Elaine Coffman
Author of The Highlander
About the Author
Series
Works by Elaine Coffman
Outlaw Brides (The Bride of Blackness Castle / Maverick Hearts / The Ballad of Josie Dove) (1996) — Contributor — 26 copies
No Sweeter Ecstasy 1 copy
Associated Works
Midsummer Night's Madness (A Knight in Tarnished Armor / A Ribbon of Moonlight / Enchanted / The Golden Mermaid) (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 48 copies, 1 review
'Tis The Season (Christmas Anthology): Under the Mistletoe/A Baby for Christmas/Christmas Angel/Home for Christmas (1997) — Contributor — 38 copies
To Have and to Hold (The Spinster Bride / The Bride of the Black Scot / The Man from Wolf Creek / The Ninth Miss Noddenly) (1994) — Contributor — 22 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Coffman, Elaine
- Legal name
- Coffman, Barbara Elaie Gunter
- Birthdate
- 1942-06-19
- Gender
- female
- Education
- North Texas State University
Texas Tech University - Occupations
- teacher
- Short biography
- Barbara Elaine Gunter was born on 19 June 1942 in San Diego, California, USA, daughter of Edna Marie Davidson, a homemaker, and William Samuel Gunter, Jr., a naval officer. Since the age of three she lived in Midland, Texas. She graduated from Midland High School an she received adegree in elementary education from North Texas State University. Later, she taught elementary school in Midland, Texas, while working on her Master's Degree and certification for Language and Learning Disabilities at Texas Tech in Lubbock. Elaine currently resides in Austin, Texas, where her son, Chuck, also lives. She has two daughters, Lesley who resides in Raleigh, N.C., and Ashley, who lives in San Diego, California.
She wrote his first novel inspired by a letter her great-great grandmother, Susannah Jane Dowell Shacklett wrote in 1920, telling about her journey from Brandeburg, Kentucky to San Antonio, Texas, and then going with an army escort to El Paso, Texas, where her brother, Ben Dowell, a veteran of the Mexican War, was El Paso's first mayor. Now, she is a *New YorkTimes* bestselling author of eighteen novels, which have been published worldwide and won numerous awards. She also is a member of both The Authors Guild and Mystery Writers of America. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- San Diego, California, USA
- Places of residence
- San Diego, California, USA
Midland, Texas, USA
Austin, Texas, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- Texas, USA
Members
Discussions
Historical Romance in Name that Book (June 2012)
Reviews
Well, this is the first Coffman book I've read and it will be absolutely be the last. I can't stress enough how bad it is.
Badly plotted -- the clues were dropped like anvils.
(I wanted to be sure they weren't red herrings, so when I gave up halfway through the book I checked before I threw it away. Yep. "Clues.")
Badly written -- fiction isn't expository writing. USE A CONTRACTION ONCE IN A WHILE! The writing was so stilted it was almost unreadable. Especially when it came to conversations. show more Who says "when one finds one's self in a hole, one should stop digging?" No one. (I don't remember if this was the expression, but numerous times in places where a real person would say "you", her characters said "one.")
Whatever you do, don't waste your money on this book. show less
Badly plotted -- the clues were dropped like anvils.
(I wanted to be sure they weren't red herrings, so when I gave up halfway through the book I checked before I threw it away. Yep. "Clues.")
Badly written -- fiction isn't expository writing. USE A CONTRACTION ONCE IN A WHILE! The writing was so stilted it was almost unreadable. Especially when it came to conversations. show more Who says "when one finds one's self in a hole, one should stop digging?" No one. (I don't remember if this was the expression, but numerous times in places where a real person would say "you", her characters said "one.")
Whatever you do, don't waste your money on this book. show less
This one turned out okay for me, but there were moments in the first third of the book where some of the conversations seemed rushed, corny, cringe-worthy, and unbelievable for the amount of time these two knew each other. It was awkward at times. Another factor that bothered me a little but I let it go because it didn't happen all that often and the personalities of the characters were very different, was there were striking similarities to Gabaldon's Outlander series: the main character is show more named Jamie, he gets his left hand crushed by a mallet in prison, there's an evil English dude who captures the heroine, there's a lot of talk of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Jacobite cause, etc. It was distracting because this book was published after the other very successful book series, so similarities seem more glaring. Coffman did a good job tying up the pieces at the end and finished the story off strong. show less
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 show more 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. show less
The show more 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. show less
I have always loved a good timetravel story, sometimes time travel stories can be so predictable but The Return of Black Douglas by Elaine Coffman was different. For starters, not only was Isobella sent back in time but so was her sister Elizabeth with the help of the ghost of Black Douglas who is a matchmaking ghost. The story was a fun and easy read and the characters so real that they could have stepped right out of a portrait...oops that is what happened to Black Douglas. The setting was show more in the 16th century between two clans who have their own conflicts with each other and the arrival of the sisters only enhance the conflicts. This is a great romance story, sure to make you smile at the end. If you love a great well told story than you will love this one. Full of handsome Highlanders, including the brogue, a pure escapist story. I enjoyed it.. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 29
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 1,844
- Popularity
- #13,956
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 17
- ISBNs
- 123
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- 6
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