Title: Artair's Temptress
Author: Stella Knight
Date: 2019
Quote; "I want ye, lass."
That's what this book has to offer: physical desire. Shamelessly mashing up the fictive worlds of "Outlander" and "Bewitched," it even calls its heroine Diana. Diana is a witch with a special talent for time travel. She's tried to neglect her talent and become a lawyer since her parents were killed by Picts while time travelling. Her aunt, however, insists that she accompany a kilt-clad Highland Scot back to his rightful time, in the late fourteenth century.
Questions come to the mind of the student of history. Could Diana and the Highlander, Artair, understand each other's versions of English? (In the book, Artair speaks good English with the most obvious hints of an accent but with apparent familiarity with contemporary phrases.) What would he think about being accompanied through the Highlands by a young single woman? Wouldn't he at least ask for her old aunt, or would he assume the aunt was also young because people live longer and age more slowly now? Did people in the fourteenth century ever love or trust the sort of witches they believed could exist, and were they obviously insane if they did? (In the book Artair and his family accept Diana as their witch.)
This reenactment of the fourteenth century, in which Scotland is surprisingly rich, the lice and fleas that plagued people at this period don't seem to exist, and nobody ever heard of bubonic plague or the Inquisittion, appeals to Diana so much that she wants to stay there. But can she disappear into a different time? It's a romance; you know that depends on her decision, and you know what she'll decide, after another detailed bedroom scene.
I found this novel totally unconvincing, but if "Outlander" fanfiction distracts you from other obligations and helps you fulfill marital ones, this book is for you.
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