Jove, $5.99, ISBN 0-515-12607-1
Paranormal Romance, 1999

Brianne Davis is a TV ad model and student of midwifery arts. One day she accompanies best buddy David to a seance, and somehow they summon up a ghost of a really good-looking guy who claims to be a Griffin uh… I can’t recall his last name, if it is ever told in the first place. Griffin moves into David’s body, kisses her, she gets all hot and shivery… then one day lightning strikes and Brianne is transported back to 1832 to occupy Amily’s body. Amily is Florence’s sister and Florence is David’s wife. David loves Amily but refuses to cheat on his wife and hurt his sister-in-law. Amily loves David but doesn’t want to hurt her sister’s marriage. Florence loves David as a friend.

One thing’s for sure: Brianne/Amily knows from history that Florence, who is expecting, will die from childbirth soon, and should Amily and David get together after Florence’s death, they will both die from some riding accident. Hence, Brianne/Amily decides that in order to save David, they must not get together. Oh yeah, maybe she should try and save Florence too, what with Brianne only two weeks away from graduating from her midwife course.

While reading River of Dreams, I get the uneasy feeling that the usual guilt and woe drama is going to start the moment Florence passes away. I’m right, and am quite annoyed by the whole thing: Griffin impregnates the wife the night he was dreaming of making love to Amily, and you guessed it, major guilt trip time. Griffin flees to drown his sorrow, leaving Amily/Brianne to face a flu epidermic alone (men – typical), comes back and indulge in yet another guilt trip when he realizes that he has abandoned Amily/Brianne in a time of need… really, Griff is one of the most useless heroes I’ve ever read. Griff is always too late in arriving whenever Amily/Brianne needs him. For a romance hero, Griff barely makes the cut.

And maybe it’s because I’m getting on with the years, but I’ve reread the last few chapters several times. I still don’t get it. The villains appear out of the blue, characters in the past suddenly gets zapped into the present without any plausible explanation… and is David is or isn’t Griffin? Sometimes there is one paragraph that says Brianne’s back to the present and is talking to David, then the next paragraph there’s a dimming of lights and a cloud of smoke and she’s back in 1832 and talking to Griff.

Hello? What’s going on? I’ll just blame the book. It’s confusing. Not my fault. Case closed.