Today, I’m delighted to welcome fellow Our House on Heather Wynd (affiliate link) author Lynn Dean, here to share about her new release, The Lover’s Bridge (affiliate). This time-slip romance invites readers into the Scottish Highlands, where love spans centuries.

*as an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

A Story Reminiscent of Brigadoon at Our House on Heather Wynd

In a single weekend, Thom loses everything—his home, his business, and his fiancée. Can a trip to the Scottish Highlands help him salvage what remains and build a new life that will last?

If you love time portal romances with one foot in this era and another in the past, you’ll be sure to enjoy The Lover’s Bridge.

Pennsylvania, 2000: Thom Davidson spent twelve years restoring his family’s ancestral home and expanding his reputation as Nittany Valley’s premier restoration contractor while his fiancée completed her Ivy League law degree. Then, on one tragic weekend, everything he’d planned and built evaporated like the Highland mists.

Embarking alone on what was to have been his honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands, Thom hopes to regain his footing and figure out what comes next, but what he discovers is an opportunity that’s beyond anything he ever imagined.

Scotland, 1771: Jonatt McDonnell is a spinster in every sense of the word. A second-generation refugee trapped in a version of Bieldfell suspended in time, she sees few prospects for her future…until Thom Davidson emerges from the morning mists.

She knows where he came from, and she hopes he will stay, but his decision must be quick and will likely be permanent.

Understanding both the opportunities and the risks, Thom feels honor-bound to return one last time to his own era, but the time portal has only been tried in one direction. If he leaves Jonatt in the past, will he ever find her again?

Growing up in Texas, I’ve written stories as long as I can remember. After studying at Cambridge, then completing a degree in Architecture at Texas A&M, my husband’s military career allowed us to travel to many interesting places, and those often find their way into my stories, as well. I write about the things I know and love–God, family, history–and how they fit together to demonstrate timeless truths.

I was one of those kids who lived in my head a lot, usually imagining story ideas or designing pretty houses. So perhaps it’s no surprise that I majored in architecture and, later, became a writer. Those two careers actually have a lot in common—creativity, a love of history, and a curious streak that compels me to discover how everything fits together to expose the roots of a story…or a house.

It also explains why, in my stories, the house is often one of the characters.

Because “the walls talk.” They carry clues about the lives of the people they’ve sheltered, just as stories carry clues about the lives of the people who write them.

So as you read The Lover’s Bridge, for example, you might deduce that I’m a big fan of Rogers & Hammerstein’s classic musical, Brigadoon and, by extension, the possibility of time travel.

You might wonder if my ancestors came from the Scottish Highlands (and you’d be right).

You won’t be surprised that my main character is a renovation contractor who converted his family’s heritage post-and-beam barn, and that he has a degree in architectural history, though you might be interested to know that my husband and I also lived in Pennsylvania’s beautiful Nittany Valley and that I began a master’s of architecture at Penn State…before the military transferred us to Europe, where I got to study historical architecture in person.

(Castles, y’all!)

You might also guess that my husband and I have raise and bred Australian Shepherds like Thom’s dog, Sadie.

And if you’re wondering if my character, Thom, is patterned in some ways after my husband, Tom, you’d also be right. They both share a servant’s heart and deep convictions about love, loyalty, integrity, and keeping their promises.

Another thing you should know is that I write historical fiction because I love doing historical research. It’s actually my favorite part of writing! I’m pretty much a historical research nerd. Like many historical fiction readers, I enjoy learning about other times and eras, how people in the past lived differently from us…and how, at our core, we still want many of the same things though our expectations about life are often very different.

For this book, I did a TON of research!

I’ve been to Edinburgh, but I didn’t realize at the time that many of the streets I walked down had been raised two stories to solve flooding issues. Engineers brought in tons of dirt to fill the streets, but they didn’t fill the shops and houses. They’re still there, and the city has recently opened sections of “The Hidden City” to tourists. I loved learning about Mary King’s Close.

I learned about the conflicts that enveloped Scotland for almost 300 years revolving around the Protestant Reformation, the English Civil War, and disagreements over who had the rights to the throne. I learned about “priest holes” where Catholic clergy once hid and how similar hiding places served as weapons caches during the Jacobite Rebellions.

I enjoyed learning fragments of Gaelic to bring the past-era village of Bieldfell to life. My favorite new word is anam cara, which describes the deepest of friendships—a relationship of heart and soul.

Since part of my story takes place shortly after the Battle of Culloden, I also needed to learn about what happened to the Highlanders after they were defeated. Gotta tell you, I LOVE that we can go to the library or hop on the internet and read the actual hand-written lists of the 3470 Highland prisoners, where they came from, their ages and what they did for a living, what they were charged with, and also learn their fates.

This was all SO helpful in crafting a story that’s believable even though, as a time-portal romance, it’s a fantasy.

A good time-travel should leave you wondering if the story might just be possible, right?

Of course, no matter what the genre, quality Christian fiction strives to leave readers with a take away message—some truth will resonate spiritually.

Without spoilers, I can tell you that The Lover’s Bridge is a story about a man whose whole world gets turned upside-down through no fault of his own. In a single weekend, Thom loses everything—his home, his business, and his fiancée. He goes to the Scottish Highlands, alone, on what was supposed to have been his honeymoon, hoping to pick up the pieces of his life and figure out what to do next.

Maybe you’ve been through something similar?

What he discovers is that God had already gone before him—LONG before him—to prepare an opportunity that was far beyond anything he could ever have imagined and so, sooo good.

I hope you enjoyed this bookish stop—and maybe even discovered your next great read.

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Thank you again for spending a few moments here.

Happy reading!
~ Danielle