Quote of the Book: "You know, Stephen," she said, "you can be very charming when you want to be." He shot her another smile. "I want to be." She walked with him for another few minutes, then looked up at him. "Why?" "Why not?"
Ahhh! Spring is in the air. For me, that means sitting outside in the sun with a cool breeze and a good book. It also means that I can look forward to an evening spent with a chivalric de Piaget or a dashing MacLeod. And this spring, that de Piaget lad was Stephen, the future Earl of the magical castle Artane.
Stephen de Piaget has a problem. Well, he has many. For one thing, he is a Cambridge professor of Medieval Studies who is torn between his public persona of being the heir to an ancestral family seat and his personal persona of knight in training. His grandmother is firmly trying to force him into a marriage with a woman of his station, but the women that she presents all look at Stephen and see merely his title and his hall. To top it all off, the woman he is madly in love with, Peaches Alexander, hates him. Profusely.
Peaches is in a bit of turmoil herself. Her entrepreneurial business is on the skids and she is quite sure she is at a crossroads in her life. She has seen her two sisters fall in love with a pair of Medieval knights, twins actually, and can't help but be envious of the perfect love that her sisters have found. While a part of her thinks she wants a raw food eating guru with a beard, in her heart of hearts she knows she wants a dashing knight to rescue her on a white horse with a sword in his hand. The problem is that when it happens, Peaches may be too blinded to even see it for the rescue it really is.
When the devious David Preston, Duke of Kenneworth, plots to make Peaches his most recent conquest, Stephen plays a modern day knight in rescuing Peaches from... well, herself, really. And just when Peaches seemed to be in the clear, the most extraordinary thing happens. She gets hurtled through a time gate and lands herself in Medieval England. Though for anyone who knows the de Piagets, this isn't that unusual. Fortunately for Peaches, having two Medieval brothers-in-law helps her to keep her wits about her. And low and behold, a dashing knight in shining armor, not tweed, manages to save her yet again.
I liked Stephen and Peaches as a couple. They were a cute pair and well suited for one another. I loved all the peeks at the de Piaget clan that we get throughout the book. But I will say, this one is not a stand alone. Though the story and plot of this book is one that will not be hard to follow without reading the previous books, I really don't think anyone would appreciate the story unless you were already in love with the de Piagets. A lot of my appreciation stemmed from that. Without knowing the history and magic of Artane, I don't think that a reader would really care about the things that befall Stephen through the course of the book. Though all the cameos of the family members are explained so that the reader wouldn't be lost, I just don't think the reader would care to know about the people in the secondary roles.
One thing that I find with Kurland's books is that many of the women of the de Piaget and MacLeod crew seem to get left behind. Though Zachary plays a role in this book, his wife Mary, who is the de Piaget relative, is rarely seen and I don't think she says a word. Her child, or maybe her children?, are completely baffling. At one point, she has a young baby, but about half way through the book, that baby has suddenly been unborn, but is "about" to be. Later, it seems that unborn baby was actually months in the offing. It was a little irritating as a fan of the series, but the casual reader probably wouldn't be bothered by it. However, the casual reader wouldn't know why they should care about Zachary, Mary, or the child(ren?) anyway, so it is a bit of a dilemma.
I think that, at this point, I would read just about anything if it included the de Piaget boys. All are charming shepherds that are chivalrous and kind and who love deeply and adoringly. The current heir is no exception! He does his ancestor's proud and earns the love of his lady in dashing ways. With all that, how can it go wrong?
Book: All For You
Author: Lynn Kurland
Other books in the de Piaget Series: Another Chance to Dream (Together with If I Had You in A Time for Love), If I Had You (Together with Another Chance to Dream in A Time for Love) , This Is All I Ask, From This Moment On, To Kiss in the Shadows, The More I See You, Stardust of Yesterday, Dreams of Stardust, When I Fall in Love, The Gift of Christmas Past (In Love Came Just in Time), Till There Was You, One Enchanted Evening, One Magic Moment
Books in the MacLeod Series: A Dance Through Time, The Very Thought of You, Three Wise Ghosts (in Love Came Just in Time), And the Groom Wore Tulle (in Love Came Just in Time), The Traveler (in Knight's Vow), My Heart Stood Still, Much Ado in the Moonlight, A Garden in the Rain, With Every Breath, Till There Was You
Books in the Nine Kingdoms: Star of the Morning, The Mage's Daughter, Princess of the Sword, A Tapestry of Spells, Spellweaver, Gift of Magic, A Whisper of Spring (in A Queen in Winter), and The Tale of the Two Swords (in To Weave a Web of Magic)
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