Review: Good story, but very sad!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 3, 2011
Let me first state that this was a well written story and I couldn't put it down.That being said, I have to admit that it was as depressing as it was enjoyable.  We know simply from reading the jacket that Christien and Madelaine cannot be together when they first met since she is married to the lord of the castle and he is a knight.  We also know that Madelaine was killed young.  BUT in addition to this, Madelaine's husband is a vicious sadist who takes pleasure in humiliating and raping her.  And, in addition to that, Lucian, her husband's trusted advisor and castle priest, lusts for Madelaine and when her husband isn't torturing her, Lucian is constantly trying to scare and molest her.Understanding that their first meeting in 1309 was not a happy time, what makes it most depressing is that instead of just learning all this horror of Madelaine's first life in the beginning of the story and then moving onto the current day situation, the chapters dedicated to her prior life are interspersed throughout the book, and after spending a chapter in the present day with Christien and Madelaine trying to work through the issues of her reincarnation and the current dangers to her life, we get thrown back into the past to learn some new horror of her past life.The way the story is merged, definitely heightens the suspense which continuously builds with the separate present day and past life stories, but reading of the horror that would be the life that a woman would have to endure in 1309, makes me happy to be living in the 21st Century, annoying cell phones or not.I gave it 3.5 stars as a compromise for the 4 stars I would give to the gripping storyline, and the 3 stars I wanted to give since the story depressed me so much.