Born and raised in Scotland, Isla MacKenzie has traveled to Japan to learn more about the Japanese branch of her mother\u2019s family. She hopes to discover whether family lore is true and she\u2019s descended from a warrior who served alongside legendary rebel samurai leader Takamori Saig\u014d. When a strangely out-of-season typhoon hits the town of Kagoshima, where she\u2019s staying, Isla gets caught in the blinding rain and wind; she stumbles across a white torii gate, but as she approaches, hoping to find shelter, things begin to feel weird. As the storm subsides and Isla looks around, her surroundings seem foreign\u2014Kagoshima\u2019s busy streets and cafes have been replaced by woodlands. When a woman sees Isla and screams, claiming to have discovered a demon in the forest, samurai Maeda Keiichir\u014d is one of the first to answer the call. He\u2019s the voice of reason, recognizing Isla as a young woman, not a demon, even if she looks bizarre. As Isla figures out that she\u2019s been transported back in time, she comes to realize she\u2019s on the cusp of the deadly Satsuma Rebellion, which lasted nine months and ended in the death of its leader, Saig\u014d. While she adjusts to life in the 19th century and searches for a way to make it back to the 21st, she grows closer to Keiichir\u014d, her de facto protector. Like the protagonists of many time-travel romances, Isla struggles with the lack of modern comforts and with growing close to a man she may have to abandon. Also, of course, she knows how the rebellion ends, and is conflicted about using her knowledge to potentially change the course of history. There are the bones of an interesting romance here, especially given the fascinating time period. Unfortunately, the writing feels unpolished: Nine months doesn\u2019t seem like enough time for our leads to make a meaningful connection, but also, not much happens in that timespan. Balancing historical context with a romance that possesses both cultural differences and an impending deadline is a tall order, and Kuroki doesn\u2019t quite manage it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Born and raised in Scotland, Isla MacKenzie has traveled to Japan to learn more about the Japanese branch of her mother\u2019s family. She hopes to discover whether family lore is true and she\u2019s descended from a warrior who served alongside legendary rebel samurai leader Takamori Saig\u014d. When a strangely out-of-season typhoon hits the town of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1765,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}