{"To Say Nothing of the Dog", "Tallie's Knight"}

Having had read "Three men In a Boat", I thought this Connie Willis classic would improve upon re-reading, but sadly, no. Its Victorian charms are overwhelmed by the even more Victorian lengths the author went to to explain her (admittedly clever) logic of time travel. (This is a pitfall "The Time-Traveller's Wife" avoided rather well.)

__ "... Like Flush, when Elizabeth Barrett Browning eloped." I wondered how she had managed to sneak down the stairs and out of a pitch-black house without killing herself. And carrying a suitcase and a cocker spaniel, too.

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Anne Gracie added two twists on the familiar the-innocent-poor-relation-and-the-scarred-icy-nobleman setup: PG-13 sex scenes in a Regency, and a Continental tour that the heroine asked for as her wedding gift. Paris rather got short shift - it was mainly where the cliched makeover took place - but Italy was where the action was.They ran into bandits, the guy got seriously sick, and then the war broke out. The book finished up with an unexpected departure and an unexpected reunion.

Two sweet episodes: vagabonding in Paris where the couple went to the circus and such; crossing the Alps which had both protagonists reluctantly riding in baskets on back of mules.