Review of "Flirting with Forever" by Gwyn Cready

I actually finished this book a few days ago, but kept putting the review off. Not because it's a bad review, or a bad book, but because I just wanted to be blah for a few more days. I feel better now. So on to our review!

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author/publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any money for a review, or anything else.

Type: Romance, Time Travel, Historical-ish (that's a type, right?)

From the back of the book: " Art historian Campbell Stratford is about to make a name for herself with her scandalously sexy tell-all "fictographies" of famous seventeenth-century artists, but she's more intimately familiar with her subjects than her eager readers can imagine. Thanks to a time portal she accidentally discovered, she has caused quite a stir in the Great Beyond. To save their reputations, the Guild protecting dead artists convinces playboy Peter Lely, a portraitist to the king, to sabotage Cam's latest project. A few hours posing on Sir Peter's modeling chaise leads to a night of seductive passion - then Cam returns home and discovers his betrayal. But before she can turn her angry pen on her love, Sir Peter makes a surprise visit to the future and transforms Cam's twenty-first-century life into chaos of classic proportions. "

I have to say, I think this was my first experience with a hero/leading man named Peter. I wasn't sure I would be able to handle it, to be honest. I'm a huge fan of strong, interesting, mythical sounding names... and Peter seemed so.. ordinary. That, or I was constantly afraid of imaging Peter Griffin from Family Guy. But you know, I have to give the author some major credit here - I really connected with Peter as a character, and I even grew quite fond of the name. The name fit him, and he was/is quite the strong character, so I now see the name Peter in a different light.

In my early semesters in college, I took some Art History classes, the first just to fill a requirement, and the second because I enjoyed it so much. Since then, other than an occasional trip to a museum, I've almost lost my love of art. But after reading this book, I've found it again. Describing the painting process Peter used, or what was going through his mind with each stroke, made the whole process very sensual.

On a similar note.. Hoobah! Talk about sensual (read: sex) scenes! Whew. I actually took this book to work with me to read on my breaks, and I know I was blushing like crazy during the.. delicious scenes. The painting scene was wonderful, amazingly described, and frankly, I want to run out and find me a painter and hopefully get the same feeling Cam got to experience... lucky girl.

And on to the evil villain - the sister. Ahh, what a good evil person she was! Sure, there were some definite cliched moments, but they were perfectly so, at least in my opinion. She was so b**chy, so hateful, so mean.. I just wanted to smack her. I was a little disappointed with how she turned out in the end, however. I wanted her to... well, if I said any more, it would be possibly spoilers, so no more!

And my last, but certainly not least, point was to mention the only con about this book for me. I had trouble getting into it, and it seemed a little confusing in the beginning. I believe this was because this was the first book by this author I have read, and therefore missed a little more explanation that would have been present in a previous book. But things made sense in the long run, and I'm glad I stuck with it and kept reading.

Final verdict - FOUR shirtless hunks out of FIVE. I really did enjoy this book, despite the occasional confusion. I do hope to check out more by this author - I think this author's idea of time travel and such is fascinating. Hope you all get to check out "Flirting With Forever" by Gwyn Cready!

Happy Reading!
~!~ Morning Glow