Veena’s review of Dreams of Lilacs (Di Piagets, Book 16) by Lynn Kurland
Historical Romance published by Jove 29 Apr 14
I discovered Ms. Kurland when I read The Mage’s Daughter in the Nine Kingdoms series. Since then I have been a fan of the books written in that series. I am not sure why I never picked up any of her other romances, other than the fact that they were advertised as time travel romances and I am not a great fan of that genre. This book ended up in my TBR pile by a very fortunate accident and I found it to be a delightful historical romance with no time travel whatsoever, featuring two characters that I related to very well and look forward to meeting again between the pages of future books by the author. The writing style of the story reminded me a lot about the Nine Kingdom series sans the magic, which might have added to my enjoyment of this story. I will definitely venture into read the stories featuring the other characters that I met here and hopefully will enjoy them as much as this one, time travel notwithstanding.
Isabelle has had a privileged upbringing in the bosom of a family who loves her. Her only problem is that she feels that she’s living in the shadow of her very beautiful older sister and despairs of ever finding someone who will love her for herself. When an ominous note sends her on a quest to France, she’s almost relieved to take her life in hand, though the threats in the note disturb her profoundly. She escapes from her protective family, especially her older brother, and sets sail, only to run into a storm at sea which leaves her with a bump on the head and no memory of who she is and where she’s going.
Fortunately Gervase de Seger comes to her rescue, thinking all along that she’s the young man that she’s disguised as. He himself is making a very slow recovery from an attack that has left him badly crippled and burned. Poor Gervase has no idea that the youth he’s rescued is actually a young lady, so once she’s back on her feet he sets her to work under the cook in the kitchens as a scullery boy. Fortunately this doesn’t last long, since most of the other inhabitants in the castle recognize the boy as a girl, and further it appears that many of them actually also know who she is. It’s funny that it takes Gervase almost a third of the story before he gets clued in.
Isabelle regains her memories and takes Gervase, his siblings, and his castle in hand. She prepares herbal baths and tisanes for Gervase to help ease the stiffness in his muscles and legs and gives his siblings the attention they crave. Gervase can’t help but be attracted to her, but it’s so funny how his thought processes change when he discovers her identity. He knows he’s in big trouble, since he’s acquainted with many of her brothers and knows her sire by reputation. He alternates between despair of what they’ll do to him when they find out how he treated her in the beginning and how they’ll react when they find out that he wants to court her. However, the best thing to come out of all of this is the impetus it gives him to really focus hard on his recovery. The relationship between Gervase and his siblings, particularly his brother Jocelin, brings back memories of the Nine Kingdoms novels and the dialog exchanged between various sets of siblings.
I thoroughly enjoyed the telling of this story and meeting the members of the de Piaget family as they defend their sister and each take Gervase to task for his early treatment of her as well as test his mettle to become her husband. While things seem to be falling into place on the courtship front, their enemy is still active and threatening their happiness and future. They have to find and neutralize their enemy so they can indeed enjoy their happily ever after.
Grade: B
Summary:
Isabelle de Piaget is determined to elude her overprotective family with a hasty escape to France. But instead of making a surprise visit to her brother there, she is shipwrecked on the French coast with no memory of who she is or how she came to awaken in the dark, forbidding castle of an equally brooding lord.
Gervase de Seger rescues—very reluctantly—the bedraggled urchin he finds on the road and puts her to work where he can ignore her. Unfortunately, he soon realizes that her brother is an intimidating lord who is going to be absolutely furious when he learns that his beloved sister has been laboring as a scullery maid. Yet Isabelle may be the one who holds the key to solving Gervase’s most pressing problems: that someone has been trying to finish the task of separating him from his title and his lands.
Finding the truth propels Gervase and Isabelle from the buried secrets of half-ruined keeps to the glittering French court, and to the realization that love can blossom in the most perilous circumstances—and in the most unexpected places of the heart…
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