Bury the Living

McIsaac (the Thin Veil series) puts plenty of history and a little fantasy and romance into this entertaining time travel tale. As a teenager in 1990, Nora O’Reilly helped the Irish Republican Army and was shaken by her brother Eamon’s death. In 2004, she is an aid worker traveling to Afghanistan, Haiti, and Sudan. When she begins dreaming about a man who tells her he needs her help, she heads home to Ireland and begins digging into the past, eventually coming across a relic of St. Brigid that sends her back to 1923. Nora soon sees this as a chance to alter the course of events that led to her brother’s death, while also changing the history of her beloved country. McIsaac has an undeniable talent for immersing the reader in the plight of the Irish in the 1920s, at the height of the Irish Civil War. Comparisons to Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series are inevitable, and Gabaldon is more deft with romantic subplots, but Nora’s story is still a diverting read that offers insight into one of the most fascinating times in Ireland’s history, along with a likable, smart heroine worth rooting for. (Sept.)