Reviews for Heart of Fire Time of Ice
I’m going to post some of the reviews for Heart of Fire Time of Ice (A Time Equation Novel). It’s one of my best-selling books, and most readers leave positive reviews. However, like many books, it sometimes impacts readers the wrong way. A few readers absolutely hate the characters, the plot, the values in the story, and me for even daring to write such a story. The story has even been criticized for taking so long for the characters’ relationship to develop.
This used to bother me. Like every author out there, I want my babies—er, books—to be loved and enjoyed. Fortunately, I’ve made my living working with the general public for most of my life, and I know that some people aren’t going to like you, no matter how hard you try. Life got much easier for me when I learned that you can’t always please everyone.
What you can do is to create your best product, your best effort. That takes time and attention to detail. I’m still finding errors in my books despite having used a professional editor and gone over them many times. It’s incredible how easily today’s AI-based editorial systems make finding mistakes. Sometimes, they raise a stink about words or sentences you deliberately wrote in less-than-proper English. For example, some of my characters are not native English speakers and use odd constructions in their sentences. AI editors don’t like that and don’t seem inclined to learn not to flag it as wrong (at least at the current state of AI development).
I work hard to write my characters as realistically as possible. If a character has a certain personality hang-up, that will inform their actions until or unless they develop beyond that problem. Since I employ a positive character development arc, my MCs usually find a way to conquer their problems. To me, that’s part of the fun of writing. I get to create flawed personalities and then provide them with the circumstances necessary for them to cure their own problems.
In Heart of Fire, Time of Ice, I created Kathleen, but she soon took over the story on the strength of her character. She’s been suffering from rejection all of her life and is both emotionally and physically scarred. As a result, she has become reclusive, timid, and fearful. She buries herself in her physics studies in a vain attempt to hold the world at bay. At the time of the story, she’s moderately close to her mentoring professor. When he is murdered as a result of her discovery of a mathematical relationship buried in the very nature of time itself, she is overwhelmed with grief.
Circumstances, however, will not allow her time to heal. She’s suddenly snared in a trap of her own when she instinctively activates the time equation to escape the murderer. She gets away, but at what price? She is trapped in the Pleistocene—the last ice age—about thirteen thousand years ago. Suffice it to say that the environment, the beasts, and many of the humans of the time were less than welcoming.
She finds that her survival depends on her doing something she’s not prepared to do — develop a relationship with a handsome prehistoric hunter. She’s torn between wanting him to accept her and her past nature of flinching from all relationships. She also has an inbuilt prejudice against him, thinking that he’s an uneducated troglodyte, not realizing that education is only helpful to the extent that it enables an individual to better survive and deal with the environment they are in. Once she realizes how perfectly aligned he is with his environment, she feels unworthy and cannot see herself as adding anything to their relationship. She subconsciously feels that she must find something, anything, relevant to primitive survival that she can bring to him before she can view herself as a worthy partner.
Cadeyrin, for his part, is on what he views as his death journey. A sabertoothed cat killed his mate, his father was more recently killed in a mastodon hunt, and his entire tribe has been scattered by enemy attack. He’s been traveling alone, surviving through reflex, and waiting for something to kill him. When he saves Kathleen from another sabertooth, he begins to think that he might have a reason to continue living. The problem is that when he understands that she comes from a culture far advanced from his, he doubts that he will ever be able to live up to her standards. Nevertheless, he resolves to do his best to take care of her.
Together, the two encounter the challenges of the harsh environment just to the south of the ice wall of glaciers and gradually learn what it means to have a true partner. Then, in the face of another attack, the time equation provides a way out, but it threatens to separate them forever. Now, it’s up to Kathleen to fight her way through memory loss to become the decisive and self-confident woman who is nearer her true potential.
I can only give more information by risking spoiling some of the fun surprises in the story, so here are some of the reviews. The readers can tell their opinion without my interpretation:-)
By the way, I don’t like reviews that say nothing useful, e.g., “Not my style.” I wonder why you would bother to leave a review if it isn’t helpful to other potential readers.
First, here are the review statistics to date:
348 total reviews, 54% 5 stars, 25% 4 stars, 13% 3 stars, 4% 2 stars, 3% 1 star
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly Entertaining Read
July 19, 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Enjoyable take on the time travel genre. Engaging characters. Like potato chips… bet you can’t read just one of this author’s novels. I rarely am engaged enough by a story to bother with next book in a series; this time was different and I really want to see what happens next. Kudos to the author.
5.0 out of 5 stars Review
July 19, 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
If you enjoy time travel romance with historical context, this is an enjoyable read. I especially like when the characters travel in different time zones & connect past, present & future.
3.0 out of 5 stars Slow-cooked Romance
July 18, 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
If you like your romance with a slow build and plenty of scene development and background, you will love this! I am used to something faster, but I did enjoy this one. 3 stars because I like a faster pace and more relationship development and sexual passion.
5.0 out of 5 stars WOW! A definite recommend!
July 11, 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
What great world building — in both times. The characters leap off the pages, no two dimensional beings here! I enjoyed the combination of science, history, and survival skills. The author treats the readers with respect — we can figure the science, the strange sounding animals (yes, I googled some the terms & names). This is one book that keeps you interested all the way through without needing to “skip pages” past the boring parts. A definite recommend!
2.0 out of 5 stars Very weak main female character!!
July 10, 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
I found this book had so much potential and possibility, and kept some of my interest as I kept reading, but the main character was simply too wussy! Too indecisive, too weak, and too neurotic.
5.0 out of 5 stars Very aptly titled….
July 8, 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
Wow…it took me a little time to get into the meanings of our heroin’s profession and intelect…but once i figured that to be ‘Just the way it is’…..i really got into her adventures…her fears, and eventually her understanding of herself…loved the crossover of language and total blending of intelligence from the now and then….will love to continue on with the next books..
5.0 out of 5 stars I read all three books in this series. AMAZING story and characters,
July 4, 2019
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
This was truly a new type of adventure foe me. I love the characters and the story line is deep and goes beyond the norm in description of timelines. A very unique presentation of time travel. It was descriptive enough to give me a visual in my mind of how man lived and survived in the early time periods. It also presented a very real sense of taboo of this in present times and how some humans cannot be trusted to work for the good of all mankind. Very challenging topics.
5.0 out of 5 stars I read all five books in this series. AMAZING story and characters,
November 17, 2023 Holy Time Travel!!!
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Seriously, this was such a great read! I thoroughly enjoyed every page. My only critique would be that the ending seemed rushed to me in comparison to the main body of the storyline. Still well deserving of 5 stars!
Finally, here’s an example of someone who did not like the story but failed to give any helpful feedback. I can only guess what set this reader off.
1.0 out of 5 stars WTH did I just read
July 4, 2019
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Don’t bother. This is garbage.
Like I said before, “You can’t please everyone.” However, the readers who enjoy the story keep me writing, so thanks if you’re one of them!
Namaste!
Eric
