Outshine

House of Oak Series #5

By: Nichole Van

Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio

Time is not a river. It is a vast cosmic sea, where each life exists as rippling circles on its surface. Usually, the eternal ocean oscillates in harmony, all lives breathing up and down as one. But something has broken this equilibrium, turning the cosmic ocean into turbulent waters.

In 1828, Daniel Ashton, Lord Whitmoor, faces a problem of epic proportion—an earthquake has caused the time portal in Duir Cottage to stop functioning, disrupting the cosmic ocean and threatening Time itself. He needs a computer to crunch numbers and provide a solution. But with the time portal on the fritz, a computer is two hundred years in the future. So Daniel sets out to find the next best thing—an anonymous mathematical genius of legendary renown.

Fossi Lovejoy knows she is too odd, too intelligent, too old, and too poor to ever marry. So she busies herself in her father's ministry and her mathematical equations, choosing to focus on what she has, not what she lacks. But then Lord Whitmoor publishes one of her private theorems, taunting her to respond. Fossi is compelled to action—when you have so little in life, you defend the few things that are yours with ferocious tenacity. Even if it means matching wits with the infamous Lord Whitmoor. Can two people past their youth find unexpected love?

©2017 Nichole Van Valkenburgh (P)2024 Tantor

Kisses only historical time travel romance

Fossi is my favorite!!! (but I digress...)

This is the 5th book in the House of Oak timetravel series by Nichole Van. For the most enjoyment and understanding, please read them in order.

I have been listening to this series, more on that in a minute, and was ready for this book, just as it became available on audio. I have an Everand subscription where I'd listened to all of the others. I checked every day, often many times per day, from the time it was released until the day it was available on Everand. I literally squealed with delight and immediately downloaded it! I was not disappointed.

I love, Love , LOVE an intelligent female leading character. Fossi is brilliant, both literally and figuratively. Her character touched my heart. I just wanted to hug her through the whole book.

I don't always love knowing that there's something big that the reader is missing. But, I trust Nichole Van and her story telling. She didn't disappoint me!

I also love that the portal is almost it's own character. I do still have 1 question that I may need to go back and see if it was addressed. But oh my, I wish there could be more books in this series! I love time travel stories so much, but it is hard to find them without paranormal activity. I think of this one as more based in science fiction than mysticism.

And now for the audiobook narrator! Wow! She does this series justice. It's like she is the author reading the words just as they were meant when written. She pulls me with her reading. I purposely listened as 1.2x instead of my more normal 1.5x or 1.8x, so I could savor the book and the audio.

Loved this whole series!

Best of time travel romances imaginable.

There was nothing I disliked, except for any interruptions while reading. The story was clean and so well written. The entire series is that way. So realistic.

My favorite of a wonderful series!

Delightfully written. Lovely narration! I want to start again and the beginning. It was so good

Intellectually spellbinding

I know of no more intellectually brilliant, creatively captivating authoress than Nichole Van. Her stories are riveting. I avoided this series for a long time, thinking that it would not appeal to my historical romance fiction, regency era mind. I could not have been more wrong! 

Love, Love, Love this series!

After reading this series a number of years ago, I always hoped it would come out in an audio format. My wish was granted. This is the last in this series and I really can't pick a favorite. What a great series! The narration was perfect! If you want a clean, extremely witty story with great characters, this is a series for you.