The Ruby Brooch: The Celtic Brooch, Book 1

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.It set the stage for what I hope will lead me through the rest of her novels.

Wasn’t sure what to expect but it was surprisingly good. Love all the characters, although there are a lot of them. Lol. From start to finish, it was a great story.

Awesome book! I can't wait to read more. Anyone wanting a time travel adventure and romance. This is a really good option.

Today I read the Time Travel Romance “The Ruby Brooch,” by Katherine Lowry Logan. The main character, Kitherina MacKlenna (Kit) survived a car crash on New Years Eve that killed both of her parents as well as her fiance. On this particular day, she received a letter that her father had left for her should something happen to him before he could tell her the tale of her birth himself.It seems that Kit had been left on Sean MacKlenna’s doorstep, wrapped in a bloody shawl pinned with a ruby brooch. The brooch contained an inscription that when he read it aloud, magically transported Sean back to Independence, Missouri in the year of 1852. It took him some time living in the past before he was able to figure out how to return to his own time. When he returned home, it was with a woman named Mary that he had fallen in love with and married while living in 1852.Sean and Mary raised Kit as their own, intending to explain everything they could about her origins to her when she was old enough, knowing that someday she would likely want to find her birth family. Kit grew up learning how to do everything that she would need to know in order to survive in the past. Being raised on a highly successful horse ranch was explanation enough for her to learn to ride, to shoot, to camp and cook on a campfire, and anything else that she would someday need to know if she chose to visit 1852 without having to explain to her why she was learning these things.After doing her own research, Kit decides that she needs to go find out the truth for herself. She packs and loads a wagon with everything she thinks she will need, including a number of modern day medical supplies so that she will be prepared for any emergency she might find herself in (though she is careful to keep anything modern well hidden). As well as the medical supplies, she also hides a modern rifle with extra ammunition as she knows there will be dangers she will likely encounter that might require more than just the period pistol that she also carries.I was very impressed with the amount of detail in this book. Clearly the author did her research on the time period that her main character visits. She included details such as a reference to the Donner party tragedy that took place around that time on the Oregon Trail. And while she is clearly a very talented writer who made certain that her book was as well edited as it was written, I did have one issue with this book that really disturbed me.As a romance novel, I expected there to be sex scenes. (Yes there were, and yes, they were detailed enough to make the book inappropriate for younger readers.) I only had an issue with the scene where Kit loses her virginity. That scene was so problematic for me that I don’t even know how to explain my issues with it. I even handed the book to a friend and asked her to read that scene without telling her why. The expressions on her face told me that she found it as poorly done as I did. Oddly, this was the only sex scene that I had an issue with. The others were all very well done. (And yes, there were a good number of other sex scenes in the book. It was a romance novel, after all.)Over all, I enjoyed this book for both the time travel and the romance aspects of the story. Would I be willing to read other books by this author? Yes, especially if they are as well researched and written as this one. (Although hopefully she does a better job describing any “first experiences” that her female characters may have in those books.)

Love this one and can’t wait till I can read the next one. Such a wonderful love story. This time travel book is different from any other I have read. I have read a lot. Love the people and could almost feel their feelings as it went along.

I can't remember where I first heard of this book, but I found it on my own Amazon page wish list and had obviously thought about it at one of those times when even a kindle book was outside my price range. But I got an Amazon gift card as a birthday present recently, and right before I went to buy a copy of Two Loves Found, a sequel to a book I had just read by Sandy Graham - I found a copy of that book arriving in my mailbox as an unexpected gift. So anyway, I actually had book $$ and nothing in mind to spend it on, and found that I had saved The Ruby Brooch to my wish list - So on a whim, I ordered it. I didn't even check to see what it was about, trusting my own taste even though I could obviously no longer trust my memory.I have never been more grateful that I had waited to get a book. Yes, I enjoyed it a lot, and yes it was a blend of many of my favorite things, but it really was way too close to my own middle grade novel, Double Time On The Oregon Trail, for me to have been comfortable having to say I had read it before I wrote my own. In fact, I'm pretty sure I never could have written my book if I had read this first, how would I ever have know for sure that my ideas were not lifted from this story?So what we have here is a young woman, in 2012 who has recently lost her family in a horrible way, and then finds a letter telling her, that they are not her birth family, but that she was a baby, found on a doorstep, wrapped in a bloody, monogrammed shawl with a ruby brooch that, by the way, transports people and things through time. When she learns this, she understands why her Dad has raised her with a ton of outdoor skills, and taken her on Oregon trail reenactments. She makes her plans to find out who she is, and uses the brooch to place herself at the start of the Oregon Trail in 1852.I love time travel and the Oregon Trail, which is why I had a girl from 2002 communicating with a girl from 1850 in my novel - and traveling the highways that retrace the trail now it is always fun to compare my swimming pools and air conditioning to their dust and drought and campfires but Ms. Logan has so many different comparisons to think about that I was immediately hooked into her novel and couldn't put it down. It was also interesting to see that even in the ten years between my modern 2002 and her 2012, there were changes such as my girl had a phone card, but her woman had a iPod, mine had printed pictures but hers had a digital camera. I did have to wonder about one thing, I get that she could use a solar charger and charge the iPod, and show saved information on it back in 1852, but I'm wondering how they managed to get hooked in to see you-tube videos?I'm not usually one to read romances, but her novel also had a few wonderful characters who felt real, and when I realized that her next book has one of them involved in a romance, non time travel, I still had enough of a balance on my card that I bought this sequel as well. I really wanted to know that this person was ok after seeing where The Ruby Brooch left him at the end. I guess caring about the characters so much means that yes, I am recommending this book

Such a beautiful love story mixed with adventure and suspense! I could never had made in that time period. Great female lead and a charming love she found in her husband.

Lovers of time travel and romance will enjoy this story. Kit lives in present day Kentucky. Having been found on a doorstep as a baby, she is determined to discover who she really is. Using an ancient, magical ruby brooch, she is taken back to 1852 and the Oregon Trail. The author obviously did her research on the trail, but in my opinion could have been more detailed in some of the events in the story. It felt quite flat and lacking in description, leaving it with a more two dimensional feel to it.Having said that, from becoming bored at the beginning with the usual modern lady saves the occasion kind of scenarios, I did become more involved as it went along.

A exceptional read. This is a very interesting time tray novel, The characters are interesting and I enjoyed the female main character being both sensitive, but strong and brave . The story line is interesting, and the description writing skills of the Author, draws you into the story.Happy to recommend this book

It was compelling reading - and kept my interest to the last page. Good characters - describing their journey across the old West so well illustrated - I could almost see the plains and mountains before me. The next jewel could be interesting.

I loved this book! If you enjoyed the Outlander series you will absolutely adore this! It totally lured me in to the family history and I can't wait to read the full series!

As to how this drivel ever got published. Maybe because I've just finished a series of sumptuously well-written books that this seems so dreadful. Or maybe it just is this bad. I gave up, and that's not something I do often. Even 1 star seems generous.