A Rip in the Veil Paperback – January 13, 2014

The first step into a grand adventureFrom the first pages, we know that Alex Lind is very much a contemporary woman, the kind who carries a cell phone, wears denim jeans and dares to swear at her German car when its electrical systems dares fails in the middle of one of her favorite classical CDs. Then she finds herself caught up in an anomaly that lands her in rural seventeenth century Scotland and into the already stressed life of Matthew Graham. Just another time slip novel, you say? Definitely not. This cross-genre gem is a well researched, skillfully constructed and brilliantly written tale with the strength to draw the reader in, not just to the final page, but well beyond The rip in the veil of time that leaves Alex in Scotland is just the beginning, and its' pages leave the reader salivating for the next installment, and then the next on after that. Each exquisite segment in the adventure of Alex and Matthew stands on its own merit, but the promise of more is as seductive as a cleavage or a mischievous smile from across a crowded room Ms. Belfrage gives us just enough of the back-story of each Alex and Matthew to hint of what will be coming next, and just enough of a glimpse into the lives each of them has left behind to know that the characters from their pasts are not frozen in time. Life for them is also evolving and perhaps on a collision course with Alex and Matthew Graham. We also revisit the troubles of the past of each and we learn, just as they do, that neither of them is perfect. Anna has left a child behind with whom she has never bonded, and Matthew has never been able to take part in the life of his own son. He has made an enemy of a brother who had worshipped him as his champion when a child and could not forgive him for his mortal failings. Alex and Matthew have myriad family issues hanging over them.It does not help that whenever Matthew attempts to act as Alex's defender and champion, she is the one who knows the karate moves. (Anna Belfrage writes action scenes like a Taekwondo Black Belt). It seems that not all of the men who are tracking them are looking for Matthew, and that Alex may not be the only time traveler in the tale. At this point we learn that her mother Mercedes, of whom we get occasional glimpses in the first two books of the series, is a time traveling witch who has offended some very evil men who have no qualms about torturing her daughter in order to catch up with her mother. I hope we see much more of Mercedes in the next offerings. But Matthew does not need time traveling kidnappers and assassins to complicate his own life. Thanks to his unforgiving brother Luke, he has a passel of problems of his own. Luke has planted false evidence of Matthew's death and taken Matthew's wife, and they are raising a child whose paternity is far from settled. In spite of the advantages he has taken, he still bears a grudge and has no inclination to play by any rules but his. The twists in the plot that follow would be utterly bizarre if constructed by a less talented writer or one who did not spend time researching the historical setting. The love affair between Alex and Matthew is predictable, but the complications that come with it are unique. And the steamy sex between them is scintillating but not offensive.Never once does Ms.Belfrage forget that she has pitted a liberated 21st Century woman with the quintessential 17th Century Scot. As the story progresses, Alex grows less and less anxious to escape Matthew's timeline, but there are still times when her remembered present pulls her back. She may tuck her hair into a modest little cap, learn to do the laundry and tend the farm animals, but she is still very much the same progressive and opinionated woman that time has deposited in Restoration Scotland. One of my favorite exchanges between them is when he teasingly compliments her for being a good wife, "obedient and submissive. You tend to your husband and his needs....I never have to punish you," he continues. "You try, mister, try that once, and I'll have your balls in a vice," Alex replies. While Rip in the Veil remains very much Alex and Matthew's story, the other characters who populate its pages enrich the tale and have a reason to be in it. The author's multicultural, multifaceted background shines through and allows her to interject characters that a more insulated author should never try. Even the worst of the villains Hector and Luke are depicted with integrity and purpose and at least a sprinkling of empathy.One of the many features that makes A Rip in the Veil a hands-down five star reading experience is an ending that satisfies yet guarantees that there is much, much more to come. I have recommended the books in the Graham Saga to my most discerning friends..

How can one not like the concept of time travel? All the romantic influence the idea inflicts is mesmerizing...allowing you to soar and lose yourself into the realm of fantasy and all the "what if's". And Ms. Belfrage took me on another romantic, historical adventure full of suspense...which is hard to do since I've probably read every time-travel romance written and am always seeking something new and original without it being too far fetched. This story wastes no time with preliminaries. Within a few pages, Alex Lind is flung back in time...approximately 350 years to the year 1658. A few paragraphs later and she's figured out what's happened to her and meets the main male character in the story....Matthew Graham, who immediately comes to her aid.I liked Alex Linds' character. I liked how she handled the weirdness of being tossed back in time....like...."Great!...juuuuust frikkin' great!!" ----like something this bizarre happens to her all the time and "here we go again".... or ...."NOW WHAT?!?". Personally I loved her attitude and it made me chuckle in spite of the fear and uncertainty she was experiencing. But then her reality sets in......Matthew Graham isn't bad looking even through all his scruff. He's an escaped convict so he looks pretty scroungy being in prison for the past three years. But his hazel green eyes, dark long hair and physical stature (he's tall) shine through promising a fine specimen of a man. I liked Matthew for the most part, but had a hard time getting a solid visual connection to him. I connected better with Alex and I cannot explain why I didn't connect as well with Matthew.Ok, so yes...this story DID remind me now and then of the original  Outlander . It was sort of like Ms. Belfrage used OUTLANDER as a guide for her storytelling...taking a few scenes from that fabulous saga and then changed it up a bit. Even so, I liked this story enough to continue with the second book. I liked that it revolved around a secondary, evil character on his search through various time portals for a witch who has cursed him, and his only goal is to find her and break the curse before he kills her, then find his way back to his original time. And while he's searching for this witch, he also searches for Alex Lind...the witch's daughter. I liked how well Alex coped on her journey and even resigns herself to a new and complex life in 1658....until she becomes Matthews' wife and mistress of a small estate. Having to adjust to keeping a house was a whole new ballgame for her; with her new husband gone all day...well, it was frightening all over again for Alex, and the author brought her frustrations and fears to me with perfect precision. I felt her stress and anxiety...her utter aloneness. It was worse than the new kid all alone on the unfamiliar school playground with everyone staring at him. Alex's reality of not belonging hits her all over again with tremendous force. Homesickness and a longing for family becomes an all consuming thing...and her new husband isn't around to help her.The author gives us dual POV's as well as two events taking place in two era's. She keeps us fairly up-to-date on what Alex's friends and loved ones are experiencing with her confusing disappearance in 2002, then takes us back to 1658. This story has political unrest, witch hunts, and mystery and suspense galore. There's quick, impromptu trials and hangings that are pretty gruesome;, murder and vindictive power-play. There's very little adult language and the intimate moments are not explicitly told...but still conveyed very well.There are a few negatives to this authors' writing style that took me some time to accustom myself to...like non-American words that are commonly used. So here I am reading along...going about 85 mph. and all's well when I read "she sat on the verge"...(I'm assuming this is "curb")...or "he pulled his jumper over his head"...(uuuuum, is this a sweater??) and "tarmac" (we're not talking about an airport runway, so it must be a street/road?). When I read those words as well as words like "tyre" or "bonnet" for parts of cars, well my happy humming, speed reading hits a bump and comes close to a screeching halt. And it took too long to explain the relationship of John to Alex back in 2002...I kept wondering why this "John" character was more than a little upset to her disappearance. And because I'm left wondering, I'm losing my connection to the two main characters. I'm reading with all these question marks floating in my head. But all in all I liked this beginning to this saga. The dialogue was nicely balanced to the narration. It is a brilliant beginning.

This is my first book by the author and while I was intrigued with the plot I was disappointed by the main female character. She started off strong with a scene using self defense but then it felt like she sunk into herself and never stood up that way again. Her submission towards the male characters disappointed me and seemed very out of character for how she was in the beginning and how she dealt with things in her head. I will have to think about reading the next book in the series.#netgalley#

This one had been on my kindle for ages and came highly recommended, but I’m not really a fan of timeslip novels so I had kept putting it to one side. I think I always find that the actual time shift moment stretches my disbelief a little too much – the moment when someone falls through a picture, or gets sucked into a vortex. However Anna Belfrage is an expert at making the most of that moment, so I need not have feared it was going to be ‘too cheesy’. Instead we are treated to a moment which tingles all the senses, and allows us to feel what such a moment might really be like.Of course being transported back into the 17th century gives Anna Belfrage a chance to refect on society both then and now. There is what you would expect – the repression of women, the narrowness of society, but also an understanding of just how violent society was before our modern judicial system, the importance of agriculture and land, and the lack of material possessions, all things that Alex Lind has to come to grips with in her new life in a new century.More than just a romance, this will please readers who like accurate history, but also appreciate a passionate relationship that is realistically portrayed. I appreciated all the minor chracters in the book too, such as Matthew’s bitter and vengeful brother, and Alex’s traumatised husband, as they each have a story to tell. Multi-layered and exciting, this is romantic fiction at its best.

Why, oh, why have I waited for so long to read this novel? I’m a big fan of time-slip novels and I’d known about this, the first in the Graham Saga series, but have only recently got around to reading it. It has everything a time-slip novel should be, mystery, intrigue, secrets, a hunky hero, a feisty heroine, thrown back into the last days of the Republican Protectorate, after the English Civil War. Initially, there is some shifting back to the present day, describing what is happening, which I found a little confusing, especially the references to people who actually crop up in the time-slip though who these people are is made clear as the novel progresses. When Alex Lind, half-Swedish, half-Spanish, is thrown back in time during a massive thunderstorm, she meets Scottish-born Matthew Graham, an escaped prisoner of the English. Together they make their way across country through various adventures fighting bandits, where Alex’s self-defence tactics come in useful, dodging soldiers and an unwanted visitor from the future. Eventually reaching the safety of Matthew’s home, more trouble comes in the form of Matthew’s brother, Luke, and his wife Margaret, who is also Matthew’s ex-wife (apparently allowed under the laws of the Protectorate.) I can’t wait to read the second in the series Chaff in the Wind.

I’ve discovered a new love, time-slips, and a wonderful new author! When Alex Lind gets caught up in a violent thunderstorm, the last thing she expects is to end up in 1658. Or bump into Matthew Graham, an escaped prisoner, on the run, from the English. This was an excellent read, full of intrigue and suspense, with two strong and beautifully defined characters who draw you in, and keep you there, in a world where violence is never more than a heartbeat away. Will Alex remain where she is, or will she be swept away, back to modern times? Who exactly is her mother, Mercedes? And can Matthew hang onto his newly found freedom and find his happy ever after? The twists and turns of this enthralling love story will keep you reading long into the night! It did me; I loved it!

I don't think I've read a timeslip novel since the historicals by John Dickson Carr and I was unsure of my reaction when I embarked on this one. A Rip in the Veil appealed to me for two reasons. It is set in southern Scotland, pretty much where I grew up. My maternal grandmother's ancestors lived in Ayrshire near to where the story's hero, Matthew Graham, has his family home. In addition, some of my spurious paternal ancestors were involved in the Covenanting Wars, which also feature in the book. Anna Belfrage has constructed an enjoyable romance with plenty of sex and violence, always with an eye on the historical background. Her depiction of life in 17th century Scotland is well managed and (as far as I can tell) pretty accurate. During a violent thunderstorm, Alexandra Lind falls into a time portal and finds herself in the past, where she meets and falls for Graham, a landowner who has been betrayed and unjustly imprisoned. As Alex tries to adjust to life in the 17th century, she discovers she has been followed from the 21st by an inquisitor from Isabella's Spain who is pursuing a vendetta against her mother. She also has to contend with Graham's betrayer, his half-brother Luke. The plot takes lots of twists and turns before the villains get their come-uppance and the main protagonists settle for a happy-for-now ending. Occasionally, suspension of disbelief becomes hard; there are too many startling coincidences of time and space, but get over those and you have a very entertaining novel. A Rip in the Veil is the first novel in a series of 8 and though I enjoyed reading it I don't think I have the will to tackle the rest. I can cope with trilogies but another 7 books might test my patience to breaking point. The version of A Rip in the Veil that I read (the KIndle edition) had some negative grammar/syntax issues which spoiled a read which I might otherwise have given five stars. I often find this problem in Kindle books but short of reading the hard copy too it's impossible to say at what stage of editing the errors occur.

On a stormy August day in 2002, Alexandra Lind is thrown several centuries backwards in time. She lands at the feet of Matthew Graham - an escaped convict making his way home to Scotland in this the year of our Lord, 1658.This story may remind you of the Outlander series, but it is an enjoyable read in its own right. Alex has left behind a father, a husband and a three-year-old son with whom she never bonded because he was a child of rape. Her complex life includes a mother who appears to be both an artist and a witch, and her paintings drag the observer into time travel.Mathew and Alex slowly bond, but he too has a host of problems to face, not least being that soldiers will hang him if they catch him. There is no love lost between himself and his brother, Luke, who betrays him more than once. Alex struggles to come to terms with running a household in the seventeenth century while avoiding one of her mother’s enemies who would think nothing of killing her to get what he wants. The historical details are carefully woven into the story so they don’t become burdensome, and if you enjoy this story, there are more stories about the Grahams for your enjoyment.