The First Time

Should she jump? When a new scanner at the Pig Palace Food Emporium erupts into a swirling portal, revealing a stunned British soldier, grocery checker Ivy O'Neal is sure she's the victim of an elaborate hoax--until she sees her own face in the artwork of a long-gone Edwardian painter. Haunted by the woman who appeared to him in the midst of battle on the barren South African veldt, Harrison Darby, Lord of Wyndham, fears he's gone mad. Recovering from injuries, and awaiting court-martial proceedings for an order he did not give, he can't stop painting the woman in ivy nor the ridiculous caricature of a pig. Odd items begin to drop to the floor of his room from the recurrent swirling lights, and then the woman herself drops to his feet, confirming his insanity, and stealing his heart. Publishers Weekly called Pajer's A SPARK OF DEATH "deft and highly entertaining," and the New York Journal of Books said it was "a breathless journey from beginning to end." With THE FIRST TIME, award-winning author Bernadette Pajer detours from historical mysteries to take readers on a romantic adventure to rescue a troubled soldier and discover a love that is timeless.