Turn Back Time by Radclyffe Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Turn Back Time
Book Review: Intense romance filled with drama and humor
Summary: 5 Stars
The story is full of humor and moments that are laugh out loud funny. This is a wonderful romance - with gentle moments of tenderness. The chemistry between Wynter and Pearce is riveting, they share the best kiss I have ever read.
By the close of the first chapter I was fully vested in what would happen next. So many moments in the novel were so real it was as if it were unfolding right before my eyes. I had to put the book down at a couple parts, I actually hurt for the characters when they hurt.
'Turn Back Time' is more detailed in hospital / doctor life than the author's earlier novels. The reader gets a deeper feel for a doctor's first years. Although Wynter and her sister don't have many moments together they have one of the best and sweetest bits of dialog.
This is super story if you are in the mood for a traditional romance, heck it's super if you want a page turning can't put it down novel. Best of all, the main characters are strong woman that the reader wants to understand and know well. I won't give anything away, but the ending is truly epic and leaves a huge smile on the reader's lips.
This is a Keeper !
from the publishers web site: Love has a way of derailing the best of plans.
Barely recovered from a failed relationship, Wynter Thompson struggles to balance the demands of her surgical residency with the responsibilities of her personal life - and between the two, discovers there is little time left for anything else. She manages to convince herself that she has everything she needs, because another chance at love is definitely not in her game plan.
Pearce Rifkin is a woman with a plan, and it doesn't include a serious relationship. Chief Surgical Resident is just a stepping stone to her lifelong goal - chairmanship at one of the top ten medical centers. Determined to follow in her father's footsteps, even though she isn't the son he dreamed of, Pearce has no time for romance.
Two women with nothing in common but a shared passion for surgery clash at every opportunity, especially when matters of the heart are suddenly at stake.
Book Review: Loved this book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Radclyffe's knowledge gained during her surgical training clearly informs this work as the passion, dedication, frustration, and occasional disillusionment of the characters speak with the voice of authority. Based on realistic experiences, but entirely fiction, "Turn Back Time" is another utterly gratifying romantic medical drama that, in my opinion, is Radclyffe's crowning achievement so far. In this tightly woven tale about two amazing women who are destined to be together against all odds, Drs. Pearce Rifkin and Wynter Thompson tango around a relationship until they finally can't deny that their attraction is real. .
Classes graduating from Philadelphia's four medical schools gather at the University of Pennsylvania to find out where their training will continue. Quite by accident, fourth-year medical students Pearce and Wynter meet on match day. The meeting doesn't amount to more than a spark, but little do they know that fate will bring them together again after a four-year separation.
Radclyffe's novels continue to offer strong characterization, which makes it easy to become attached to the protagonists. Pearce is striking to look at with her angular features, dark shaggy hair, and athletic build: "Wynter tracked the path of fabric over flesh and was struck by the unexpected beauty of muscles playing beneath soft skin. She saw bodies every day of her life, clothed and unclothed, in every stage of health and disease, but she couldn't remember ever seeing anything quite so lovely" (p. 98). Pearce's self-confidence, intelligence, and prowess in medicine further make her desirable and admirable.
Pearce makes no apology for being gay, and she excels at everything she sets her mind to. Not one to want anything for herself and living her life as if following a script, she's surprised when she meets Wynter, the first woman who has ever distracted her from her goals. Pearce wrestles with her feelings for Wynter. "She didn't need to look at Wynter to remember the shape of her face or the color of her eyes or the way she tilted her head and looked out from beneath those long honeyed lashes when something amused her. She didn't need to look at her to feel that tug deep in her belly" (p. 71).
From something as simple as realizing that casual affairs no longer satisfy her to accepting that she is willing to forgo certain ambitions to be with the woman she loves, Pearce not only struggles with the fear of intimacy, but she shows an incredible growth curve. Strong women who have a heart, live by a moral code, make the world a better place, and yet struggle with vulnerabilities are what compel me to care about them and read on. I love learning what makes a person tick, and Radclyffe does it especially well by revealing different layers of her characters like buds slowly opening into flowers.
Radclyffe writes like a highly skilled surgeon; she demonstrates emotion with the same precision, paying close attention to detail, and making sure everything works and connects properly in the end. That her characters are imaginary defies logic. Pearce is one character this reader wouldn't mind emulating. She's a good person in every way, and I would trust my life in her hands, if only she were real.
Wynter, unlucky at love and struggling between her personal responsibilities and her career, is not looking for a relationship. She is surprised to discover she is attracted to a woman, and not just any woman, but her senior resident, Pearce Rifkin. The fact that Pearce pulls away each time they get too close doesn't deter Wynter. Once the strong-willed woman makes up her mind about something, there's no changing it.
One endearing trait Wynter shows is sticking up for and doing what's best for the people she loves. You have to admire a person who puts others' well-being before her own.
Crisp internal and external dialogue, which is believable, honest, and witty, shows the layers of the characters as we get to know them. In addition, Radclyffe's tight plot, where every scene moves the story along, maintains the intensity and interest. Wanting to find out what secrets the characters are hiding, what will happen next, and praying that it will all work out in the end, make it impossible to turn the pages quickly enough.
Romantic fiction is meant to engage the reader and elicit feelings of longing, desire, and intimacy. Sometimes, as an added bonus, it provides sizzling sex for a totally satisfying drama. "Turn Back Time" not only meets the criteria for the genre but goes beyond to give the reader more than she hopes for. Even readers who are not in the health field will understand, enjoy, and feel how vital and stimulating the environment is where life and death hang in the balance. Radclyffe displays remarkable skill at making settings believable.
"Turn Back Time," by award-winning, best-selling, and beloved author, Radclyffe, is a winner. Don't miss this exciting glimpse into the medical world of two highly acclaimed surgeons or into the hearts and minds of two multi-faceted women. Radclyffe fans will love this one and beg for more about the two new exciting heroines.
Book Review: More Than Just a Romance
Summary: 5 Stars
The plot of this book is as described elsewhere.
In Radclyffe's hands, this story goes beyond being just another lesbian romance. She has written a timeless romance - a romance that triumphs over tremendous odds. She has created two characters that are honorable and who try to do what is right even in the face of adversity. The author's detractors may say that her characters are larger than life, too good to be true, and therefore unbelievable. All that is true, but isn't that what we really want in a well-written romance regardless of the gender of the characters? Wouldn't we all want to either be Pearce and/or Wynter or to be with someone like them?
I was introduced to Radclyffe' through the Justice series and was hooked from the first book given to me. I was impressed with her writing abilities - no first book jitters, no second book let down - strong entries with every book - consistenly good writing, consistently good stories - and they would be good stories even without the lesbian romance - and consistently good dialogue. What more can you ask for in a novel?
Be careful though. If you are like so many of us - to read one of Radclyffe's novels is to be hooked. You'll find yourself buying them two and three at time with the rest of them in the cart for later purchase, you'll feel bereft if you don't have any waiting on your bookshelf, and once you've read them all, you'll haunt Amazon and the publisher's website waiting for her next novel.
Book Review: Stirring and Heartfelt.-A Must Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
As a retired surgeon, Radclyffe has written love stories about physicians, even surgeons, but she has never devoted one of her romances to the details of a surgeon's life until now... In her 24th published book, Turn Back Time, Radclyffe offers tribute to her passion for medicine by giving us a stirring and heartfelt romance filled with the power of love.
Through her characters Wynter Thompson and Pearce Rifkin, both surgical residents at University Hospital in Philadelphia, Radclyffe shares with her readers a private part of her self through her fiction. Her prose is eloquent. She executes the story perfectly by drawing the reader into her characters' world and holding us captive as we experience the sheer force of Wynter's and Pearce's love for each other.
Few authors can expertly construct a romance with such all consuming emotion that the reader forgets the world around her. Turn Back Time connects deeply with us because Radclyffe's love of her professions, both medicine and writing, permeates every page of the book. The reader is not overwhelmed with technical jargon because Radclyffe's focus is on the two women and their interactions with each other.
While Radclyffe states in her acknowledgment that this is not her personal story, I believe it is a bridge from her past through her present to her future. With Turn Back Time she is saying a final goodbye to a profession that has given her so much and to which she has dedicated most of her life. With so much love poured into this romance, I could not help but feel Wynter's and Pearce's story within the depths of my soul.
Book Review: This one will sound familiar
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are a fan of Radclyffe's books, you may find that Turn Back Time seems very familiar. Not only are the characters standard Radclyffe fare, but the plot is very reminiscent of Fated Love.
Pearce Rifkin and Wynter Thompson are surgical residents who met years before in a brief encounter. They felt an immediate attraction, but circumstances were against them. Now they find themselves in the same hospital where Pearce is the Chief Surgical Resident and trying to compete with the reputation of her father, a brilliant surgeon. Wynter has fallen behind in her residency due to complications in her personal life and she's determined to catch up and show her skills have not suffered. As can be expected, the two find themselves drawn to each other, but any chance they might have at romance has to compete with their personal situations. Romance isn't what either one planned on, but it may be what they need. When they find their lives are about to be ripped apart again, the question becomes whether or not they can stand up to the forces working around them and find the happiness they see is possible.
Turn Back Time and Fated Love have many similarities. Both have two doctors who work together on the same team. Both have one of the doctors have a daughter that the other doctor develops a relationship with. Both have one of the doctors face a life threatening condition. The stories are also dissimilar. In one book both doctors are surgeons and in the other they are both Emergency Room physicians. There is no looming father figure in Fated Love and the danger in that book is a medical condition, where the danger in Turn Back Time comes from an attack. Once you have read one though, you can't read the other without a feeling that you've already been in this story. Turn Back Time seems a little flat. It's not a bad story. It's very expectable and predictable, but a nice read for a long afternoon or evening. I would have given it 3 1/2 stars, but Amazon doesn't allow that.