Title: Catch the Lightning
Author: Madeline Baker
In: The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance (Trisha Telep)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Romance, Time travel
Dates read: 28th December 2019
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Robinson
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: I’m about a quart low.
On the eve of her suicide, a strange horse arrives to sweep her away. To another time and another place. Will she find her reason to live here?
I think most women have wanted to find themselves a hot, Indian cowboy to have a bit of a roll in the hay. The woman in this short story got one. And I’m so incredibly glad. This was fun, easy and I love that it took a pretty typical fantasy (or at least, what I view as a fairly typical frontier fantasy) and made it her own. With time travelling, because what’s a romance without a little bit of time travelling?
I’ve been reading a few time travelling stories this year. Particularly short stories in The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance collection. But I’ve never read one that features a time travelling horse. It’s weird and quite different. But definitely something that I’ve decided I need more of. It also reminded me of the Dreamworks movie Spirit, which bought up all kinds of happy, childhood nostalgia.
This touches on issues of suicide. And that point you reach where you’re not sad. You’re just not there anymore. There is no purpose. I get this feeling more than I would like. So this touched quite close to the belt. But I actually loved that fact. Because instead of being dark and dour, she’s abducted by a time travelling horse and finds the love of her life. A slightly off-kilter happily-ever-after for all of us.
Earth and Skye 
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