Wellington's time traveler is Taylor Rose Martin, a twenty-something school nurse. Taylor's mother died when she was very young; her father raised her. They were very close until his death five years earlier. On this 4th of July, Taylor is visiting the Del Mar Fair, held every year in San Diego County, and remembering how she and her father had enjoyed the event. When she pauses to admire a particularly attractive garden scene, she hears her father's voice telling her, "There's a message coming…."

That message is delivered the same day by a fortuneteller who predicts that Taylor will make "a journey of great change" and advises her that she should believe in her voices. A few days later, Taylor takes a train trip to Santa Barbara that she hopes will be filled with "passion, danger, and adventure." Her real trip doesn't start, however, until she is on her way back to San Diego. She falls asleep on the train and wakes up in the San Diego of 1888.

Taylor's adaptation to the 19th century is remarkably painless. Dressed in cotton slacks, a shirt, and vest, with a straw hat on her short hair, at first the citizens of San Diego take her for a young man. Less than 24 hours after her arrival, however, she has won $20.00 playing faro, purchased women's clothes, reestablished her identity as a woman, and found lodging and a job working as a gardener in a house of ill repute.

Taylor has also noticed the bartender at the saloon owned by Wyatt Earp. Jackson Hoyt is a man with a mission, as Taylor discovers within hours after arriving in San Diego. While still masquerading as a man, she overhears a conversation Jackson has with his conspirators. He has taken the job as a bartender only to put himself in a position to kill Wyatt Earp. Jackson is determined to take revenge on Wyatt for killing the father Jackson never knew.

Despite knowing about Jackson's plans, Taylor is strongly attracted to him. Her attraction is reinforced by her father who tells her plainly, "Look for the truth. Jackson is no killer." In fact, Taylor's father is with her every step of the way, encouraging her and giving her advice, some of it quite specific. At one point, he even tells Taylor which card to bet on in a faro game.

For me, the role Taylor's father played was one of the two elements in Forever Rose that detracted from the story. While I have no objection to the supernatural playing a key part in a time travel romance, I found that, once Taylor was established in the San Diego of 1888, her father's frequent presence reduced the suspense. Less coaching would have made for a more absorbing story.

The other factor that bothered me was how easily Taylor found her feet in the 1880's. Ada Bailey offers her employment at their first meeting and makes it clear that Taylor will never be asked to entertain visitors. Nor does Taylor's reputation suffer because she works and lives in a whorehouse. For example, Jackson never questions her respectability even though she is surprisingly assertive sexually for a Victorian woman.

Wellington writes a competent prose, and she has set Forever Rose in an historically accurate San Diego. I found the setting very attractive even though Ada's whorehouse was somewhat too idealized to ring true. Jackson, with his nefarious plans, was a nice variation on the romantic hero, and Taylor Rose was a satisfactory -- if rather ordinary -- heroine. Janet Wellington's first effort has produced a pleasant read and a promise of more to come.

--Nancy J. Silberstein