Overseas by Beatriz Williams

Genre(s): Fantasy, Romance

Kate Wilson is a career driven young woman working on Wall Street in New York.  One day she finds gorgeous and rich entrepreneur Julian Laurence standing at her desk.  She quickly takes his interest and then she doesn't hear from him again.  6 months later, he ends up back in her life and begins to court her.  But all is not perfect in her world.  When she is wrongly fired from her job, Julian comes to the rescue and sweeps her away to Connecticut to protect her.  But Julian has a secret...he's really a famous World War I hero and somehow ended up in the 21st century instead of dead somewhere in France.  But that's not all - someone is after them...

This book switches back and forth from 1916 France where Kate is trying to find her husband to 2008 when they first meet and their romance begins. In 2008, Kate starts out as a driven, competent young woman, but as soon as something bad happens, she quickly crumbles and lets Julian take care of her, pay for things and keep her safe.  For her character to go from very motivated and a workaholic to someone who is happy to do nothing all day and live on someone else's dime just doesn't ring true for me.  A vacation is one thing, but she gave up her lifestyle with barely a struggle. I find it difficult to believe it would be an easy transition for Kate to go from Wall Street to kept woman only allowed out for parties where she is decked out in jewels and designer clothes.  It made her seem so cheap.

And Julian was so protective of her and yet wouldn't explain anything which would make the over protectiveness make sense.  I understand at first it being awkward to explain that he was from the past, but once she knew, I don't know why he couldn't tell her what was going on.  Lack of communication between two people in a relationship isn't realistic nor is it indicative of a relationship that will last.  I liked Julian's character once his motives were made clear, but until they were, his old-fashioned ways just annoyed me.

I did like this book, I really did, and I found the love story in 1916 to be quite sweet.  And at the end of the book, once Kate has gone back in time and you find out why Julian was being a cave-man, then it makes sense and it is also sweet, but getting there was frustrating.  I just hate seeing a smart, strong female character reduced to nothing more than a mannequin for a high end jewelry store.

Rating: 3.5 stars