Return of the Rose

By: Theresa Ragan

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Morgan Hayes grows up in the 20th century with a mysterious attraction to a hollow suit of armor that stands in the window of her mother’s antique store. She is 24 years old when she becomes entangled within the armor’s metal plates and is whisked back in time, where she is mistaken for a twin sister she knows nothing about. Morgan is forced to marry King Henry’s favored knight, Derek Vanguard, Lord of Braddock Hall.

Abandoned by his mother and having failed as a child to gain his father’s love, Derek’s heart is as cold as the stone walls of his castle. In the end, will Morgan discover the true power of love?

©2011 Theresa Ragan (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The ending was so well written it gave me chills, and I purposely read it slowly because I didn't want the story to end. I hope there's a sequel in the not too distant future." (Caroline Fyffe, award-winning author of Where the Wind Blows and Montana Dawn)

Don't come here for historical accuracy

Or anything even close to resembling it.

Do come here for 2 dimensional, juvenile characters, improbable plot lines, and humdrum sex scenes*.

Honestly, the time travel is the most believable part.

Katherine Kellgren does an admirable job, as always, which is impressive considering the dross with which she was working.


*You know what though... It was slightly educational. As things became more snd more outlandish, I did start googling to find out how historically inaccurate it really was. I now know that rum was 'invented' in the 17th century (a good 200 after this story is set), which is a piece of information I did not start my day with. Educational.

Don't waste your time

What would have made Return of the Rose better?

Leave out the explicit sex - or at least warn readers

What could Theresa Ragan have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Build a relationship without explicit sex right from the beginning

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

anger, disappointment

Any additional comments?

please remove from my library

Not very intelligent book

What would have made Return of the Rose better?

more of a story vs tag between Lord and his love. An actual story.

This book is terrible

Don't bother with this one, it's so bad. Even a pre-teen would think the heroine is completely immature and the hero nothing to be interested in.

This is one of those complete wastes of words where the heroine meets the hero, he is a jerk for no reason, she thinks he's a jerk, he kisses her, she is completely under the spell of his kiss, then he's mean to her, so she doesn't want anything to do with him, he kisses her again, she can't help but be infatuated with him, he's so gorgeous, he's so mean, I want him so much, I despise him, I'm in love with him, let's have sex, omg he must love me so much, he's talking to another woman, he hates me, I don't even like him, what a jerk, I must be gentle with him so he'll open up to me, I cause a misunderstanding so he hates me, now he saved my life, I love him, I caused another misunderstanding so he hates me again, I cannot stay if he cannot love me blah blah blah.

And it goes on and on and on for HOURS.

If you think you'd like it for the time travel thing, nope. You just get a minute of it at the beginning and end. And no interesting fish out of water scenarios either. Seriously, my second paragraph above is the whole book, only much more annoying and never ending, full of the heroine saying things like "not even if you were the last man on earth!" "you can't make me!" And "wanna bet?!" In between her going gooey at the knees whenever he looks at her, and falling into bed with him. I won't even bother with his cardboard cutout of a 'personality'. Truly awful from start to finish.

A very, very bad copycat!

I got this book because of a few rave reviews that I cannot for the life of me understand! Someone wanted to give it 10 stars??? This book was so cheesy and shallow that nearly every bit of it made me cringe. Not only that, it was such a bad knockoff of Outlander that it wasn't even trying to hide it. It was Outlander mixed with The Husband Trap and rewritten with the skill of a junior higher. In fact, I thought this was a kids book all the way up until the graphic sex scenes. If it weren't for that then I think it would be fine for girls ages 10 to 13, but the ridiculous sex ruined the only possible target audience for this unoriginal ripoff of a book.

The narrator was so obnoxious that about 10 minutes into the book I almost returned it because I couldn't stand to listen to her for one second longer. I have never hated a narrator so much! She was not even narrating the book, but rather performing it with enough zeal to knock down an elephant with one breath of her CONSTANT over-exuberance. She was so obnoxious that it actually made me angry. I cannot say enough bad things about this book. It was all just so very bad.

Boring , bad narration

This was the epitome of stereotypical romance novel ... knight on a white steed , a virgin yadda yadda yadda . Story was a little boring and predictable but the narration was terrible, borderline annoying.