Rating: 
Summary: Unusual Time travel concept
Review: Kept me interested throughout. Unusual concept of time travel which seems to work well with the story. I also liked having a 50 something heroine for a change instead of a sweet young thing!
Rating: 
Summary: The Second Face of the Goddess
Review: Lynn Abbey has always had the happy knack of writing what I wanted to read at the time I needed it. (I'm excluding her franchise work here.) This book is no exception.The main characters in fantasy works are often very young. The theme is often coming of age. This is a fantasy for the sandwich generation, the one caught between the demands of children and aging parents. The story opens with the heroine essentially an orphan. Her father, who raised her after her mother's death, has died. Romantic relationships have failed her and all she retains of her last marriage is an attachment to her step children. However, she finds herself reluctantly playing maternal figure to some troubled college kids while her mother reappears. It turns out her life is a great deal more complicated than she expected. There are going to be great demands placed on her but she is going to have great personal resources to meet these demands. Watching the heroine discovering who she is and essentially coming into her power is a positive experience. I found myself cheering her on as she copes with the unexpected burdens she finds laid on her, both magical and mundane. Of the three faces of the goddess-- virgin, matron, hag, this is the one that is shown the least and I'm very happy to have Ms. Abbey fill this lack.
Rating:
Summary: The Second Face of the Goddess
Review: Lynn Abbey has always had the happy knack of writing what I wanted to read at the time I needed it. (I'm excluding her franchise work here.) This book is no exception. The main characters in fantasy works are often very young. The theme is often coming of age. This is a fantasy for the sandwich generation, the one caught between the demands of children and aging parents. The story opens with the heroine essentially an orphan. Her father, who raised her after her mother's death, has died. Romantic relationships have failed her and all she retains of her last marriage is an attachment to her step children. However, she finds herself reluctantly playing maternal figure to some troubled college kids while her mother reappears. It turns out her life is a great deal more complicated than she expected. There are going to be great demands placed on her but she is going to have great personal resources to meet these demands. Watching the heroine discovering who she is and essentially coming into her power is a positive experience. I found myself cheering her on as she copes with the unexpected burdens she finds laid on her, both magical and mundane. Of the three faces of the goddess-- virgin, matron, hag, this is the one that is shown the least and I'm very happy to have Ms. Abbey fill this lack.
Rating:
Summary: Good start
Review: Lynn Abbey makes a departure from her usual style to write a very comfortable fantasy that is based in the current time. Her characters are believable and Emma, the primary focus of this novel, is quite real in her actions and thoughts. Time travel isn't really the topic, in spite of the title. This fantasy is more about one woman's wyrd, her ignorance of it until later in life, and how learning of that wyrd impacts her and some people near her. She deals with strange teenagers who are apparently afflicted with a curse (maybe more than one), a life that seems to be going in very odd directions and, right at the end, the reappearance of her mother. Interestingly enough, her mother should have been in her seventies but appeared to be much, much younger. That conundrum is wrapped up very tightly with the teenagers' curse and her role in trying to lift the curse. The book ends abruptly and quite obviously paves the way for a sequel. This is a very good read!
Rating:
Summary: This Literature, not Pap
Review: Others have gone over the plot. I just wanted to say that the prose style here is the best I have seen in years. Abbey has painted in the background of her word picture. There are authors who just barely show you the surrounding of a character; the forground is all that counts to them. Abbey has filled in the sky, the trees and all the petty personal problems that show up in day to day life. Abbey has made a credible entry in the "dull person has an insanely dangerous adventure and survives" category of books. I literally bought the book at 11am on Sunday and read it until 1am Monday.
Rating:
Summary: This Literature, not Pap
Review: Others have gone over the plot. I just wanted to say that the prose style here is the best I have seen in years. Abbey has painted in the background of her word picture. There are authors who just barely show you the surrounding of a character; the forground is all that counts to them. Abbey has filled in the sky, the trees and all the petty personal problems that show up in day to day life. Abbey has made a credible entry in the "dull person has an insanely dangerous adventure and survives" category of books. I literally bought the book at 11am on Sunday and read it until 1am Monday.
Rating:
Summary: Abbey Creates a Believable Alternate Reality
Review: Out of Time by Lynn Abbey is one of the best new fantasy novels that I have read in a long time. Emma Merrigan, is a Librarian with a comfortable if slightly lonely and predictable life. Until she decided to help a terrified young woman who is haunted by both what we can see and what we can't. That is when Emma begins having her childhood nightmares again. Only her nightmares are manifesting themselves physically and she is losing time and waking up bloody. It really is quite a good book, it meanders a bit in a couple of places which may be off putting to some but well worth the read. The world she has created is engrossing, fresh and just believable enough (well sort of this is a fantasy novel after all) for the suspension of disbelief to occur. I eagerly await the next book.
Rating: 
Summary: Like a pilot idea for a TV series, the story lacks an ending
Review: The story becomes somewhat more interesting as the plot shifts from the mundane life of a middle-aged woman to a supernatural connection linking contemporary characters and events to historical characters and events. I was hoping for more sci-fi to go with the supernatural theme, but didn't find it.
Sadly, when the story runs its course, much of the mystery is unsolved and the roles of some seemingly important characters remain unclear. Even worse, last minute plots are introduced in a "stay tuned for next week's episode" way.
Overall, this book introduces an imaginative idea for a story but it fails to support it with interesting details. Rather than telling a complete story, it seems that the author is setting you up to buy a sequel. I'm okay with serials and sequels, but prefer to have it disclosed on the cover.
Rating:
Summary: A magic librarian
Review: This book has a wonderful premise of how and what curses are and the people who fight them. It also has a three musketeer type man who "recues" the heroine.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely stellar book!
Review: This satisfying read kept me burning the lamps late. I could NOT put it down for anything. As a librarian, I really identified with the main character, even though she is a couple of decades older than I am. I found the pacing to be smooth and the action complex without being confusing. I get the feeling there's room for a series here since there were some threads that, while not being complete danglers, would provide more than enough material for subsequent books. All I can say is, where's the line to stand in for the next one?
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