review: flirting with forever by gwyn cready

Considering Cam’s life, how could she not find the 17th century art world a better option? Her ex-fiancé, who cheated with the woman who made Cam’s engagement ring, wants her to move to London so they can try again; her snotty older sister is competing with her for a promotion; and she’s struggling to publish (which she needs to do to seal the promotion) her biography of Anthony Van Dyck because it isn’t sexy enough. So when she selects the browse inside option on Amazon and is instead transported to the studio of artist Peter Lely, who can provide information on Van Dyck, it’s actually a good thing. What she doesn’t realize is that The Executive Guild has instructed Lely to feed Cam misinformation to stop her from publishing a book the Guild has deemed embarrassing.

Cready does an excellent job placing Cam in both current time and the 17th century. Later on, she brings two characters from the past (including, of course, Cam’s crush Peter) into the present with great comedy (and there's a few hilarious bits from Cam in the 17th century as well). Imagine the uptight Time-jump Accountant in a Rage Against the Machine shirt. I actually feel like I learned a little something about art through the beautiful descriptions; Cready also had Peter explain to Cam a technique he used, which I found as interesting as Cam did. I just wish Flirting with Forever had started with Cam’s problems rather than the rather dry Mertons explaining the situation to Peter. It took a bit more time to get into the book than it otherwise would have because of that slow start.
4/5
Review copy provided by the publisher, Pocket Books.