Eve Carpenter is — or was — a pop star, living large in London until tax problems reared their ugly head. She’s paragliding recklessly in an attempt to distract herself when she crashes into the Thames.
It’s not the Thames she’s used to, though. She has ended up in an alternate reality, one in which England is in the midst of a terrible Civil War, electricity is for the rich, and computers are high-level military devices. Even ends up in military custody, and that’s where she meets Major Harker, a tough military commander who doesn’t trust Eve at all. When he has to find a computer, though, and discovers that she is the only one in his command who has ever seen one, he has to rely on Eve whether he trusts her or not.
Major Harker has his own problems, from disenchantment with the war to the wrenching pain of his divorce from a military higher-up, with all the complexities that brings, not to mention his personal nemesis, who turns up to make a horrible situation even worse.
As Harker and Eve and the rest of the troop struggle through a war-torn England to get access to the all-important computer, the bonds among them grow. Between Eve and Harker, another kind of bond is growing, no matter how much they struggle against it. And Eve herself is growing past the spoiled, superficial girl she was when she fell into the Thames. Sometimes they can’t imagine what their futures will hold — and sometimes it looks as though they won’t even have a future.
This book is an adventure and a war story, a parallel universe fantasy, a believable romance, and a smart, well-written novel. Great for your book club!