Echoes of the Sea (A Storm Tide Romance)
After being written out of a successful TV series set in Regency England, American actor Kipling Summerfield feels humiliated to take a job as a historical reenactor. To make matters worse, on arrival at Guilford he is swept out to sea by a sudden storm, barely rescued from drowning, then finds that his fellow reenactors insist on staying in role all the time. Very method.
Or might there be another, even less likely, explanation?
Eventually, Kip reluctantly accepts the reality of his situation: that he has, in fact, been transported back in time to 1803, where Amelia Archibald is struggling to fulfil the conditions of her grandfather’s will by restoring the house and estate on Guilford Island. Success means she will no longer be a poor relation in her uncle’s home; failure, and she will be married off to a bully interested only in her dowry. Can Kip meet the challenge to rescue a real-life damsel in distress?
Well, of course. This is a Regency romance, after all, despite the time-slip device, but his problems adjusting to a very different world are insightful. Amelia is a sympathetic figure, confronting adversity with courage, determination, and quiet grace; Kip, by contrast, not so much. Because he spends too long wallowing in self-pity, he is slow to recognize the evidence that he has traveled to the past and to offer Amelia the help she so desperately needs.
The importance of caring for others despite one’s own concerns, however, is a valuable lesson for us all. Second in the Storm Tide series.
