REVIEW: All For You by Lynn Kurland

Sandy M’s review of All For You (de Piaget, Book 15) by Lynn Kurland
Time Travel Romance published by Jove 24 Apr 12

I always enjoy Lynn Kurland’s books. Her writing quality is difficult to surpass and not many authors do. She makes you feel good, gives you love and romance, along with a bit of action, and you always sigh when that last page is read. Even when you’re so behind in reading the series and it’s nearly a year after the book’s release. Sigh. Someday I’ll be caught up! 😉

Our hero and heroine in this edition of the de Piaget series have a prior history and don’t really get along all that well. Peaches (ah, heck, go with it!) is also having a difficult time with her life, having just lost her career and nothing on the horizon to keep her bank balance healthy. In England to visit her twin sister, Tess, she’s invited to a ball and figures why not, a girl should get to live her fairy tale at least once in her life. Of course, the night isn’t full of fairy dust and wonder, especially when Stephen de Piaget is also there. Unbeknownst to Peaches, she has a knight in shining armor watching over her, and she’s going to really need him very soon.

Where Peaches truly does have a problem with Stephen, for him it’s just the opposite. He’s loved her from the moment they first met. But he has this embarrassing tendency to put his foot in his mouth every damned time he tries to talk to her. So he settles for rescuing her anonymously and eventually offering her a job as his assistant just so she’ll be near. Though he’s the future Earl of Artane, Stephen at first is kinda nerdy. He’s a professor of Medieval Studies and has a fairly uneventful life, and he likes it that way. But then we get to see the other side of him, and that dichotomy is plenty sexy. Stephen takes frequent jaunts into Scotland to bone up on his swordplay – with Jamie MacLeod.

It’s when Peaches, upset by overheard gossip, escapes the ball and inadvertently steps through a time gate that things change for them both in a big way. Peaches sees Stephen in a whole new light when he reverts to the medieval man he was born, and Stephen is with his family again for the first time since he disappeared from his era years before. I love those scenes, especially with his parents. Stephen left after arguing with his father, so he’s under no illusion that his sire will probably not have a warm welcome for him. That reunion is one of my favorite scenes in the book. Stephen does put his swordplay to good use, and he and Peaches return home in very short order to see where their relationship is heading. I’m sure I’m like a number of Kurland fans and wish there’d been more time in the past, but what we do get works well so we don’t get story repetition to sound like other books in the series.

I enjoy meeting up with previous characters, but it is difficult to keep the family line in order in my head when it’s so long between books – and there are so many books! I’d love to be able to read them back to back to keep everyone and their timelines straight, but that’s just not feasible. So I rely on Ms. Kurland’s writing to bring me up to speed as much as possible and eventually bring me to that ultimate HEA. While this is not my favorite of the series to date, it’s still a lovely story and it’s receiving a low A instead of the high B I initially thought about, due to those moving family scenes. Bring a tear to my eye and I’m happy.

Grade: A-

Read C2’s review here.

Summary:

FALLING THROUGH TIME IS DANGEROUS…

Peaches Alexander is thrilled to receive an unexpected invitation to a weekend party given by the handsome, eligible Duke of Kenneworth. The only problem: Stephen de Piaget, a stuffy medieval studies scholar who seems determined to get in the way. Peaches has absolutely no desire to get involved with Stephen, until a quirk of Fate sends her hurtling through time…

UNLESS THERE’S SOMEONE TO CATCH YOU.

Stephen de Piaget has been leading a double life: respectable professor by day, knight-in-training during holidays and summer terms. When Peaches goes missing, Stephen knows he’s the only one who can rescue her from medieval peril. Little do they know that the greatest danger they’ll face won’t be the business end of a sword, but their own unruly hearts….

Read an excerpt.

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