| KNIGHT OF MY DREAMS begins in the past with Baldric,
sworn to guard Lady Gillian with his life, pledging his love to her minutes before
delivering her to her betrothed. She sees the futility of their love, he demands her
trust that they will be together. Then we flash to present day, hauntingly affected
by the brief scene a page ago. Sydney Vaughn's aunt has
arranged for a burned-out big city ex-cop to come and install security at Sydney's small
town home. Knowing Sydney has had several crank phone calls, Aunt Vera is adamant
that Sydney needs protecting and knows that Winn -- Baldwin D. Lacey -- is just the man to
do it.
Aunt Vera is a bit eccentric and the apple didn't fall too far from
the tree. Sydney is a firm believer in reincarnation, lives in a house decorated in
purple that is filled with medieval artifacts and books. And after seeing Winn at
the door she is firmly convinced that he is the reincarnation of Baldric, the knight she
so vividly dreams about every night.
But if Winn is Baldric, does that make her Lady Gillian? The
coincidences start to mount up, and while Sydney herself believes, if Lady Gillian and
Baldric are to be together in the past, she has to convince Winn to believe as well,
something he just isn't prepared to do. What he is prepared to believe, despite
promises to himself that it would never happen again, is that he is falling hard for
Sydney.
As her dreams become more vivid and dangerous, Sydney knows she
doesn't have much time to figure out the path of history for Baldric and Lady Gillian.
Danger lurks in both past and present and Winn's trust is essential to the outcome
of both.
KNIGHT OF MY DREAMS is a wonderful blend of past and present.
The lives of Baldric and Lady Gillian play out on a timeline in the past while
Sydney and Winn live the timeline of the present yet despite the hundreds of years between
them, each is intertwined with the other. The drive of the book comes from Sydney
being the only one aware of the timelines, giving her the responsibility of making sure
they merge at the right point.
The essence of the story is trust. The trust between Baldric
and Lady Gillian mirror images the trust between Winn and Sydney, but there's also
Sydney's trust of herself to find the answers and the misplaced trust of a friend.
It's a strong motivator for all of the well drawn characters in the story.
The writing team of Cynthia Serra and Beth Ciotta, aka CB Scott,
have a wonderful way of writing seamlessly as one person. They have a strong sense
of who their characters are, making their books so easy to lose yourself in. And the
uniqueness of their stories -- light and playful while still being strong with depth --
make them authors who again have offered a book I strongly recommend.
Whether you read historical or contemporary, this fairytale romance
will delight.
Reviewed by Sue Waldeck for The Road to Romance
February 12, 2003
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