A kingdom of possibilities

REVIEWS BY BARBARA SAMUEL

One of the great pleasures of romantic fiction is the chance to sink into a fantasy of another time or place, a life that's entirely different from our own. In a romance novel, I can be Cinderella, run away to sunny California or imagine myself as the woman who brings a tortured knight to his knees.

In Margaret Ball's Duchess of Aquitaine, one can try on the robes of a queen. Eleanor, daughter of the wealthy and powerful Duke of Aquitaine, is only 15 when her father dies and she inherits his valuable estates. Most women would be ill-equipped for such a challenge, but Eleanor has been an avid student of her father's teachings, and she cleverly hatches a plan to outwit her enemies by marrying King Louis himself—thus begins the adventures of one of the most fascinating women in history. Ball has written a number of fantasy novels, including collaborations with Anne McCaffrey, and here she steps masterfully into the world of historical fiction. The pleasure in this version of an oft-repeated tale lies in Ball's skillful weaving of history and threads of magic, and in her exquisite detail work, both in character and setting, that brings the medieval world to full-throated life.


Looking for my Foster Grants

Another sort of fantasy entirely is delivered in The Days of Summer, by Jill Barnett, the kind of book that's absolutely required for a lazy afternoon basting on a beach, or on a long, long airplane ride. On a terrible night in 1957, a horrible accident kills three people: spoiled, rich Rudy Banning; his wife Rachel, a gifted and famous artist; and rising music star Jimmy Peyton. The tragedy sets in motion a series of events that will take decades to fully play out, for three children are left behind, children whose destinies will become inextricably entwined. The Bannings leave two sons who are doomed to live with their cold, manipulating grandfather, while Peyton leaves a widow and a six-year-old daughter to mourn him. Told in segments across the decades, this is a sometimes nostalgic, always delicious journey through a California we have sometimes forgotten ever existed, deftly unwound for us by a writer in full control of her material.


A glass slipper

One of the chief criticisms of chick lit is the shallow nature of the protagonists and their exaggerated screeching about appearance, boyfriends and (the omnipresent) shoes. On the surface, The Cinderella Pact, by Sarah Strohmeyer (author of the Bubbles Yablonsky mystery series), seems to be just such a book. Instead, it delivers a big, cheery story with enough fairy tale and froth to let us escape the mundane, and with enough intelligence to make it worthwhile. Nora Devlin has made a pact with two friends to—once and for all—lose the extra weight they are all carrying. These are not slightly chubby girls barely managing to squeeze into size eights; they're all well into W sizes, and too young to be so frumpy. As the pounds come off, Nora struggles with the changing perceptions of others, and learns that losing weight doesn't necessarily wave a magic wand over a life. Nora is an intelligent heroine worth cheering for, and The Cinderella Pact brims with insights on the difficulties of not being beautiful in a beauty-obsessed society, while never resorting to preaching. This is what chick lit is supposed to be.


A knight worth taming

What could be more romantic than knights and their ladies, tournaments and sacrifice, forbidden love and desperate passion? It is, at least, one of my very favorite daydreams, and Mary Reed McCall has rendered a rich and passionate escape indeed with the second book in The Templar Knights series, Sinful Pleasures. Lady Alissende de Montague is faced with a desperate bargain that could save her—and a man from her past—when she is asked to make a proxy marriage to rescue Sir Damien de Ashby, a knight who has dedicated himself to the Templars. An evocative sense of the medieval world and a passionate, sexy romance make Sinful Pleasures a must read for those who, like me, wish for a good escape to days of yore.


Barbara Samuel writes novels from her native Colorado. Her latest book is Madame Mirabou's School of Love.

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