# Series: de Piaget series

# Guest Review: Stars in Your Eyes by Lynn Kurland

**Reviewer:** Tracy   
**Stars in You Eyes** by Lynn Kurland   
**Series:** de Piaget series #14   
**Also in this series:** Dreams of Lilacs   
**Publisher** : Jove, Penguin  
**Publication Date** : November 24, 2015   
**Format:** eARC   
**Genres:** Historical Romance, Time Travel   
**Add It** : Goodreads   
  


> Imogen Maxwell is on a hunt for rare, antique items to use on a period movie set. The last thing she expects to discover in the peaceful Scottish countryside is a pristine medieval sword...or to suddenly find herself facing its very vintage owner in a far too authentic castle.
> 
> Phillip de Piaget has run out of patience with his recalcitrant Scottish betrothed and is determined that she will join him, once and for all, in front of the altar. Only the lass he captures fleeing his would-be keep seems more interested in running away from him than talking to him. In fact, she seems to have no idea who he is.

Imogen finally gets to Scotland after an incredibly long journey from America. She is in Scotland to try and find inexpensive yet authentic looking medieval antiques for use in a movie that she’s a part of. She heads into one store and is approached by a woman who she learns is named Heather. Heather invites her to her castle which she says is chock full of authentic medieval antiques. Imogen is excited and takes her up on her offer to visit. At one point in the tour of the castle Heather invites Imogen to touch a sword that’s been stuck in the floor of the great hall since (supposedly) the 13th century. Imogen again takes Heather up on her offer and ends up being knocked over.

Imogen has been transported to a different time but her brain can’t even think that way. She thinks, for a bit too long imho, that she’s on a movie set and that eveyone is method acting and not breaking character. The other possibility is that her evil siblings have once again played a trick on her and their filming the prank. She finally has to come to realize that she’s been transported in time but it’s almost too much for her mind to contemplate.

Phillip de Piaget is the eldest son of Robin and Anne de Piaget and has been engaged to Heather of Haemesburgh for the past seven years. He made the contracts with her father and without even meeting Heather in person. Phillip is interested in the Haemesburgh castle and it’s position long the border of Scotland and England more than anything else. He has tried to see Heather over the years but he’s gotten nothing but flack and even how dung thrown at him. He’s ready to marry and he’s not taking no for an answer this time.

When Phillip arrives at Haemesburgh right when a woman, who he at first thinks is Heather, hanging from the drawbridge that is going up. He saves the woman, who is Imogen, and ends up watching over her. Phillip is mystified by everything he finds at Haemesburgh – including the absence of Heather – and then even more mystified when he heads to his uncle’s house and finds out that the “paranormal oddities” that he’s heard about most of his life are much more involved in his family than he ever would have thought possible.

This was a cute book. With Imogen and Phillip falling in love pretty quickly I found it to be more about Phillip’s discovery of time travel and what that meant for his family than I would have expected. Yes, the romance was sweet and I loved Phillip to death but I didn’t feel it as strongly as I have in past de Piaget books.

Imogen was an interesting woman. She thought non-stop about being in a movie (as that’s what she thought happened when she time-traveled) but she did it for so long I found it to get a little old after a while. I was happy when she finally started accepting the facts and seeing the incredible opportunity for what it was – a chance to see medieval life in person.

Overall it was pleasant read but I definitely had my issues with the blending of the romance with the rest of the story.

# Review: Dreams of Lilacs by Lynn Kurland

**Reviewer:** Tracy   
**Dreams of Lilacs** by Lynn Kurland   
**Series:** de Piaget series #13   
**Also in this series:** Stars in You Eyes   
**Publisher** : Penguin  
**Publication Date** : April 29th 2014   
**Format:** eARC   
**Add It** : Goodreads   
  


> Isabelle de Piaget is determined to elude her overprotective family by means of a hasty escape to France. But instead of making a surprise visit to her brother there, she winds up shipwrecked on the French coast with no memory of who she is or how she came to awaken in the dark and forbidding castle of an equally brooding lord.
> 
> Gervase de Seger rescues—very reluctantly—the bedraggled urchin he finds on the road and puts her to work where he can ignore her. Unfortunately, he soon realizes that her brother is an intimidating lord who is going to be absolutely furious when he learns that his beloved sister has been laboring as a scullery maid. Yet Isabelle may be the one who holds the key to solving Gervase’s most pressing problem: that someone has been trying to finish the task of separating him from his title and his lands.
> 
> Finding the truth propels Gervase and Isabelle from the buried secrets of half-ruined keeps to the glittering French court, and to the realization that love can blossom in the most perilous circumstances—and in the most unexpected places of the heart . . .

Isabelle is pretty much a homebody. Not that she doesn’t want to go anywhere, but it seems that she just never does. She feels like she’s almost on the shelf as she’s 22 and the only men that have wanted to court her were cast off who actually wanted Amanda but then find out she’s married. None are excited to actually marry Isabelle – she’s just “the one who’s left” and she’s female and a de Piaget. Most don’t even know her name. When Isabelle gets a letter stating that she needs to head to France or her whole family will be killed she doesn’t know what to do. Yes, she’s wanted adventure but this isn’t exactly how she thought it would come about. She decides that she’ll head to France dressed as a boy but tell no one. She does tell Miles she’s going to France but not about the letter.

Isabelle manages to get on a ship to France but then is shipwrecked. She’s also then robbed and roughed up. Gervace de Seger is out riding when he sees her, only he thinks she’s a he. He gets her to his healer but when she wakes up she can’t remember who she is or where she’s from. Thinking that she’s a peasant boy he puts her to work in his kitchens. He soon starts to rethink his decision (about her job as well as the fact that she’s not a lad) and after she’s almost accosted in the kitchen he puts her to work mending. Soon she is teaching his half-brothers their sums and Latin.

Isabelle starts to remember things but not why she’s in France. She isn’t sure if she can completely trust Gervase as he has a bad rep so keeps her identity to herself. Gervase is hurt from a murder attempt so is mostly in a foul mood daily. Isabelle, he finds, has the power to make him happy and he’s not sure what to do with that information. When he finds out who she is he returns her to her family but he doesn’t want to let her go. He also starts to believe that the person who is after her family and the person trying to kill him are one in the same.

This was a very sweet story. Gervase is a wounded hero and his crotchety disposition was almost humorous. Kurland did a great job of describing him and his moods so that I could see that underneath the scowls and glares that he was a good, good person. He loved his family but doubted his own capabilities to take care of them. Isabelle lightens his heart. She doesn’t put up with his crap and kind of walks all over him – in the best possible way. He soon finds himself in love with her but having to return her to his family just about broke his heart.

Isabelle was a fierce heroine. It’s not that she was kick-ass or anything but she loved her family and would do just about anything for them – I loved that about her. She also showed such care and kindness to Gervase’s siblings (I loved little Yves!) as well as Gervase himself. He was in constant pain from almost dying in a fire in his hall. His right hand had been crushed and his leg had been broken from an arrow being shot at him. Isabelle, after helping to take care of her sister-in-law, Anne, had knowledge of herbs that would help Gervase. This was her way of soothing the snarling beast and it worked. She was showing her love to him, whether she knew she loved him at the time or not, in helping him recover.

Again, I loved Gervase. Seriously, that man was wonderful. After having been a much lauded knight he was then brought to his knees, quite literally. In his recovery he realized what an arrogant man he had been at times and it humbled him. He was a better man for being injured and I loved that he realized that. He held his own with Isabelle’s brothers as well as her father and that endeared him to me as well. He also saw Isabelle for who she was and not just part of the de Piaget family or Amanda’s sister. He loved her for her and that warmed my heart.

Gervase and Isabelle were a perfect couple and I loved their story. It was sweet and romantic, funny and sometimes sad. It had a wonderful sense of family – both Gervase’s and Isabelle’s – and made me love the de Piaget’s more than I already did. This is a very good book and I definitely recommend it.