First published 1975
Richard Collier becomes obsessed with a photograph of Elise McKenna, a celebrated actress from 1896. His attraction grows into an all-consuming need to meet this woman who died decades before his birth. Through sheer force of will and self-hypnosis, Collier manages to transport his consciousness back through time to the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. There he encounters the living Elise McKenna at the height of her theatrical career. The two fall deeply in love, but their romance faces an impossible obstacle. Collier exists in the wrong century, and the pull of his own time threatens to tear him away from the woman he crossed decades to find. Their love story unfolds against the elegant backdrop of Victorian San Diego, where Collier must choose between the life he knew and the love that brought him across time itself.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, fantasy, time-travel
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, time-travel
Setting: Hotel del Coronado, San Diego
Period: 1896, 20th-century
278 pages · Library Binding · Buccaneer Books