The Highlands of Scotland, 2005 and 1375

Sunshine Phillips is a most unusual person with highly varied talents that include knowledge of modern and alternative medicines, the ability to speak many languages, and a mind that is open to more than mundane reality. Ever since her sister married into the noble Highland MacLeod family, she's been in love with Scotland. She lives in the cottage left her by her mentor and predecessor, the former clan healer. Sunny's day starts out badly when she loses her job teaching yoga after punching her boss for groping her, gets knocked down by a rude English woman, and has a flat tire in the rain. When Sunny is finally snug in bed that night, her sleep is interrupted by a man clad in medieval dress demanding to know if she's the MacLeod witch.

The day is tragically worse for Robert Francis Cameron mac Cameron, laird of the Cameron clan. His youngest brother is killed in a battle with the Fergusons and his other brother is badly wounded. At the suggestion of his cousin Giric, Cameron rides the thirty or so miles into MacLeod territory to fetch the MacLeod witch for his brother.

It so happens that the MacLeod lands are dotted with time gates. Jamie, the MacLeod laird, has mapped as many as he could find, but apparently there was one that lay inactive until the medieval Robert Cameron had need of modern American Sunny Phillips, for when Cam pulls Sunny over the threshold, he pulls her into 1375. A sort of electricity passes between them at the slightest touch -- it's obvious they are destined for each other -- but they meet nothing but trouble. And that includes deadly conflict. At one point in the story, Cam and Sunny are torn apart. Will they meet again? If so, where, how, and when?

Sunny is very new age, yet somehow fits in beautifully with Cam and the medieval MacLeods living in the present. She's tough -- her brother-in-law has tutored her in self-defense -- but her heart is tender and easily broken. Cam's overriding concerns are duty and the good of his people. Now, with no one he can trust to watch his back, he's left alone to face his enemies, some within his own household. It would be easy to turn to Sunny for refuge, but his honor forbids.

Years ago, when I first went online and discovered book discussion groups and was made aware that the romance genre was full of exciting, well crafted books of immense variety, my first time travel romance was Lynn Kurland's A DANCE THROUGH TIME. It was an eye-opener and also the introduction to the MacLeod clan. That book was followed by five novels and two novellas; WITH EVERY BREATH makes the ninth connected tale. (Another series, about the de Piagets of Artane, is loosely connected also.) Ms. Kurland's is an elaborately constructed world in which heroines and heroes from modern day and medieval times find each other. Somehow, no matter how many tales take place in her imagined world, Ms. Kurland manages to keep it lively and fresh. Just be careful; both series are addictive.

WITH EVERY BREATH is complex. It takes place in two eras, both filled with barriers to Cam and Sunny getting together. Many of its secondary characters will be familiar to readers of earlier books, but are well enough drawn in this one to satisfy any new reader. Though the book is self-contained, it will likely spark enough curiosity in those new to the series to send them looking for the prequels. For a riveting plot with a romance that is surely meant to be, but appears to be doomed, I highly recommend WITH EVERY BREATH.

Jane Bowers