Search - One Magic Moment (De Piaget)

Lynn Kurland fans beware!
There's NO WAY Lynne Kurland wrote this book. I fear that she is now lending her name out to continue this series and it shows. I have read everything that SHE has ever written and this is clearly not in her "voice" but is an amateurish parody of her voice, like fanfic written by a twelve year old. I have her entire collection, but this...thing...I am not keeping it on my shelf. It's an insult to her readers to be passing off this tripe as her own work. It just isn't. I can tell. And just to provide a tiny tiny bit of proof for my theory, read the copyright page. It no longer says "(c) Lynn Kurland". It says "(c) Lynn Kurland Book Productions, Inc."

I've been so preoccupied by sculpted abs on covers, that I forget how good books can be WITHOUT all the hot sex... and Kurland does it better than most. She is an artist, and continues her De Piaget masterpiece with the story of John and Tess. As always, along the way, we get to enjoy moments with most (if not all) of the De Piaget family. It's not necessary to read them in any particular order, but it's like hooking up with old friends again if you do.

Now that I'm done gushing, I did have issues with how she worked the character of Tess. Warning - if you haven't read any of the earlier books in this series, this might be a spoiler. Her "depression" at losing her sister Pippa is a bit annoying. I mean, she's not dead really (depending on the perspective), but in a different time. Instead of celebrating that Pippa is living happily ever after with her one and only, she walks around like her favorite person in the world just died. Again, it's perspective, but it just gets annoying.

That's the only bad thing I can say. As with all her books, it's just a delight to read.

This is the latest in the de Piaget series and we finally find out what happened to John de Piaget, Montgomery's twin. Unlike some of the other books, this one is centered more on the present than the past and brings up questions of how someone from the past might successfully adjust to the present without any help. As always, there's a happy ending and the promise of more stories to come.

I have been a long time fan of Lynn Kurland. Prior to borrowing one of her books from a friend I was not much of a fan of romance novels, and the idea of a time travel romance novel just made me roll my eyes. But Kurland is such a master at it that I have been hooked since that first book.

In One Magic Moment we are reunited with Tess Alexander. We previously met her during her adventures in medieval times with her sister Pippa. She is still grieving the loss of her sister, who married a medieval lord and decided to stay in the thirteenth century with him. Though the family history books tell her that her sister was deliriously happy, Tess wants nothing to do with medieval anything. Which may be difficult since she has a Ph.D in medieval political thought and hosts reenactments at her castle, her very medieval castle. John De Piaget wants nothing to do with the thirteenth century either, because he's been running away from it for 8 years. But when the two meet, Fate takes them both in hand and gives them no choice but to confront their pasts and their futures together. Now if only they can survive whoever is stalking them in both the current century and the thirteenth century, maybe they can manage to survive their love as well.

John De Piaget is at once different from the other De Piaget men but also very much the same. To a certain extent this is a good thing since they were all raised in the same century. But John is much more stubborn, brash, and abrasive than his siblings or other relations, which is likely why he stubbornly threw himself out of the 1200's to begin with. I found John to be charming and I liked his attitude since it was reminiscent of other De Piaget men we've met but different in some very key ways.

Tess is another that I was fond of. Her character reminds me a lot of myself, so I think I related to her much more than some of the other female characters in Kurland's other books.

I wish I could speak as highly of the plot as I do the characters but alas I cannot. Bear in mind the plot was not bad, I enjoyed it and it was well put together, but it wasn't all that unique. We've seen this plot line before and only one or two major differences were thrown in. This was a bit disappointing since we've seen similar plots in several other books and I was hoping it would be unique. Some of her earlier books were each very unique and diverse, but lately they've started getting more and more similar. It is disheartening and I hope it doesn't become a habit.

All reviews also posted to my Goodreads profile.