It was okay. I'm not sure that the characterization was handled amazing. It also seemed a little reliant on the other books in the series. ( )

Peaches Alexander's life is good enough, but when her twin sister pretends to be her and ruins her career and she ends up at a house party where she's not really welcome, or so it seems, and her nemesis is there, Stephen de Piaget, who actually likes her but finds it difficult to talk coherently when she's around, her life just seems to have become a complete mess. When she ends up stumbling through a time portal she finds that maybe Stephen has his uses.

It's a fairly light, charming story with some fun characters. I found it drew me in and kept me reading. ( )

Oh, [a:Lynn Kurland|10359|Lynn Kurland|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1282191556p2/10359.jpg]. Could it be that you are getting tired of writing about the de Piaget and MacLeod families? I know it's tough to find new and unique circumstances and obstacles to romance, and I really had hope this time because the characters seemed to have some sauciness going on at the beginning. But then, quickly, it all seemed too easy on the romance front.

And then there seemed to be an actual time travel paradox going on at the end! If a certain party read certain historical documents, and then other certain parties went back in time and altered those historical documents, does it not follow that the first certain party did not, in fact, read those historical documents in the new and improved timeline? And so, does it not follow that they would have no case and would not then cause a certain other party to perish?

Much as I love this series of books, especially the earlier ones (big shout out to [b:A Garden In The Rain|13078713|A Garden In The Rain|Lynn Kurland|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nocover/60x80.png|1915771] and [b:If I Had You: De Piaget Family Series, Book 2|10268003|If I Had You De Piaget Family Series, Book 2|Lynn Kurland|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1295489162s/10268003.jpg|1353086]), perhaps it's time to take a step back and look for fresh material. It saddens me. Nobody else really writes good time travel romance. You have the corner on this market. ( )

Review courtesy of Dark Faerie Tales

Quick & Dirty: Get drawn in every time you pick it up.

Opening Sentence: If life were a set of scales, Peaches Alexander could safely say that Fate had just dumped a load of bricks on the opposite balance.

The Review:

Ever come across a storyline and find it difficult to be able to summarize it all in one page?

We enter this story as our heroine, Peaches’ life has suffered a major upheaval. It seems that her sister intercepted a phone call from one of her more well-known clients. Peaches Alexander is a personal organizer for the wealthy, keeping their offices and personal spaces clean, tidy and efficient. But when her twin, Tess, goes off on a prominent TV personality, Peaches’ business goes up in flames. Also, on this day of great change, just as Peaches is making a decision about her future, an invitation to a traditional English ball hosted by the dreamy David Preston, Duke of Kenneworth arrives. And it seems that a happily ever after, complete with knight in shining armor, may truly be within her reach. Unfortunately, like any good fairy tale, the trip to her HEA is riddled with speed bumps and rain storms. And the presence of the one whom she believes is her worst enemy.

The hero, Stephen de Piaget, Viscount Haulton, also a baron, and future earl, is painfully aware of Peaches and of her feelings towards him. But he certainly does not return those sentiments. In fact, his feelings for the very pretty Miss Alexander have him tongue-tied whenever he finds himself in her immediate vicinity, and in this condition, has tasted his foot more than once. One evening he is set upon by three ghosts, or shades as they are referred to in this series, and they talk him into attending a ball at the home of his greatest rival, none other than David Preston. As he reaches David’s home he finds himself taking the position of Peaches’ protector, even if she can’t know about it. And, by the end of the party, he realizes that no matter how she feels about him, he means to have her.

Peaches overhears some rather disturbing gossip while in the loo, and decides that she needs to escape from the party for a time. When she stumbles upon a time-traveling gate, her escape not only takes her away from the party, but drops her into the Middle Ages, where she is taken prisoner by some of David’s ancestors. (It is not exactly clear to me how all this works, and I assume it is explained in the earlier books in the series.) When Stephen notices her absence, he begins to look for her outside in the gardens. Like the prince in Cinderella, he is confronted by a solitary shoe, and a missing princess in a beautiful ball gown. When Stephen deduces where, or more aptly when, Peaches has disappeared to, he quickly prepares himself and rushes off to her rescue.

Their relationship develops more quickly from here on out, and eventually it becomes Stephen who needs a bit of rescuing in a time long past, when it appears as if his titles, estates and well way of life are at stake. And by the end of our time-traveling duo’s trip into the past love is truly in the air. And this love is enough to last centuries.

I must say, I enjoyed this story very much. So much in fact, that when I went to thumb back through looking for a notable scene, I ended up reading it all over again. Twice! Which I’m sure is fantastic news to my esteemed site creator, since she’s been in need of reviews…lol. It is so nice to, every so often, read a story for the story. A nice gentle flowing read that makes you feel good on a bad day. And lord knows there’s enough of those to go around.

Notable Scene:

The bloody palace was gone. In its place was a hut. Well, it wasn’t exactly a hut. If she’d been out in the Middle Ages looking for a quaint little place to crash in for the night, she would have found it perfectly acceptable. But when compared to the splendor that had been Kenneworth House, this was something else entirely.

It was a hovel.

And the unkempt, barely intelligible men standing in a little semicircle facing her were not wearing the standard uniform of David’s footmen.

She made a very quick list of her options. She could scream, which was tempting; she could faint, which was even more tempting; or she could run. She considered the last, only she wasn’t quite sure where she would run to. She backed up onto the gate and hopped up and down a time or two.

Nothing.

She swore, because it seemed like the right thing to do. She was left with her third resort, which was to run. Surely, she would find another gate somewhere in the area. After all, England and Scotland were hotbeds of paranormal activity. And who could blame a shade? The climate was unreasonably lovely, what with all that rain and cloudiness and lovely winds caressing the trees.

Or perhaps they stayed for the history. There were castle stairs to come thumping down, old enemies to continue to vanquish, king and country to defend—as well as any number of lesser territories and families to uphold the honor of.

Then again, it might have been, she had to concede, continued irritation about the food. She was all for a lovely bed-and-breakfast or well-appointed hotel, but she had had the worst meals of her life in London.

She realized that the moon, which she hadn’t noticed before, had come out in time to reveal her companions carrying a pointy thing each. She considered running again, but she only had one shoe left. Maybe the gate had rested long enough and would now carry her back to where she was supposed to be. She put aside her antipathy for everyone and everything at the future Kenneworth House and jumped forward onto the time gate.

She looked up, but no joy.

She decided that perhaps she just hadn’t been firm enough, so she jumped a few more times. Her trio of companions seemed to find the sight rather alarming because they backed away, crossing themselves, spitting over their shoulders, and making all kinds of other hand motions she didn’t recognize but imagined she wouldn’t care to know the meaning of.

It took a while, but she eventually got tired of jumping. It wasn’t that she wasn’t in decent shape, it was just that she was in one heel and a fancy ball gown, and she was slightly stressed.

She finally stopped and leaned over with her hands on her knees to try to catch her breath.

And that was the last thing she knew before blackness descended.

De Piaget Family Series:

1. Another Chance to Dream

2. If I Had You

3. Dreams of Stardust

4. When I Fall in Love

5. The Christmas Cat

6. One Enchanted Evening

7. This is All I Ask

8. The More I See You

9. From This Moment On

10. Tapestry

11. Stardust of Yesterday

12. Till There Was You

13. One Magic Moment

14. All For You

FTC Advisory: Berkley/Penguin provided me with a copy of All For You. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review. ( )

All For You
(de Piaget Family Series, Book #17)
by Lynn Kurland

Rating: 3.5
Genre: Contemporary Romance | Time-Travel

FALLING THROUGH TIME IS DANGEROUS… Peaches Alexander is thrilled to receive an unexpected invitation to a weekend party given by the handsome, eligible Duke of Kenneworth. The only problem: Stephen de Piaget, a stuffy medieval studies scholar who seems determined to get in the way. Peaches has absolutely no desire to get involved with Stephen, until a quirk of Fate sends her hurtling through time…

UNLESS THERE’S SOMEONE TO CATCH YOU. Stephen de Piaget has been leading a double life: respectable professor by day, knight-in-training during holidays and summer terms. When Peaches goes missing, Stephen knows he’s the only one that can rescue her from medieval peril. Little do they know that the greatest danger they’ll face won’t be the business end of a sword, but their own unruly hearts….

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Audentes Fortuna Juvat
Fortune Favors the Bold
-Aunt Edna

My Review: Peaches Alexander is slowly coming to terms with the uncomfortable truth that she is utterly distraught with her current lifestyle. Not only is she pretty-much broke and unsatisfied with her current job, but she also cannot stop foolishly dreaming about some magical fairy-tale escape, similar to what happened to her sisters. So, when a private invitation from the Duke of Kenneworth arrives for a weekend house party, Peaches eagerly jumps at the opportunity to live out (at least temporally) her princess-inspired fantasy and, with a bit of luck, find her handsome prince at the fancy-dress ball.

Unbeknownst to Peaches, the academically brilliant and annoyingly titled Stephen de Piaget happens to also be invited to the same weekend house party. And as bothersome as he can be, he does have some very tempting offers (ex. a Medieval castle, talented sword/Claymore skills, and a secretive pining crush for only Miss Alexander) that could easily appeal to a women craving something magical in her life. Now Peaches must battle with her nagging feelings that Stephen is out to either: 1) ruin her life (but can it really get any worse?) or 2) be her knight in shining armor (ok, really knight in tweed!). And, as Stephen begins to prove himself by saving her from various embarrassing, exhausting, and somewhat disastrous situations, Peaches realizations that "even Cinderella had gotten off to a rocky start" helps her decide to finally let her heart lead where it will ... which could really be toward the future and even the past.

All in all, an enjoyable book from a time-travel author I always look forward to reading. Peaches story really took on a more contemporary romance feel this time compared to previous character narratives within the same series. Moreover, her and Stephens courtship was in its own way peculiar, but believable as well as somewhat silly and sweet. Unfortunately, the story's pace was rather slow at times and the heated sexual scenes were limited for the reader, but that was easily made up for by Peaches foolishly funny mannerism and her stubborn determination to experience her fairy-tale fantasy - no matter the odds against her. A fun bonus, if you are a fan of the series, is that you will treated to some great past character updates as well as receive some fascinating foreshadowing and future character introductions. So, if you are a young at heart reader who takes pleasure in fairy-tale adventures, check out All For You -- good fun!!

Likes: Two Words -- Stubborn Determination and boy, does Stephen display that. He was always coming to Peaches rescue despite her rude, straightforward, and sometimes rather distant treatment toward him. So, who wouldn't enjoy a male lead like that?

Dislikes: More time-travel please!!! For some reason, I felt this book was severely lacking in that department and I really kept wishing for more historical adventures with all the crazy fun drama that occurs during the characters rocky adjustment to the past. But, sadly, the time-travel trips within All For You were almost too easy, too planned, and overall too blah in comparison to some of Kurland's other works.

Chapter One/Paragraph One: "If life were a set of scales, Peaches Alexander could safely say that Fate had just dumped a load of bricks on the opposite balance."

Favorite { Scene, Character or Setting }: Scene
She could only hope that the blasted thing {suitcase} was waterproof. If it wasn't, her clothes were going to need some series attention once she was in what she could only assume based on the invitation would be an embarrassingly opulent room.
She took another look around, just to see if the sleet that had begun a renewed assault on her was going to be moving past anytime soon, then jumped a little at the sight of lights coming up the road behind her.
Great. It was one thing to sneak in the kitchen door and make a dash for her room where she could lock the door, shower, then pull herself together before she made her grand entrance down the main staircase. It was another thing entirely to be seen in her bedraggled state by a party guest with a potentially very big mouth. She looked around herself quickly to see if there might be somewhere to hid, but unfortunately all that surrounded her were foggy acres and manicured grounds.
Dotted by topiaries, as it happened. Well, there was obviously only one thing to do, and she did it without hesitation. She leaped off the road and well into the verge, plopped her suitcase down flat on the soggy ground, then hopped up on it and struck a pose. It was foggy enough, surely, that she would just look like a toga-draped goddess atop a pedestal, shrouded by mystery and a few bird dropping.
She remained motionless as the car came closer. It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to say she prayed with great fervor that the owner of that automobile would be so overwhelmed by the sight of Kenneworth House riding up majestically in the distance that she would simple drive on and not be looking over onto the right of the road.
Alas, things were just not going her way.
Her mother would have told her it was karma dealing out just deserts for having traded her hummus and sprouts sandwiches to unsuspecting fifth graders for Twinkies and Ding Dongs. Peaches probably would have told any number of her clients the same thing.
But having karma gunning for her was another thing entirely.
The car slowed to stop. Peaches left her hands outstretched in a goddess pose in hopes the driver would simply think he or she was seeing things and move right along.
The driver's side window began a slow, agonizing descent into its allotted space in the door. Peaches fully expected to see David, the Duke of Kenneworth, frowning thoughtfully at a statue none of his ancestors had put there.
Instead, the driver was revealed to be none other the Stephen de Piaget, vexter of innocent life organizers and chief tormenter of poor, helpless Yanks who were currently freezing their statuary off just north of the Yorkshire moors.
He frowned thoughtfully for a moment or two, then rolled his window back up.
Typical.
Peaches could hardly wait to see his tailgates, but it occurred to her that if she did, that would mean that he was driving up the way to the manor, which meant he was going to be in the same space with her for the weekend.
Well, at least she wouldn't have to see him in the immediate future--
Or, maybe she would.
He had put on his flashers and gotten out of the car. She wanted to warn him that he was going to ruin his lovely dress shoes by tromping around in the slush, but she could only stand there, her arms outstretched and her mouth gaping open, as he walked across the greensward toward her.
And then he looked her straight in the eye.

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