The Christmas Eve Letter By Elyse Douglas

30-year-old Eve Sharland is browsing a Pennsylvania antiques store when she discovers an old brass lantern tucked away on a shelf.  She lifts it and sees something behind one of the sooty glass panes. To her surprise, she finds an unopened letter stuck inside.

The Christmas Eve Letter
By Elyse DouglasGenre: Time Travel Romance/Women's Fiction

The letter is postmarked December 24, 1885, and it is addressed to Evelyn Sharland in New York City. Eve gasps and drops the letter.  That’s her name!  The letter is addressed to someone with her name in 1885: Evelyn Sharland.
Eve purchases the lantern and the letter, and returns to her New York City apartment.  Later that evening, she opens the letter and reads it, astounded by its contents.  She stares at the lantern in wonder and alarm, deeply moved by the story of a tragic romance.
A few days later, following a request in the letter, Eve cautiously lights the lantern.  To her utter shock, she finds herself in the past—in 1885 New York City.  Eve is thrown into a life far beyond what she could have ever imagined, as she gets involved with one of the richest families in New York City, and meets the handsome Patrick Gantly.  She must struggle to survive and return to her own time, even as her destiny is changed forever. 

The writing duo of Elyse Douglas will quickly become one of your romance favorites.
This is the second book I have read by them and I have others always on my TBR pile.
While there were elements of this story that were familiar from other time travel works, overall it was a delight to get lost in time with Eve.  If you are a fan of authors such as Nicholas Sparks and  Marybeth Whalen, or H.G. Wells or Jack Finney, you need to add this book to your shelves.
This is a romantic suspense novel with many dangerous and tense moments. As always, when one travels in time, the concern of consequences and potential changes to history and the future weigh heavily on both the traveler's and readers' minds.  Those worries added to the atmosphere but were also handled skillfully. I smiled at a certain twist of color.
This is also a wonderful novel to share with high school age readers and bring up the concepts of life before technology and the changing roles of women in society, among other ideas.
It is a perfect bookclub read.
Before we get too deep in the book we have the idea of an unacceptable love match that gets thwarted by circumstances. Is that the reason Eve gets swirled away in time? You will have to read until the end and draw your own conclusions.



Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the husband and wife writing team of Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington. Elyse began writing poems and short stories at an early age, and graduated with a degree in English Literature. Douglas grew up in a family of musicians, astrologers and avid readers, and played piano professionally for 15 years. His great grandfather lived to be a 134 years old, and was the oldest man in the world when he died in 1922.  Their cat, Sir Eaton, loves to take sips from a good glass of Pinot Noir.

Some of Elyse Douglas' novels include: "The Other Side of Summer," "The Christmas Bridge," "Wanting Rita," "The Christmas Diary" and "The Summer Diary." They live in New York City.


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