From the white-plank fenced pastures of Lexington, Kentucky to the Bay of San Francisco, The Ruby Brooch, a time travel romance steeped in family tradition and mystery, follows a young woman’s quest as she attempts to solve the murder of her birth parents 160 years in the past.

As the lone survivor of a car crash that killed her parents, grief-stricken paramedic Kit MacKlenna makes a startling discovery that further alters her life. A faded letter and a well-worn journal reveal that she was abandoned as a baby. The only clues to her identity are a blood-splattered shawl, a locket that bears a portrait of a 19th century man, and a Celtic brooch with mystical powers.

After studying the journal, she decides to continue her father’s twenty-five year search for her identity and solve her birth parents’ murders. She adopts the persona of the Widow MacKlenna, a role she’s played in pioneer re-enactments, and a perfect cover for her eccentric behavior. Then she utters the incantation inscribed on the ancient stone and is swept back in time to the year 1852. She arrives in Independence, Missouri, one of the Oregon Trail’s jumping off points.

She soon meets Scotsman Cullen Montgomery, a San Francisco-bound lawyer who resembles the ghost who has haunted Kit since childhood. With Cullen’s assistance, she joins a wagon train heading west. The journey is fraught with dangerous river crossings, bad water, and disease. Nothing, however, is more dangerous than Cullen’s determination to uncover the source of her unusual knowledge and life-saving powers and expose the real Kit MacKlenna.

If she can survive the perilous journey and Cullen’s accusations and thwart his attempts to seduce her, she might find the answers she seeks and return home to a new life without changing history or leaving a broken heart on the other side of time.

This 19th century sensuous time travel romance comes complete with an ensemble cast who share a common goal. The children’s antics will make you laugh. The parents’ worries will make your heart pound. Kit and Cullen’s flirtatious banter will make you wonder what will happen between them. You’ll taste the dust from the trail, smell the burned coffee, feel the pain and tears when tragedy hits, and hear the cattle lowing. You’ll want to dance to the sound of the banjos and sigh at the sight of the sun setting over the prairie. You’ll share their hardships, their disappointments, and their celebrations. And at the end of the story, you won’t want to leave them behind.

Join Kit, Cullen, a handful of endearing animals, the Barrett family and Henry as they travel across this country by covered wagon. “If a man’s dreams could be painted,” Cullen said, looking out over a long line of wagons, “you’re looking at a masterpiece.”