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Love Once #2
Love Once Again: The Love Once Novels
A twist of time carried them into each other's arms . . . but just as suddenly, a sad turn of fate swept them apart.
On a New England Christmas morning, Jessica, with their infant son in her arms, crosses the bedroom to greet Christopher. But before she has a chance to reach him, his image seems to fade, and his welcoming smile becomes a look of alarm. He reaches out his hand to her. She thinks she has grasped it. Yet, instead, she's left alone in a small and very cold nineteenth century cabin with their child . . . while Christopher finds himself in a New York City rooming house without his wife and son.
Agonized by memories of their magical time together, each is forced to carry on--Jessica as a servant in a wealthy farm household while Christopher adjusts to finding a career in early nineteenth century New York.
Will the love they shared remain only a memory, or will fate allow their paths to cross again? Is their love strong enough to conquer the ultimate enemy--time?
On a New England Christmas morning, Jessica, with their infant son in her arms, crosses the bedroom to greet Christopher. But before she has a chance to reach him, his image seems to fade, and his welcoming smile becomes a look of alarm. He reaches out his hand to her. She thinks she has grasped it. Yet, instead, she's left alone in a small and very cold nineteenth century cabin with their child . . . while Christopher finds himself in a New York City rooming house without his wife and son.
Agonized by memories of their magical time together, each is forced to carry on--Jessica as a servant in a wealthy farm household while Christopher adjusts to finding a career in early nineteenth century New York.
Will the love they shared remain only a memory, or will fate allow their paths to cross again? Is their love strong enough to conquer the ultimate enemy--time?
274 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1983
2 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Jo Ann Simon
7 books13 followersJo Ann Simon (a/k/a Joanna Campbell) is the author of over thirty published novels for both adults and young adults. Over a million copies of her books have been sold nationally and internationally. She loves horses, gardening, history, antiques, reading and travelling.
Her published works include:
Twice Young (which combines a fast paced mystery with romance and ghostly overtones), Beloved Captain (available in Kindle), Love Once In Passing (available in Kindle), Love Once Again (available in Kindle), as well as The Thoroughbred Series (Harper Collins) written as Joanna Campbell, and many other titles.
She welcomes hearing from readers who can reach her at joannsimon@gwi.com. or at her Facebook page, Jo Ann Simon.
* Source: Amazon author page
Her published works include:
Twice Young (which combines a fast paced mystery with romance and ghostly overtones), Beloved Captain (available in Kindle), Love Once In Passing (available in Kindle), Love Once Again (available in Kindle), as well as The Thoroughbred Series (Harper Collins) written as Joanna Campbell, and many other titles.
She welcomes hearing from readers who can reach her at joannsimon@gwi.com. or at her Facebook page, Jo Ann Simon.
* Source: Amazon author page
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 21, 2016
Disappointing. I read this book because I read the prequel as a teenager and really liked it. While I'm not a fan of romance novels, I love time-travel books. I didn't care for the stereotypical romance novel steamy passages. In the prequel, a man from the 19th century finds himself in the 1980s in the passenger seat of a car driven by a modern independent woman. yada yada yada, and they fall in love, get married, and have a baby. In this book, the new family is transported back to the 19th century, and the woman has to adjust to a very different era. WARNING - spoiler-alert!!
I especially didn't like the part where she realizes that her husband is having an affair, in part because she has let herself go after the death of her infant daughter, she's been acting too depressed, has not bought a new dress in 2 years, and is not being an interesting and attractive wife.
I especially didn't like the part where she realizes that her husband is having an affair, in part because she has let herself go after the death of her infant daughter, she's been acting too depressed, has not bought a new dress in 2 years, and is not being an interesting and attractive wife.
June 13, 2011
This book is one of my guilty pleasures. Cheesy and sexist, yet thankfully without noncon. The way children talk is especially hilarious.
September 9, 2015
This is the sequel to Love Once in Passing which I read recently and loved. Unfortunately this was a disappointment. I found much of this book depressing and angsty and mostly frustrating for me. Jessica and Christopher are separated for the first half, then after reuniting again after two years, they go through a series of trials and tribulations due to Christopher's fiancee, who he nearly married and then takes up with again as his mistress! Jessica, who is originally from the twentieth century has a hard time adjusting to life as a wife in the 19th century, yet Christopher is used to it, but forgets what he loved initially in his 20th century woman. It seemed to take me forever to finish this book, although I did like the feel of of early 19th century NYC and Connecticut. 3.5/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 19, 2008
I read the prequel to this book a few months ago and, while it was not exactly a five star read, I was interested enough to seek out the sequel and learn what happened next. This one started minutes after the last one ended and even though it had a slow start (i plodded through the first 50 pages or so) it did pick up and I was drawn into their predicament and ultimate reunion. And it certainly ended well. Enjoyable read.
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September 1, 2013Book 2
March 20, 2023
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD, SO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!
Well, I read the first book and couldn't wait to read the next one. While it was a good story and more diverse, since it was in the third person this time, and went from the POV of both Jessica and Christopher (as well as including plenty of other characters), it also had some weak points, even more so than the prior one.
First off, from the way the first book ended, with Christopher being pulled back in time, and Jessica and their baby son, Kit most likely being taken along with him, you get the idea that he's been drawn back to his own time and place, to fulfill his destiny as part of British aristocracy.
Instead, that's only half right. While he does return to his time, it's not to his place in England. He winds up in New York City, while Jessica and the baby stay in the same place, but not the same time, as they're in their own neighborhood in Connecticut, close by the house Christopher and Jessica built, only back in Christopher's time. So they're in the same time, but in separate states, and it'll be two years before they find each other again.
Christopher arrived in a boarding house around the South Street Seaport, and soon is working on the docks, saving money and making connections, and eventually starting a successful shipping business (using methods that today could be viewed as "insider trading") and has some friends in high places, as well as regular guys. Jessica, meanwhile, arrived in a cottage on a family estate, where she was mistaken for the maid they hired (who inexplicably never shows up) and makes up a story for why she's there, which is partly true, as she says she has no idea what's become of her husband, a supposed privateer who has been missing for quite some time. (Ironically, she says they had lived in New York City, not knowing that's where Christopher is.) She takes the job as a maid and gets to know both the family and the other servants.
But really, the whole time travel thing doesn't make sense. It would have been more logical for them to have both reappeared in England, where Christopher could try and reclaim everything his cousin stole from him and make him pay for his crimes. Instead, Christopher doesn't seem to care anymore, as if it never mattered. So what was the purpose of this trip back in time? He was content where he was, in the modern world with Jessica and their baby.
I also thought the guy in the first book, Charles (who had fallen for Jessica while she had amnesia) would have somehow fit in the story, because they seemed to have a real connection. But that wasn't the case; after he left the story in the first book, that was it for him. Jessica never gives him another thought.
Both her and Christopher's thoughts, however, were on others for a time. When two years have gone by and it looks like they'll never find each other (Jessica not knowing if Christopher's back in England or even still alive and Christopher assuming she and their son are still in their own time), Christopher begins an affair with a young widow named Rhea Taylor, whose social connections would enhance his business, and whose beauty and charm would make her the perfect society hostess. Soon, they become engaged. Meanwhile, Jessica develops feelings for Lucas St. John, part owner of the local mill, and though his heart belonged to Elizabeth, the daughter of the house, and he at first looked on Jessica as only a friend, Elizabeth's continual toying with his affections while aiming for more socially suitable men, made him start thinking of Jessica in a romantic way. Unlike Christopher, Jessica never slept with anyone else, she and Lucas never even kissed.
Later, when Jessica and Christopher are reunited, it seems Ms. Simon went the same route as before, inventing trouble as a filler, rather than making more plot lines. First, as they resume their life together, Christopher starts acting rather autocratic and even a bit condescending, expecting Jessica to conform to society's rules, including staying out of his business and political affairs. He even makes her feel left out of planning and building their new home, telling her to stick to decorating it later. When they were in the 20thc, he had no problem with Jessica working and helping with the home they built and the horse breeding business they started, so why the about face? For him to be so concerned with what others would think seemed too out of character.
(It would have been a better idea for him to have remained the same and let Jessica say and do things more in line with her own time, like start some kind of business or help him with his work, and make a few waves with their social set, and then build the story around that a bit. Or have her get involved in politics, with some repercussions. There were possibilities that should have been explored.)
Then, a tragic loss sends Jessica into a depression, which makes her shut Christopher out, and results in his turning to Rhea and resuming their affair for a time. (Rhea enjoys getting revenge on Jessica for the broken engagement.) After that, it gets to be like a soap opera, with Rhea scheming to keep them apart, Jessica running off with the children (they now have a baby daughter) while she thinks things over, Lucas putting his two cents in, which makes Christopher angry, and some more wasted time.
For some reason, Ms. Simon added yet another man to the mix, whom Jessica met at a ball when she was still a maid and who was taken with her, and apparently would have pursued her if Christopher hadn't returned. It gets really ridiculous when he and Lucas, both half in love with Jessica, try to help get her and Christopher back together, while she sulks in a country inn with the children, hiding from everyone, and refuses to go home!
To make things even more silly, when they start working on their marriage and things are going much better, Rhea starts scheming again, but instead of realizing this right away, Jessica gets suspicious again, Christopher gets jealous again, and the whole episode could have been done without! The fact that they were both so ready to accuse each other of cheating shows what major trust issues they had, yet they're just swept under the rug as if they don't exist.
Also, I don't think either of them dealt very well with their emotional infidelities. Christopher made too light of his relationship with Rhea, when he had planned to marry and start a new life with her. Jessica admitted to Lucas that if Christopher had never returned, she could have loved and married him, yet she only tells Christopher that they were good friends. They both took the coward's way out.
What's even sillier, is that after an argument with Rhea, where she told her off but good, Jessica then feels bad when Christopher does the same, and later says he was too harsh with Rhea, who still loves him. So now she feels sorry for the woman she hated so much???? COME ON!!!
And how come neither of them ever wondered what their 20thc friends thought of their sudden disappearance, or about the house and business they had there, and what became of them?
The ending of the book reads like a dedication to a statue, I won't even get into that, except to say I just skimmed the pages, they were so over the top.
All in all, it's an entertaining novel, but it could have been so much better.
Well, I read the first book and couldn't wait to read the next one. While it was a good story and more diverse, since it was in the third person this time, and went from the POV of both Jessica and Christopher (as well as including plenty of other characters), it also had some weak points, even more so than the prior one.
First off, from the way the first book ended, with Christopher being pulled back in time, and Jessica and their baby son, Kit most likely being taken along with him, you get the idea that he's been drawn back to his own time and place, to fulfill his destiny as part of British aristocracy.
Instead, that's only half right. While he does return to his time, it's not to his place in England. He winds up in New York City, while Jessica and the baby stay in the same place, but not the same time, as they're in their own neighborhood in Connecticut, close by the house Christopher and Jessica built, only back in Christopher's time. So they're in the same time, but in separate states, and it'll be two years before they find each other again.
Christopher arrived in a boarding house around the South Street Seaport, and soon is working on the docks, saving money and making connections, and eventually starting a successful shipping business (using methods that today could be viewed as "insider trading") and has some friends in high places, as well as regular guys. Jessica, meanwhile, arrived in a cottage on a family estate, where she was mistaken for the maid they hired (who inexplicably never shows up) and makes up a story for why she's there, which is partly true, as she says she has no idea what's become of her husband, a supposed privateer who has been missing for quite some time. (Ironically, she says they had lived in New York City, not knowing that's where Christopher is.) She takes the job as a maid and gets to know both the family and the other servants.
But really, the whole time travel thing doesn't make sense. It would have been more logical for them to have both reappeared in England, where Christopher could try and reclaim everything his cousin stole from him and make him pay for his crimes. Instead, Christopher doesn't seem to care anymore, as if it never mattered. So what was the purpose of this trip back in time? He was content where he was, in the modern world with Jessica and their baby.
I also thought the guy in the first book, Charles (who had fallen for Jessica while she had amnesia) would have somehow fit in the story, because they seemed to have a real connection. But that wasn't the case; after he left the story in the first book, that was it for him. Jessica never gives him another thought.
Both her and Christopher's thoughts, however, were on others for a time. When two years have gone by and it looks like they'll never find each other (Jessica not knowing if Christopher's back in England or even still alive and Christopher assuming she and their son are still in their own time), Christopher begins an affair with a young widow named Rhea Taylor, whose social connections would enhance his business, and whose beauty and charm would make her the perfect society hostess. Soon, they become engaged. Meanwhile, Jessica develops feelings for Lucas St. John, part owner of the local mill, and though his heart belonged to Elizabeth, the daughter of the house, and he at first looked on Jessica as only a friend, Elizabeth's continual toying with his affections while aiming for more socially suitable men, made him start thinking of Jessica in a romantic way. Unlike Christopher, Jessica never slept with anyone else, she and Lucas never even kissed.
Later, when Jessica and Christopher are reunited, it seems Ms. Simon went the same route as before, inventing trouble as a filler, rather than making more plot lines. First, as they resume their life together, Christopher starts acting rather autocratic and even a bit condescending, expecting Jessica to conform to society's rules, including staying out of his business and political affairs. He even makes her feel left out of planning and building their new home, telling her to stick to decorating it later. When they were in the 20thc, he had no problem with Jessica working and helping with the home they built and the horse breeding business they started, so why the about face? For him to be so concerned with what others would think seemed too out of character.
(It would have been a better idea for him to have remained the same and let Jessica say and do things more in line with her own time, like start some kind of business or help him with his work, and make a few waves with their social set, and then build the story around that a bit. Or have her get involved in politics, with some repercussions. There were possibilities that should have been explored.)
Then, a tragic loss sends Jessica into a depression, which makes her shut Christopher out, and results in his turning to Rhea and resuming their affair for a time. (Rhea enjoys getting revenge on Jessica for the broken engagement.) After that, it gets to be like a soap opera, with Rhea scheming to keep them apart, Jessica running off with the children (they now have a baby daughter) while she thinks things over, Lucas putting his two cents in, which makes Christopher angry, and some more wasted time.
For some reason, Ms. Simon added yet another man to the mix, whom Jessica met at a ball when she was still a maid and who was taken with her, and apparently would have pursued her if Christopher hadn't returned. It gets really ridiculous when he and Lucas, both half in love with Jessica, try to help get her and Christopher back together, while she sulks in a country inn with the children, hiding from everyone, and refuses to go home!
To make things even more silly, when they start working on their marriage and things are going much better, Rhea starts scheming again, but instead of realizing this right away, Jessica gets suspicious again, Christopher gets jealous again, and the whole episode could have been done without! The fact that they were both so ready to accuse each other of cheating shows what major trust issues they had, yet they're just swept under the rug as if they don't exist.
Also, I don't think either of them dealt very well with their emotional infidelities. Christopher made too light of his relationship with Rhea, when he had planned to marry and start a new life with her. Jessica admitted to Lucas that if Christopher had never returned, she could have loved and married him, yet she only tells Christopher that they were good friends. They both took the coward's way out.
What's even sillier, is that after an argument with Rhea, where she told her off but good, Jessica then feels bad when Christopher does the same, and later says he was too harsh with Rhea, who still loves him. So now she feels sorry for the woman she hated so much???? COME ON!!!
And how come neither of them ever wondered what their 20thc friends thought of their sudden disappearance, or about the house and business they had there, and what became of them?
The ending of the book reads like a dedication to a statue, I won't even get into that, except to say I just skimmed the pages, they were so over the top.
All in all, it's an entertaining novel, but it could have been so much better.
June 27, 2014
***ARC from NetGalley in Exchange for an honest review***
I reluctantly got this hoping it will be better that its prequel. Uh, again, no, just no. Same complaint. Time travel? A great idea but this book does not deliver. Think of the possibilities of exploring the fun, the confusion, the delight and frustration in assimilating to a totally different reality. Imagine the tension between a man born to provide and a woman expected to make it on her own. Lauren quickly assimilates to the rough, unforgiving reality of being a modern woman thrust in the 1800’s (I wasn’t clear on the time thing since I skipped A LOT). Then wonders of wonders, they find each other again. Throw in a countess (?) with fatal attraction and depression after childbirth (coupled with said child’s death). And you get some more peripheral people that were brought in to prop up the story. SIGH.
I reluctantly got this hoping it will be better that its prequel. Uh, again, no, just no. Same complaint. Time travel? A great idea but this book does not deliver. Think of the possibilities of exploring the fun, the confusion, the delight and frustration in assimilating to a totally different reality. Imagine the tension between a man born to provide and a woman expected to make it on her own. Lauren quickly assimilates to the rough, unforgiving reality of being a modern woman thrust in the 1800’s (I wasn’t clear on the time thing since I skipped A LOT). Then wonders of wonders, they find each other again. Throw in a countess (?) with fatal attraction and depression after childbirth (coupled with said child’s death). And you get some more peripheral people that were brought in to prop up the story. SIGH.
September 27, 2021
Back in the mid-eighties when I worked in a bookstore we were required to read one or two books from every genre in the store. That meant I had to read a romance novel, normally I read classic literature or science fiction... So this was a different kind of book for me. I'm not a fan of romance novels but I enjoyed the mash-up of romance in science fiction in these two books, "love once in passing" and "love once again". A fun read.
July 23, 2024
Great historical romance, time traveling, cheating and OW drama.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews