Synopses & Reviews
In the tradition of Diana Gabaldon's
Outlander, a woman finds herself transported to ancient Scotland--and to a noble Scot who wants her to stay there and make a life with him. Will she choose her future--or his past?
In the wake of her divorce, Maggie leaves her native Glasgow to rent a holiday cottage at the foot of Dunadd Hill, an ancient Pictish fort where the kings of Scotland were once crowned. There she is hoping to find some time to herself to finish her post-graduate thesis on witch burning she had started before her marriage.
But there is too much in Maggie's past to allow for much peace and quiet: there's her epilepsy, for which surgery might be the only option, her only chance of becoming "normal." There are the seizures her daughter, Ellie, inherited and ultimately succumbed to. There's her son, Graeme, who went off to boarding school when tensions after Ellie's death became intolerable. And then there are the vivid dreams Maggie often has that make her draw only a fuzzy line between waking and sleeping.
Dunadd, with its own vibrant history, starts to cross that line and soon Maggie isn't sure if she is only dreaming about meeting the handsome Fergus, eighth century Celtic warrior and brother of the King. He certainly seems real when he reaches for her...and the Druidess she is given over to seems much more alive than the witches Maggie is writing about in her thesis. Add in Fergus's young daughter, Illa, who is so like her own daughter, and Maggie doesn't know which world she would rather be living in. With the date of Maggie's surgery fast approaching, she must choose between life with her family--or with Fergus.
Review
“From the moment I opened Veil of Time, I was instantly swept up in the lush, haunting and wholly credible world Claire R. McDougall has created. Fiercely inventive, steeped in history, and emotionally charged, Veil of Time is the gripping story of a grieving woman who is offered a second chance to rebuild her fractured family. The twist? She must relinquish her current life and return to 8th century Scotland. A powerful and thought-provoking novel, reading Veil of Time is like falling into a wild, enchanting dream state from which you hope never to awaken. “
Review
“Veil of Time will enthrall you. Claire McDougall's fine novel is both a meditative exploration on the nature of perception and sanity and a saga of the first order, a wholly captivating journey through time and the variegated yet immutable complexities of love.”
Review
“With echoes of Audrey Niffeneggers’s The Time Traveller’s Wife…this poetically written novel tells a magical love story that spans the centuries while at the same time describing in striking detail the subjective effects of this intriguing neurological state. A brave, powerful, and incredibly moving debut novel from a very talented writer.”
Review
As richly detailed as a fine tapestry, VEIL OF TIME is entrancing and enthralling from the first page to the last. Anyone who enjoys the work of Diane Galbadon or Karen Marie Moning will adore this book. A jewel of a story! VEIL OF TIME is time travel romance at its best.
Synopsis
In the tradition of Diana Gabaldon’s
Outlander, a woman finds herself transported to ancient Scotland and to nobleman Fergus, brother of the king. Fergus desperately wants Maggie to stay and create a life with him, but she’s torn. Will she choose her future or his past?
In the wake of her divorce, Maggie leaves her native Glasgow to rent a cottage at Dunadd, an ancient hill fort where the early kings of Scotland were crowned. With only the hill and the view of the sea for company, Maggie is hoping to finish a thesis on medieval witch burnings she started long ago. But Maggie’s past doesn’t allow for much peace and quiet: there is the impending surgery to cure her epilepsy; the recent death of her young daughter, Ellie, from the same illness; and her teenage son Graeme at boarding school who is still reeling from his sister’s death.
Maggie slips into the eighth century during a seizure and finds herself back in Dunadd’s heyday, but it seems more than just a dream. The druidess in her hut at the top of the fort seems more real than the witches Maggie is writing about in her thesis. Fergus, the handsome brother of the king, certainly seems more than an illusion when he reaches for her. And his daughter Illa could be Ellie’s double returned to life over a millennium before her birth. As Maggie keeps returning to Fergus’s world, her surgery approaches, and soon she’ll be forced to make an impossible choice: return to her son in the present or make a new life with Fergus and Illa in the past.
Synopsis
A compelling tale of two Scotlands—one modern, one ancient—and the woman who parts the veil between them.
The medication that treats Maggie’s seizures leaves her in a haze, but it can’t dull her grief at losing her daughter to the same condition. With her marriage dissolved and her son away at school, Maggie retreats to a cottage below the ruins of Dunadd, once the royal seat of Scotland. But is it fantasy or reality when she awakens in a bustling village within the massive walls of eighth-century Dunadd? In a time and place so strange yet somehow familiar, Maggie is drawn to the striking, somber Fergus, brother of the king and father of Illa, who bears a keen resemblance to Maggie’s late daughter. With each dreamlike journey to the past, Maggie grows closer to Fergus and embraces the possibility of staying in this Dunadd. But with present-day demands calling her back, can Maggie leave behind the Scottish prince who dubs her mo chridhe, my heart?
About the Author
Claire R. McDougall, a native of Scotland, graduated from Oxford University and lives now in Aspen, Colorado, with her family. After an early start as a newspaper columnist, her career in creative writing moved through the genres of poetry and short stories to settle on Scottish novels.