Skylar Creighton is diagnosed with stage four cancer and told that she has a mere one to two months to live.  She prepares herself to leave the world on her own terms.  If the pain should grow too strong to bear, she has a gun to end her own suffering.  Into a bag it is packed with other items to make a final trip.  One of the things she takes is her favorite first edition book Crossing Oceans, Crossing Swords: The True Adventures of Captain Rand Edward Jamison.  It is a pirate’s journal and through it she lost her heart to the writer some time ago. 

As she is readying to leave her bookstore for the last time, a homeless man she knows stumbles in injured. His attacker is quick to follow, demanding the man’s piece of green rock.  She feels the victim press the stone into her hand and suddenly finds herself in an old time ship’s cabin…of the captain whose exploits she has pored over so often and who has starred in her fantasies for so long. 

When Rand discovers someone hiding in his personal cabin on the Red Sky, he is certain that it is an assassin sent by his enemy Captain Owain Cutler.  It doesn’t take long however to discover that the person is a female and even more curiously reminds him of his late and deeply beloved wife Emma. 

Ms Storey continues to please with her heartfelt and heated romances.  In this time travel tale, we are given much excitement in battle between ships and in seduction in the bedroom…er, cabin.  A magical sistrum is behind the bringing together of Skylar and Rand.  Meanwhile, a dastardly villain of a half-brother is resolute in attempts to steal the item, triumph over his sibling, and bring the woman he insists he loves to his side.

There was a bit of stilted dialogue between the hero and heroine at the beginning when they meet, but that smooths over quite quickly to a more natural flow. We are then quickly swept away thoroughly into the story.  Tragic expectations for the romance as it seems to echo the Captain’s previous loss gives a poignancy to the account of these lovers.  Issue of whether tis better to know one’s future in order to avoid difficulties or to live life as best one can without manipulating with foreknowledge is interesting to consider and is touched upon here.

Both main characters are strong and well rounded.  Skylar’s pluck in the face of the realities of 18^th century shipboard situations on a pirate vessel will rouse admiration and mirth.  Hero, Rand, is protective, loving, and more honorable than the average brigand.  His acceptance that there are things that cannot be explained in the world is unusual and makes us more receptive to the twists and turns in the book.

For romance readers who love action and adventure in and out of the bedroom, this one’s for you…This Time Forever.