Time travel to Ireland in 950ish. Struggled with this, didn't find the character or the plot engaging.

I really wanted to love this book. I like historical fiction and I love all things Celtic, Ms. MacAvoy knows her Celtic history, and the time travel put a bit of fun into it. While the first several chapters did hook me, I became bored with it, it seemed to just drag and go nowhere. I can't really say why, it just didn't keep the hook in for me. I also hated John's character, you don't need to emasculate a man to have strong female characters.

Weak. Flat characters, confused story line... Didn't work for me. 2 stars (and not 1) only because I love Gaelic culture and folklore.

This has got to be one of the worst books I have ever attempted to read. It's poorly written, the POV and voice jumps around to a point where you can't follow exactly whose head you're supposed to be in, the characters are poorly developed and, frankly, completely unlikeable, and the story itself is poorly told. I had hoped to find a pleasant distraction while awaiting the next Outlander book, but instead I found a chore, a disappointment, and only the third book in four years I have put down wi...

A well-told tale with a unique twist. While some might call it a fantasy and others a science fiction tale, it’s neither and both. Intentional, predictable time travel figures prominently in propelling the plot forward, but it’s invoked by neither science nor magic. The means of the time hopping (and the fact that the jump is consistently one thousand years) drives the intrigue. (No, I’m not telling.) Yes, the historic Book of Kells figures in the plot.Well done. The characters and settings are ...

Its like "Timeline" meets the Epic Rap Battle Of History with a horny, spineless idiot who ends up with a minor. Still, not half bad since I actually read it in one go.

People love this book. I'm not one of them. Why? Well:
Dull main characters who just never seem properly wowed by their time travel predicament.
Sloppy editing.
Maybe because I just finished the highly detailed Hild but MacAvoy's ancient Ireland just didn't do much for me.
Even the time travel element seemed lazy and amateurishly conveyed.

I didn't care what happened to anyone here. Not one bit.

This is one of my favorite books EVER. While clearly a work of fantasy, her portrayal of life in Viking Dublin is both compelling and well researched. This is one of the few novels I've ever read (King Hereafter being the other big one) that actually do a decent job of describing everyday Viking life.

That aside, the story is great, and as fantasies go you can't ask for much more.

I read this first when I was in high school and have re-read it many times. An absent-minded artist and his driven girlfriend time travel back to medieval Ireland after a naked, wounded medieval Irishwoman appears in his house apparently out of mid-air. In medieval times they travel to the King in Dublin to seek his aid against invading Vikings, falling into adventures both realistic and fantastical. One of the best time-travel books I have read, with many quotable passages.

Found it,along with some others I'd completely forgotten about, lurking on one of the shelves in the bedroom.

You have to take it as read that some 'shelves' are actually floor spaces lol

Hah! As it turns out I have read this, and I can remember exactly where I read it, which was by a pool in Porec (pronounced porridge) Istria.

Disregarding the way my tastes have changed, this is rated to reflect how I loved it twenty odd years ago.