Their conflicts escalate from there: Jamie thinks Emily is snobby and uptight, while she’s astonished by his lack of manners. Emily, an English aristocrat, mistakes the rough-looking Jamie for a servant - when in fact he’s the cousin of a local laird. In the vein of Scottish feistiness, things kick off with a little antagonism. Kathryn Smith is one of the most prolific twenty-first-century authors on this list, so it’s likely you’ve read something of hers already! However, the regency-era Emily and the Scot is undoubtedly the best book for Outlander fans (particularly since this Scot is also named Jamie). With this mission in mind and each other in heart, Dougless and Nicholas begin a new journey together: an amalgam of past injustice, future vindication, and present passion.

He’s traveled over 400 years to clear his name, having been falsely accused of treason way back in the sixteenth century. Of course, what’s really unusual about Nicholas isn’t that he’s a good-looking earl, but that his tombstone indicates he passed away in 1564.Īnd Nicholas isn’t just there to sweep Dougless into his arms.

For in this book, rather than our modern heroine traveling backward, the dashing historical hero travels forward in time to meet her.ĭougless Montgomery is mourning her failed relationship when her savior appears in the form of a handsome young man - not a knight, as the book’s title would imply, but rather the Earl of Thornwyck, Nicholas Stafford. Though its title may sound a bit cliché, Deveraux’s novel turns conventional time travel romance on its head. The early eighteenth century was a dangerous time, after all - especially for a man like John, a rebel in his native Scottish land.Īh, the knight in shining armor: an archetypal vision indeed. Carrie’s work flourishes, but as her investment in the characters increases, so does her concern for them. They begin “telling” Carrie what happens between them, and things heat up quite a bit in the alternating chapters about their courtship. But as she begins working, her story comes to life in a way she hadn’t anticipated: namely, in the romance between two of her “characters,” Sophia and John Moray. It begins with a historical fiction author (meta!) named Carrie, who wants to write a book about King James II and the Jacobites. The Winter Sea is an especially nuanced take on the going-back-in-time angle.

This is just one of her many novels to involve a time warp in one way or another - and its effectiveness as a storytelling technique continues to impress, book after book. If you’re a fan of the time travel element in Outlander, Kearsley is definitely the author for you.

The winter sea book