CFBA Review: Shenandoah Dreams by:Lisa Belcastro

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Shenandoah Dreams OakTara Publishers (July 1, 2014) by Lisa Belcastro

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lisa Belcastro lives with her family on Martha’s Vineyard. She loves chocolate, gardening, outdoor activities, cooking, laughing, reading, traveling, a healthy dose of adventure, and her cat Ben, who keeps her company while she spends hours working at the computer.

She was inspired to write Shenandoah Nights, the first book in the Winds of Change trilogy, while chaperoning two Tisbury School summer sails with her daughter, Kayla, aboard the schooner Shenandoah. The weeklong adventure, sans electricity, Game Boys, iPods and modern conveniences, kindled her imagination to dream of an altogether different voyage.

In addition to writing romance novels, Lisa currently pens the cuisine column for Vineyard Style magazine. She has worked as a staff and freelance reporter and photographer for The Chronicle of the Horse and as assistant editor at The Blue Ridge Leader. She has written articles for USA Today, Dressage (London), USA WEEKEND Magazine, The Blue Ridge Leader and Sidelines.

When she’s not at her desk, Lisa is living in paradise, volunteering at her daughter’s school, serving in her church community, planting and weeding her numerous gardens, trying to run a marathon a month, or walking the beach looking for sea glass.

ABOUT THE BOOK

What if she met the man of her dreams...in another century? Tisbury, Massachusetts, Martha s Vineyard. It s just a dream, Melissa Smith whispers as she stares into the intense eyes of a man dressed in Colonial clothes, as though stepping out of an American Revolution movie set. A school chaperone with Holmes Hole Elementary, she d boarded the old schooner Shenandoah for a weeklong educational sail. But they are not visiting Plimoth Plantation, the Boston Tea Party Museum, or the Concord Bridge reenactment. They re sailing the waters around the island of Martha s Vineyard. Yet, when she awakes in Cabin 8, the captain claims to be Isaiah Reed, who sailed the original Shenandoah in the eighteenth century. He cannot possibly be real, Melissa thinks. And traveling back in time is impossible. But days pass, and she s still in 1770. What if Isaiah, who is simply too handsome to be real, is real? What if the fire he ignites in her from barely a touch isn t in her imagination? Can a dream last for weeks on end? If so, how will she find her way home...to the twenty-first century? And can she bear to leave the one man who has captured her heart, when everything in her longs to stay? A Vineyard Romance Romance, history, adventure. Get swept into the exciting Winds of Change series.

If you liked to read the first chapter of Shenandoah Dreams, go HERE.

My Review:
 Time travel isn't possible but if it were, I would prefer to go somewhere throughout history. Maybe to somewhere I had only read about. The Civil War era would be an exciting place, for sure. Not on the actual battlefield but something close to it would work. In Shenandoah Dreams the main character, Melissa gets her chance to travel back in time when she chaperones her class on a educational sail around Martha's vineyard.

 Too me it would be terrifying to wake up to see a man standing there in front of me dressed on colonial style clothing. I would keep screaming and screaming until my head popped off. The boat that her and the class get to take on their trip seems best described as "haunted" to me. She thinks she is dreaming when she wakes to realize something just isn't quite right. But with all young ladies in these type of stories there is a love interest and his name is Isaiah. Because the incredibly handsome Isaiah, Melissa finds herself not wanting to leave and go back to her century.

 I read a lot of historical romances and seeing the cover it seems a bit misleading, because it doesn't look like what you might expect. At first because of this, I wasn't jumping to read the book. To me the cover can actual make or break if I want to read it or not.But this historical romance will surprise you!

**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from CFBA.