From Publishers Weekly
As a fantastic plot device, time travel doesn't compare in originality to narration by a cat, but Brown's new novel, in which a modern-day Virginian is transported back to 1699, proves every bit as giddily enjoyable as her series of Mrs. Murphy mysteries told by feline extraordinaire Sneaky Pie Brown. Pryor "Cig" Blackwood is a middle-aged widow who plays her many roles in life-mother, realtor, horse-farm proprietor and master of the local foxhunt-with simple aplomb and wit. Life hasn't been too much fun, however, since Cig's husband died a year ago-and it gets a lot grimmer when, during a foxhunt, Cig learns that he died naked in her sister's bed. Moments after that revelation, however, she's flung back into Colonial Virginia. There, she's accepted as the twin sister, newly arrived from England, of one of her ancestors, and learns much about the meaning of community and family. She also attracts two dynamic men, one of whom she beds, who fight each another for her affections. Then Cig is thrown back into the present, where she uses her newfound wisdom to reintegrate her life. With its feisty heroine, vivid period detail and well-turned plot twists, this novel is charming enough to make even the cranky Sneaky Pie purr with delight. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Brown, perhaps the only novelist to acknowledge her cat as coauthor (e.g., Pay Dirt, with Sneaky Pie Brown, LJ 10/15/95), here tells of a Nineties woman who travels back in time to 1699.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Brown's latest nonmystery novel rests on an old-fashioned literary conceit that could easily have fallen flat. But it works like a charm in Brown's capable hands. Virginia realtor Cig Blackwood is recently widowed, and with two children living at home, she struggles to make ends meet. Riding to the hounds is her passion, and one day, during a fox hunt, she is catapulted back in time to the year 1699, where she lives for a while with her own ancestors. In colonial times, she leads a whole new life and even falls in love. It becomes obvious to the reader long before it occurs to her that the purpose of this time-travel journey is for her to learn truths about love and marriage and, particularly, to come to terms with the jolting news she learned immediately before leaving the twentieth century and zooming back to the seventeenth: that her beloved sister and her late husband had a fling. Brown has done her homework well on the historical detail, and when it's time for Cig to come home again, Brown gives us a delightfully romantic ending. Brad Hooper


From Kirkus Reviews
The prolific Brown (Pay Dirt, 1995, etc.) takes a high-risk plot device--time travel--and attempts to meld it with reincarnation, romance, and contemporary satire. The result: some interesting characters, more than a few laugh-out-loud lines, and a story that in the end sinks under the weight of its impossible plot. Pryor Deyhle Blackwood, nicknamed ``Cig'' (we're not told why: cigarettes? cygnet?), is a young widow struggling with a mortgage, two adolescents, a floundering career in real estate, and bad memories of her now-dead husband's philandering. Cig has one great joy, however--foxhunting, an enthusiasm obviously shared by the author (the hunting scenes that pepper the novel are full of dash and clamor). Caught up in her emotional funk, Cig allows a magic fox to lead her through time to 1699, where she takes the place of her ancestral namesake, Pryor Deyhle, on a colonial Virginia plantation. There, she must quickly learn to adapt and survive--as Cig handles with equal aplomb Indian raiders, blizzards, colonial dowagers, and the lack of modern conveniences. She quickly finds an ally in Margaret, her colonial sister-in-law and soulmate, whose attitudes, while leavened with 17th-century spirituality, are more modern than many a 20th-century woman's. Cig also encounters Lionel deVries, the colonial incarnation of her husband, who is just as compelling in this life as he was in the 20th century. But in 1699 Lionel has a rival for Cig's affections, and Cig's recognition that she can claim her own path toward true love and happiness is what gives her the strength to prevail in her own time. Brown's meticulously researched descriptions of Virginia's colonial life, as well as her dead-on ridicule of modern-day bad behavior, bring vigor to a tale that's otherwise not a coherent whole. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
The author of Venus Envy takes you on a riotous ride back to one woman's future...In a delightful contemporary farce with a riotous twist, Rita Mae Brown welcomes you to Virginia's horse country, where a fox hunt is about to lead a 1990s woman, Cig Blackwood, into a 1690s adventure of the heart. Infidelity, single motherhood, family betrayal, and the thrill of the hunt (in many varieties) are hilariously and poignantly played out in this captivating novel of time travel and self-discovery.


From the Publisher
"It's a search for Mr. Right and the meaning of life that moves back and forth across time periods deftly as a minuet, with each century yielding up truths about the other."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch"Giddily enjoyable...with its feisty heroine, vivid period detail and well-turned plot twists, this novel is charming."
--Publishers Weekly"The pace is fast and full of life....a whopping good read and a heckuva ride."
--Richmond Times-Dispatch"Laugh-out-loud lines...dead-on ridicule of modern-day bad behavior." --Kirkus Reviews


From the Inside Flap
The author of Venus Envy takes you on a riotous ride back to one woman's future...

In a delightful contemporary farce with a riotous twist, Rita Mae Brown welcomes you to Virginia's horse country, where a fox hunt is about to lead a 1990s woman, Cig Blackwood, into a 1690s adventure of the heart.  Infidelity, single motherhood, family betrayal, and the thrill of the hunt (in many varieties) are hilariously and poignantly played out in this captivating novel of time travel and self-discovery.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
A warm flickering light filled Cig's eyes when she opened them.  A heavy quilt covered her, and her boots had been pulled off.  Burning cherry wood filled the room with a warm fragrance.

"Here."  The pretty woman whom she had surprised in the summer kitchen helped her sit up and handed her hot cider.

"Thank you."  A few gulps reminded her that she hadn't eaten in hours.  "I'm sorry to trouble you."

"Don't you recognize me?"  The green eyes beckoned.

"No."  Cig closed her eyes for a second.  "Your voice sounds familiar."

"A hot meal will enliven your wits."  The young woman had a small pot warming in the fireplace.  She ladled out some porridge into a smooth wooden bowl and cut off a large slice of moist cornbread, placing a big square of fresh home-churned butter next to it.

Cig stood up.  Her knees shook and buckled under her.

"Pryor!"  The woman quickly put her hands under Cig's armpits and with surprising strength hauled her to her feet.  "Here, let me help you to the table."  Alarm registered on her even features.

Cig felt like an overlarge toddler as she was assisted to a small, beautifully crafted table.  She sank into a graceful, simple chair.

"Thank you."

The woman smiled, buttered the slice of cornbread.  With trembling hands Cig managed to get the food into her mouth.  She felt better.

"This is the most delicious cornbread and butter I've ever tasted."

"Should be.  It's your mother's recipe."

"My mother's been dead for years."  Cig blinked.

"See there, you remember your mother.  A fine woman she was.  You and Tom strongly take after her."

Cig ate, needing the sustenance to settle her nerves as much as her body.

"Hunger is the best spice."  The woman brought her more food.

Cig wobbled up.  "My horse."

The woman gently pushed her back into the finely made wooden chair.  "He's in the stable getting acquainted with Helen, Castor, and Pollux.  They have much to discuss."

"Thank you."  Cig, relieved, reached for the bowl of porridge.

"Once you're yourself again you'll have to tell us where you bought such a handsome animal.  That's the finest horse in Virginia, better than Governor Nicholson's or Daniel Boothrod's horses.  And you know what popinjays they are."

Cig didn't recognize the governor's name.  She let it pass.  "I bred him myself."

"Ah--the Deyhle gift with horses.  Tom is hoping to breed someday but there's so much to do, and we're shorthanded.  Times are changing so, Pryor.  Your father brought over two indentured servants and their term soon expires. Slaves are exorbitantly expensive and Tom says they're still heathens."

Cig blinked then chose to ignore what seemed like rant.  "I apologize for the trouble I've caused you.  I don't know what happened to me.  I feel fine--honestly.  I can sleep in the stable with Full Throttle.  Wouldn't be the first time."  She looked out the windows at the night, her smile revealing her dazzling teeth.  "If you point me in the right direction I'll be off at first light."

"Off where?" The young woman asked, her brows knitting together.

"Home."

"This is home."

Cig's lower lip jutted out.  "Please, I don't mean to be rude, but my  home is upriver in Nelson County."

A flicker of bewilderment crossed the pretty face.  "You're at Buckingham."  As Cig didn't respond the young woman continued, "The land granted your mother's father in 1619.  You're home at Buckingham."

"Buckingham?"  Cig's mind spun like a kaleidoscope.  Nothing held long enough for her to focus.  Cig's mother carried Buckingham blood.  "And what is your last name?"

"The same as yours." The young woman wanted to laugh.  "Deyhle."

"What is your first name?"

The woman impulsively hugged Pryor.  "Poor dear."  She patted her on the back then released her.  "Things will come back to you.  In time.  The familiar things will bring you home--really home.  My name is Margaret and I married your twin brother June eighth, 1697."

The blood drained from Cig's face.  "What year do you think it is?"

"The year of our Lord sixteen hundred and ninety-nine.  November third, and just think, Pryor, it will soon be a new century.  The eighteenth century.  I can scarcely believe it."

Cig could scarcely believe it either.  One of them was nutty as a fruitcake.

"1699--Margaret?"  She half-whispered.

"Indeed."  Margaret shook her head, the glossy curls spilling out from under her mobcap.

"It's 1995," Cig stated firmly.

Margaret appeared solemn for a moment then squeezed Pryor's arm.  "You always were one for japes.  If it were, what, 1995, I'd be dead and as you can see I am very much alive."

"Maybe I'm dead?"  A cold claw of fear tore at Cig's entrails.

Margaret laughed as she thought Cig was joking.  "Dead tired is what you are. The voyage from England alone would be enough to make me forget my name.  And your ride fatigued you.  You'll wake up tomorrow and all will be well."

"Where's Tom?"

"He and Bobby are feeding the stock."

"Margaret, I'll sleep in the stable with my horse."

"Nonsense," Margaret replied.

Cig wanted to shake Margaret to make her stop this charade.  She counted to ten.  Her limbs felt like lead.  She meekly followed Margaret upstairs and crawled on the bed.  "One more question.  Are we rich?"

"Lord, no," Margaret roared.

"At least that's consistent," Cig wryly replied.

"You're home in your own bed now.  Sweet dreams."

Cig, eyelids heavy, mumbled, "You don't have a telephone, do you?"  She was asleep almost before she finished her sentence.

Margaret blew out the candle, stared at her sleeping sister-in-law then softly left the room, praying under her breath, "Thank you, Lord, for delivering our Pryor to us in this time of need."

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For Pryor Deyhle Blackwood - "Cig" to her friends - nothing can cloud the excitement of tomorrow's hunt. Not the first anniversary of her husband's death, not even the pain of Blackie's legendary infidelities, still a hot topic in her small Virginia town. Dizzied by the demands of single motherhood and her flaky real-estate clients, Cig feels truly alive only when she's flying over a jump on her favorite horse. But when the day of the hunt finally dawns, Cig gets more than she bargained for. First she learns the scandalous circumstances of her husband's final conquest. Then, as she and the other hunters take the field, they stumble on a skeleton in a tree trunk. Brooding, Cig rides alone through the foggy woods after a brazen, bushy-tailed red fox - and straight into a time warp. It's 1699 in Virginia, and the family of another young woman named Pryor Deyhle await her return from London. They welcome Cig, a dead ringer, with open arms. And the warm, close, uncluttered life they live provokes questions in Cig about herself and her time, and her crazy triangle with Blackie and the last woman she lost him to. In the meantime there is a captivating stranger who could have beaten Blackie to the finish line - if only she'd met him in the right century. But her own time isn't quite through with Cig, and return she will, to a world where her newfound serenity is quickly - and uproariously - challenged by her need to tell some hard truths, to herself and to the ones she loves.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

As a fantastic plot device, time travel doesn't compare in originality to narration by a cat, but Brown's new novel, in which a modern-day Virginian is transported back to 1699, proves every bit as giddily enjoyable as her series of Mrs. Murphy mysteries told by feline extraordinaire Sneaky Pie Brown. Pryor "Cig" Blackwood is a middle-aged widow who plays her many roles in life-mother, realtor, horse-farm proprietor and master of the local foxhunt-with simple aplomb and wit. Life hasn't been too much fun, however, since Cig's husband died a year ago-and it gets a lot grimmer when, during a foxhunt, Cig learns that he died naked in her sister's bed. Moments after that revelation, however, she's flung back into Colonial Virginia. There, she's accepted as the twin sister, newly arrived from England, of one of her ancestors, and learns much about the meaning of community and family. She also attracts two dynamic men, one of whom she beds, who fight each another for her affections. Then Cig is thrown back into the present, where she uses her newfound wisdom to reintegrate her life. With its feisty heroine, vivid period detail and well-turned plot twists, this novel is charming enough to make even the cranky Sneaky Pie purr with delight. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Brown, perhaps the only novelist to acknowledge her cat as coauthor (e.g., Pay Dirt, with Sneaky Pie Brown, LJ 10/15/95), here tells of a Nineties woman who travels back in time to 1699.

BookList - Brad Hooper

Brown's latest nonmystery novel rests on an old-fashioned literary conceit that could easily have fallen flat. But it works like a charm in Brown's capable hands. Virginia realtor Cig Blackwood is recently widowed, and with two children living at home, she struggles to make ends meet. Riding to the hounds is her passion, and one day, during a fox hunt, she is catapulted back in time to the year 1699, where she lives for a while with her own ancestors. In colonial times, she leads a whole new life and even falls in love. It becomes obvious to the reader long before it occurs to her that the purpose of this time-travel journey is for her to learn truths about love and marriage and, particularly, to come to terms with the jolting news she learned immediately before leaving the twentieth century and zooming back to the seventeenth: that her beloved sister and her late husband had a fling. Brown has done her homework well on the historical detail, and when it's time for Cig to come home again, Brown gives us a delightfully romantic ending.

Kirkus Reviews

The prolific Brown (Pay Dirt, 1995, etc.) takes a high-risk plot device—time travel—and attempts to meld it with reincarnation, romance, and contemporary satire. The result: some interesting characters, more than a few laugh-out-loud lines, and a story that in the end sinks under the weight of its impossible plot.

Pryor Deyhle Blackwood, nicknamed "Cig" (we're not told why: cigarettes? cygnet?), is a young widow struggling with a mortgage, two adolescents, a floundering career in real estate, and bad memories of her now-dead husband's philandering. Cig has one great joy, however—foxhunting, an enthusiasm obviously shared by the author (the hunting scenes that pepper the novel are full of dash and clamor). Caught up in her emotional funk, Cig allows a magic fox to lead her through time to 1699, where she takes the place of her ancestral namesake, Pryor Deyhle, on a colonial Virginia plantation. There, she must quickly learn to adapt and survive—as Cig handles with equal aplomb Indian raiders, blizzards, colonial dowagers, and the lack of modern conveniences. She quickly finds an ally in Margaret, her colonial sister-in-law and soulmate, whose attitudes, while leavened with 17th-century spirituality, are more modern than many a 20th-century woman's. Cig also encounters Lionel deVries, the colonial incarnation of her husband, who is just as compelling in this life as he was in the 20th century. But in 1699 Lionel has a rival for Cig's affections, and Cig's recognition that she can claim her own path toward true love and happiness is what gives her the strength to prevail in her own time.

Brown's meticulously researched descriptions of Virginia's colonial life, as well as her dead-on ridicule of modern-day bad behavior, bring vigor to a tale that's otherwise not a coherent whole.