(One insane epistle begins, 'I feel happiness running through me like an electrical current. Soon he's openly shadowing Joe and writing him endless letters. For Jed is instantly obsessed, making the first of many calls to Joe and Clarissa's London flat that very night. Meeting the eye of fellow rescuer Jed Parry, for example, turns out to be a very bad move. (In one of the novel's many ironies, the balloon eventually lands safely, the boy unscathed.) But fate has far more unpleasant things in store for Joe. In itself, the accident would change the survivors' lives, filling them with an uneasy combination of shame, happiness, and endless self-reproach. Joe manages to drop to the ground, as do most of his companions, but one man is lifted sky-high, only to fall to his death. 'A mighty fist socked the balloon in two rapid blows, one-two, the second more vicious than the first,' and at once the rescuers are airborne. Mother Nature, however, isn't feeling very maternal. As the wind whips into action, Joe and four other men rush to secure the basket. The pilot catches his leg in the anchor rope, while the only passenger, a boy, is too scared to jump down.

To complete the picture, there's even a 'helium balloon drifting dreamily across the wooded valley.' But as Joe and Clarissa watch the balloon touch down, their idyll comes to an abrupt end.

He yearns to have the fascinating spitfire by his side, but can't let go of the past and his guilt long enough to convince himself she belongs in his life.Joe Rose has planned a postcard-perfect afternoon in the English countryside to celebrate his lover's return after six weeks in the States. Kansas Volunteer, Lieutenant Matthew Dome's magnetic attraction to the slightly odd woman who appeared out of nowhere wars with past promises made-promises he'd failed to keep. But when a perilous storm sweeps her back a hundred years into the past she is forced to rely on her instincts while navigating the changed world that a hundred years difference has wrought. A young woman of the tumultuous 1960's, she worked hard to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor so she could open a practice in the small Kansas farming community where she was raised. Libby Strammon believed her life was on track.

Enduring love book review