"I recommend TIMEQUEST to those of you who love romance, action, adventure, fantasy, time travel, and Indian legends all wrapped up into one unforgettable tale that's told with an unparalleled flair. Mrs. Yarina writes with a clear, concise and highly imaginative voice that is conveyed to the reader throughout the story."--Joanna Ruffin, Round Table Reviews
"TimeQuest is the second book in the series and I absolutely cannot wait until book three makes its appearance. Time Travel romance at its very best. The romance between Sara and Barton is very touching, the way it should be. There were also times I laughed until my eyes watered. A very well written story with an enchanting beginning and ending. Though the third in the series, TimeLost is in the works, I am anxious to read it. Exceptional story I highly recommend."--Shelina Emery, My Shelf
"Timequest is an exciting adventure laden romantic tale with a pinch of Native American mythos. The story line is action-packed especially in the past, but most significant is that the audience will believe that the individuals traveled back to the late nineteenth century. The prime cast (the James siblings and their significant others) come across as fully developed so that their exploits make for a delightful read. The audience will not want to lose any time reading the finale once it is released."--Harriet Klausner, PNR Romance Reviews
Chapter One
1976
James' Home
Superstition Mountains, Arizona
THE THREE COUSINS SAT in a tree, happy for the moment. Sunlight dappled their faces with changing traces of fluttering leaves. "I'm going to be a doctor when I grow up. And I'm going to discover a cure for poison." Sara, the oldest, twirled a leaf of the maple tree, remembering her best friend Cindy, who'd died of snakebite when she was seven. The thought frightened her. No one had been able to do anything at all. Not even the grown-ups. Her mother had told her that there was no cure for snakebite -- that no one had found one.
"Sure, big shot." Jeff tugged his only sister's blond pigtail until she squealed.
"I am! Mom says we all need to contribute. I'm gonna find a cure for snakebite. That's what I'm going to do."
"Me, too." Caytlyn said. "I'm gonna help out, too. Isn't that what contribute means?"
Sara nodded.
"But I think I want to help animals." Caytlyn slipped backwards until she was hanging upside down from her knees, barely missing Sara's head as she swung, agile as a monkey.
"Doing what?" Sara blew a pink bubble, then popped it.
"A Vetnar... er... veteran... You know, animal doctor. Got more gum?"
"Yep, but you can't have any until you're right side up."
"Why not?" Caytlyn's jaw jutted out.
"'Cause you'll choke, dummy. Even I know that. And I don't care if I ever contribute." Jeff, Caytlyn's cousin and Sara's brother, stared dreamily into the distance, chin on the heel of his hand.
Caytlyn motioned for Sara and Jeff to give her a push. With a mighty swing, she righted herself, reaching out for a piece of gum.
Absently, Sara handed her a piece, then tilted her head in her brother's direction. "Well, lazy thing, what're you going to be?"
"Don't know for sure. Oh, wait, I know. A garbage man."
"Oh, brother. Why on earth would anyone want to be a garbage man?"
"You mean you don't know?" His face screwed up with all the disdain a boy could manage.
Sara tried hard to imagine, but couldn't, so she punched him just in case he thought about razzing her. "No. Who'd want to pick up garbage?"
"Me!"
"You're disgusting. Think how you'd smell at the end of the day. Ewwww." Sara shivered.
"Yeah, but you get to drive one of those cool trucks." Jeff held out his hands as if wrapped around a big rig steering wheel. "Vroom, vroom. Beep, beep. Careful. I'm backing up."
"That's still disgusting. You'd have to touch garbage." Sara shook her head in dismay. If she lived to be a hundred, she'd never understand boys' minds, especially her brother's.
"No, you don't. The truck has this big arm..."
"Hey," Caytlyn interrupted, "where we gonna live?" She gazed down into the yard of Sara and Jeff's desert home.
"Here. Why would we live anywhere else? There's plenty of room here," Jeff reasoned.
"Yep. Guess so. Heard Mom say there's five acres here. Used to be more, when Grandpa homesteaded it. Now it's just five. And Dad says that if we can, we Jameses ought to hang onto it. So we'll all live here together. Right?" Sara held her arm out for the old childhood pact sign and watched closely until the other two layered their wrists over hers.
"All for one, one for all." Their voices chimed in childish unison.
Copyright © 2004 by Susan Claybaugh Yarina
)
Dr. Sara James had trouble believing that her cousin, Caytlyn James, had traveled back in time to 1882 Arizona. Yet the truth was written clearly on Caytlyn's face in the form of two scars, fang marks on Caytlyn's cheek and a trace of poisonous venom found in her blood work. Caytlyn tells Sara she was cured by an Apache shaman of the thought to be mythical Black Legion Apache Tribe of 1882 Arizona. Now the very man who helped Sara find Caytlyn, Barton Grey Wolf refuses to help her find that cure, her quest, in this time or any another. Sara is willing to cross him, and cross time, but is she willing to risk her heart? Barton Grey Wolf, Apache historian, is an expert on the history of the Apache Tribe of Arizona. He is his own man until he meets the beautiful white eyes woman with hair of palest light surely stolen from the moon. She makes him feel so deeply, he can't even put it into words. Yet she wants him to cross sacred boundaries he is honor bound to keep. What can a man do when the woman of his heart crosses time into one of the most dangerous places on earth? And what dark forces will the two face that make them turn to each other to survive?
