Fantasy series three books, Australian woman on vacation, travels back in time to Welsh castle, Tae Kwon Do

Question

Looking for title of a series of 3 (to 5) books, probably Australian author.

In the first book: A young Australian woman (and Tae Kwon Do expert) vacations in Britain, shortly after the death of her twin brother. She sleeps inside a ring of standing stones (possibly at the summer equinox?) and ends up in medieval(?) Wales. She encounters a group of warriors on horseback, managing to take down one of them in unarmed combat. She is taken to a castle, where she starts training the young lord and his men in martial arts. Eventually they become lovers and marries.

There are some prophetic dreams and a traitor, ending with the woman (almost?) miscarrying - in any case they eventually have at least one child.

She eventually returns to her own time, and discovers that in this new world by a strange coincidence, Wales developed a very similar martial arts style to that of the Far East, baffling scientists. I also think her brother is now alive.

I may be on the second book, but I also seem to remember a possessed friend and a floor open to lava or something similar...

In the later books (which I haven't really read), she possibly travels to the future (from where she originally started). There is also a base in the Australian desert where several antiquates and relatives - including her supposed to be dead many hundred years ago son - have set-up a base to basically save the Earth.

I think the first book got a circle of standing stones on the cover; the second similar but possibly with lightning; and the third a space station looking like the standing stones.

Answer 1

This sounds a lot like The Dark Age by Traci Harding (indeed an Australian author) the first book in The Ancient Future trilogy.

The protagonist is Tory Alexander, a woman who has a black belt in Tae-kwon-doh, and somewhat improbably is fluent in Brythanic, who gets transported to 6th century Wales while spending the night at a ring of standing stones when her car breaks down. From the cover blurb:

But across the vortex of time and space, she is being watched. The Merlin knows of the legend Tory is to become, and through the wisdom of the Old Ones, teleports her back to the Dark Age.

Prince Maelgwyn of Gwynedd and his band of knights stumble across this mysterious woman dressed in jeans and a leather jacket. Believing she is the witch of the stones, they threaten to kill her. Rising to her own defence, Tory challenges the Prince's champion to unarmed combat. With her superior fighting skill she easily overwhelms the warrior, winning the admiration of the Prince, and changing the course of British history forever.

The cover art of the first book does show a ring of standing stones, as does the second book "An echo in time: Atlantis", while the third book, "Master of reality: the gathering" indeed has a space station resembling standing stones.