Book 24, 2026

[chez_jae]

Forever Rose by Janet Wellington

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


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Today, I finished my ‘at work book’ while at work! Ta-da! The book was Forever Rose, a time-travel romance by Janet Wellington. The main character is Taylor Rose Martin.

While taking a train home to San Diego, Taylor falls asleep, and when she awakens in time to disembark, she finds herself in the right place but the wrong time. Taylor has somehow traveled back in time to San Diego in the 1880’s. Since she’s dressed in trousers, a vest, and wearing a hat, people mistake her for a boy. The first person to see through her disguise is Ida, the madame of Sherman House. She offers Taylor room and board in exchange for acting as her gardener. When Taylor inadvertently learns that the handsome bartender she met is secretly plotting to kill Wyatt Earp, she realizes this is what she’s been sent back in time to prevent. Now she must convince Jackson Hoyt not to throw his life away to avenge a father he never met, even as she’s falling in love with Jackson.

For the most part, this was a charming time-travel romance with a feisty, likable heroine. However…
SPOILERS!!!
- Taylor and Jackson fell in love after only a few, brief meetings. Yawn.
- Before going back in time, Taylor has a tarot reading that predicted her unanticipated journey. One thing the tarot reader mentioned was to beware of a false friend. I literally spent the entirety of the book keeping a sharp lookout for this dastardly character...but it never came to pass. I was and remain vexed.
- The ending of the book was a major disappointment. (SPOILER!) At the same time Jackson was dying in the past, Taylor was returning to the present, where she met a new incarnation of him. She recognized him, but I was thinking, wow, this is not the same man she met and fell in love with. I would have much preferred if Taylor had the choice to remain in the past, or if Jackson had come forward in time with her. Way to ruin a good story in the last two pages, Ms Wellington.

Favorite lines: Being judgmental was the greatest hindrance to happiness.

This was headed for a solid four rating, but the shoddy ending knocks it down to three.