snarkiness in teaching teens?), I have to say that I actually got mixed up a good deal in the plot. It wasn't an easy story to follow for me, as it went from present day to the past, with two different male leads. I mainly got mixed up in the past when it delved into the history that Phillip was caught up in. Seph had the stress of trying to save her male lead's life, literally, through the way they shaped time (you know, like in Back to the Future). This made for a somewhat confusing storyline for me, and one that I didn't connect to very quickly.

While I can't say that I particularly loved Tumbling Through Time, I do like Cready's personal voice, which comes through her main female lead characters in this novel and Seducing Mr. Darcy. If you're interested in a funny time travel sort of romance, I'd try her Darcy story first. ( )

Brand manager Persephone Pyle is killing time in the Pittsburgh airport before a business trip to Venice when she comes across the absolutely perfect pair of shoes. Upon trying them on, however, Seph finds herself sucked back through time to the eighteenth century and a ship in the middle of a hurricane.

The new world she finds herself in is populated with characters that eerily resemble those in Seph's contemporary life: the hero Captain Drummond is the spitting image of her colleague (and crush) Tom Fraser. Drum soon explains to her that he inhabits a version of the world sprung from one of her half-formed romance novels - and that she's ruining his life. He needs her help to discover the location of some very important dispatches, or his naval career - and possibly his life - will be over. Traveling between these two worlds, Seph gets to know and care for both Tom and Drum - but she has to decide between the two.

The concept of a book-hopping author who's screwing things up terribly due to lack of period knowledge is original and promised a lot of laughs. That was really the major reason I picked up the novel. Unfortunately, however, that part of the plot is abandoned about halfway through when it turns out that Drum was an actual historical character - not just one that sprang from Seph's overactive imagination. That threw me off a bit because it seemed that the author changed direction midway through - and it didn't seem to make any sense anymore.

Added to that, the main character has a woefully inadequate knowledge of history and geography (I don't expect rocket scientists, but I am tired of dumb heroines), plus she seems to like to compare every color she comes across to a gimmicky nail polish shade. I think the worst example comes when she describes the hero's eyes as "I've Got Blue, Babe". Plus she seems to be really self-conscious/awkward about the whole sex thing, which I have very little patience for in romance novels - especially when some of the descriptions are so jarring (the thing with the Airbus and champagne bottles?).

While the first two-thirds of the book didn't really pull me in, the last third of the book which is set entirely in the 18th century is quite engrossing. The heros are brave, strong, and clever; Seph stops using quite so many cliches and figures out a thing or two (though she did seem to be mostly useless). It was almost enough to redeem the novel. But then the ending completely blew it.

So bottom line is that it's not terrible. It has definite funny moments, some exciting adventure points, and an original plotline (which is sadly abandoned). When the author really finds her style, it can be absorbing as well. She's just not there yet. ( )

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/11360046 ( )