The Ripper’s last victim…The last thing museum owner Flora O’Bannon expects is to find her name on a 150-year-old locket. As she brushes the dust away, the mystery doesn’t just deepen… it explodes. In a fury of blue swirling light, it rips her from her museum, whisks her back in time, and drops her in the middle of London’s Whitechapel, an unwilling witness to the single most horrific murder … horrific murder to rock the Victorian world.
Her only hope…
Butcher and shop owner Draven Gray lost everything with the deaths of his wife and son. At times, it’s as if he’s died along with them, right up until the morning he rescues a woman from certain murder. She’s battered, lucky to still be breathing, without any memory of who she is, and she looks uncannily like his dead wife. She’s not, of course, but knowing that and leaving Florrie to fend for herself in Whitechapel are two distinctly different things. Especially once word gets out about the Ripper’s only surviving victim. Now everyone wants a piece of Florrie—the papers, the police, even the Ripper himself—but Draven is determined…
To get to her, first they’ll have to go through him. And he has knives of his own.
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I’m not sure what it is about Jack the Ripper that just absolutely fascinates me, but I must admit, it does. Add that fascination to my love of Maren Smith’s writings and throw in a dash of domestic discipline and yes, yáll, we’re off to the races. It’s been a long time since I read a time travel story and this one was as compelling and riveting as could be. The mystery surrounding the time travel from modern-day to Victorian era is powerful. So powerful, in fact, it seemed to pull me into traveling with Flora and living things with her. My heartbeat kept time with each of hers as it pounded in fear from being lost and then pursued. Oh, and the rescue, you ask? Yes, Draven was certainly worth a new race of heartbeats as he rescued and took care of his ‘Dovey’. This was absolutely a great read.
Stolen Moments is a stand alone time travel romance that will have you on the edge of your seat! Florrie has seen something horrific and could bring one of the most famous murderers to justice… if only she could remember. Draven can’t help but protect Florrie, from herself and from the Ripper, but while they feel drawn together, she can never be his. Will Florrie ever remember her past and can Draven keep her safe?
I have to admit, I struggled a little bit with this book, as I’d read a little bit here and there, but the second half of this book, I was completely gripped and did not put the book down until I was done! My heart was pounding, I was tense, and I realized that when I read the last page, I let out a huge breath that I hadn’t even realized I was holding! To be fair, the first half of the book sets the stage. There’s a lot of amazing detail to get us to know both characters, the seriousness of all the events, and I really felt drawn to Florrie and Draven. Florrie is suffering from disturbing flashbacks, has a modern outlook in a Victorian world, but I loved her strength and how she always went with what her gut was telling her. Draven was so protective, super dominant, and I loved that he was willing to use his knives just as easily as the murderer. It was fun and thrilling to get the Ripper’s point of view occasionally, and know he was always around. There’s suspense, discipline, steamy scenes, and a strong bond that forms between the two main characters and I absolutely loved how it all ended! So good!
This is unlike anything I’ve read my Ms. Maren Smith, and I am once again amazed by her talent. This isn’t usually a trope I enjoy, but this one kept my attention from beginning to end. I loved the addition of the Jack the Ripper tie-in. It made the story exciting and added an amazing element of danger. The relationship between Flora and Draven was sweet and sexy in all the right places, and his protective streak is super sexy. He’s going to keep her safe, no matter what it takes, and there are quite a few spanking scenes to prove that. This is one of those books I wished would never end.
Stolen Moments is a fantastically good book. It also, oddly, the first book I’ve read of Maren Smith’s where I kind of wished there was less spanking in it.
Not because the spanking in this book isn’t amazing. It is. The hero, Draven Gray, is a satisfying hunk of brawn, intelligence and emotional wherewithal all wrapped up in a butcher’s apron. Flora O’Bannon is a twenty-first century girl in a nineteenth century spot of bother and often in need of a bit of discipline.
The thing is though, a lot of people in the world think that a book’s hero shouldn’t keep putting a grown woman over his knee and spanking her bare bottom. Those people are wrong of course but there you are. Maren Smith’s book is so exquisitely written, so atmospheric and so compelling that, quite frankly, it deserves to be in every bookshop everywhere. It seems almost a shame to limit its readership to our little niche corner of unashamed spankos.
This is in no way a complaint, you understand. You know me, I’m all about the spankings. I also love time travel, historical romance and late nineteenth century London in particular so this book pushed all my buttons, (“Pushed my buttons” sounds so much like a sexual euphemism there that I am just going to leave it and pretend that I meant to do it.)
The sense of time and place is so brilliantly evoked that you can almost smell it. The dark dingy streets of Whitechapel serve as the backdrop to Flora’s extraordinary adventure as she’s whisked from present day New Orleans to London in 1888 and straight into the path of Jack the Ripper.
The violence depicted in the early part of the book is visceral and bloody. Smith spares us none of the grisly details of the Ripper’s appalling crimes. Which makes it truly gut-wrenching when Flora’s own life is in danger because we know what the man is capable of.
Contrasting with the horror, is the natural, supportive and loving relationship between Draven and Flora. A relationship that starts, as so many great storybook romances do, with the hero rescuing a damsel in distress. In fact, Flora is not so much distressed as completely unconscious and when her consciousness does come back, her memory doesn’t come back with it.
Everything about this book is great. The dialogue is a joy to read. Making the hero a butcher by profession was a stroke of genius. I’ve been vegetarian for the last thirty years but now I’m wondering why all romantic heroes aren’t butchers. Not only can he see off bad guys with a vast selection of knives and the knowledge of how to use them, but he’ll then take you home and cook you a hot meal. What’s not to love about that?
Stolen Moments is fast paced with plenty of plot twists to keep the reader on their toes throughout. Yet the love affair between the two main characters doesn’t seem forced or rushed. The author allows enough space in the tightly-plotted action for the two characters to get to know one another properly.
At one point in the story, Draven wonders if Flora is “simply a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time”. Flora may be a woman out of her own time but, it turns out, she is in exactly the place and time where she needs to be
Flora runs a museum about women in history and what they’ve done or what happened to them. One evening after she was closing up she received a letter that had jewels and a locket inside. It said the locket belonged to the Ripper’s unknown victim. When she opened the locket she is transported back in time. When she comes to she’s in London during the time Jack the Ripper was killing. She has the misfortune to be right where he is currently killing his latest victim. He sees her and chases after her and almost succeeds in killing her but Draven comes out of his place and stops him. Draven is stunned by Flora and carries her into his place while yelling for others to get the doctor. Will Draven be able to keep her safe from the Ripper? Will Flora stay with Draven?
This is an amazing story I haven’t read a good historical romance in awhile and this is definitely worth a read. The chemistry between them is blazing hot. This is a well written and very entertaining story. I would recommend this book to any book lover.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
What a wonderful fantastic love story. You start out in current year and when Flora receives a package from an attorney in England that contains a locket that takes her back in time that matches her museum time frame. You will have to read this wonderful book to see what happens to Flora. To me it is like a dream come true. Enjoy
Had a great time with these changes they are definitely well developed and well worth the time to read.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
What an interesting twist on the whole time travel genre! Flora is thrown back in time from modern day New Orleans to the late 1800’s and sees Jack the Ripper eviscerate his latest victim…and he sees her as well! After chasing her and catching her, he is interrupted while trying to kill her by Draven, a local butcher. During Flora’s struggle with the Ripper her head is bashed into the sidewalk and she wakes up with amnesia. Draven has taken her in and so their story begins. Draven and Flora are well written, compelling characters, and have sizzling chemistry. The story moves quickly and has some great twists and turns. Great Read
A fastpaced and wellwritten book with an interesting storyline and captivating characters. The book is entertaining and a real page-turner.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
its been awhile since i have read a time travel romance book. and when i say awhile i mean its been at least 10 years. and its probably been at least that long since i have read a historical romance and i have to say that i really enjoyed this book tremendously. my current genre for reading has been dark books because its been awhile since any other book has grabbed my attention and kept it. this book did just that. maybe because the subject was jack the ripper….and really how much darker can you get then that? a famous killer from 1888 who killed so many women horribly and was never caught. so this book really caught me and pulled me in and didn’t let go till the end.
This is a very unique look at the Jack the Ripper mystery. Normally, I’m not a fan of time travel romance but I loved the author’s contemporary work so much I had to give this one a try. I loved seeing the tension between Flora and Draven. To borrow from Flora’s statement: you knew it wasn’t a question of “if?” but rather “when?” it was going to happen. To pull them the final step together. I quite enjoyed this mix of modern and historical. And it gives us another plausible answer to what really happened to end the Ripper’s reign of terror.
I received a complimentary advanced copy of this book through Booksprout.
A well written Victorian Time Travel Romance that had a great storyline and the story flowed smoothly across the pages. I know I will be reading this book again. The story makes you feel like you are there watching it happen. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
An interesting look at Jack the Ripper.
Flora has a museum in New Orleans and she was not getting rich with it by any means. Then one day she received a package it was a locket that had once been an unknown victim of Jack the Ripper. Checking her display she try to figure out the mystery of the locket and then when she opens it well let’s say things they did change for Flora. This time-travel tale gets off to a quick start with Flora in Victorian England at the scene of Mary Kelly’s murder and Jack sees her. I liked the cast of characters in this one and how the author took the Jack the Ripper story and built her piece around it. I enjoyed this piece it was different and engaging there is a bit of old fashion discipline with-in the tale too. I hope you check it out the story is well worth reading. I did receive a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.
* Spoilers* I loved this book! With jack the ripper on the loose, you never know what’s going to happen! Florrie gets sent back in time and catches Jack in the act, he goes after her but a butcher, Draven stops him from killer her. Jack gets away this time.. but they dont let him get away for long! So good!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I thought that this was a very intriguing read. As someone that enjoys romantic reads and has always felt a particular interest in Jack The Ripper murders this book had a special appeal to me. I felt that the author did an admirable job in combining these two elements into a story that was suspenseful, emotional, intense and engaging. Flora and Draven were compelling characters that find themselves in a complicated and dangerous situation. I thought that they had great chemistry and I really enjoyed seeing their relationship evolve under such stressful circumstances. This is my sincere review that I am posting of my own accord.