One Magic Moment by Lynn Kurland
Berkley
Paranormal
ISBN: 978-0-515-14951-7
Reviewed by Vanessa




Dr. Tess Alexander holds a PhD in Medieval Political Thought and she has been bequeathed Castle Sedgwick in England from the last Earl of Sedgwick.  She has been residing in the castle for the last year and has seen or felt varying degrees of paranormal activity at the castle.  Even though she has witnessed ghosts in her halls and in fact, has recently seen her sister sent back into time, Tess refuses to hold on to that reality and instead avoids it and any thoughts of it because of the pain it brings to her.  One could say that overall she is a strong woman, but she doesn’t always like to face things that make her uncomfortable and anything to do with paranormal activity – well that falls in the uncomfortable category!  She seems to have an affinity for knocking off the side mirror on her car and so her next trip into town has her facing the new owner of the garage.  This new owner bears a remarkable resemblance to her younger sister’s husband – but that can’t be, as she had personally seen them leave the present to venture 800 years into the past!  Tess knows that he must be related in some way to her brother-in-law but she refuses to acknowledge this, as it will make her face things that she would rather not face.

John de Piaget is a chivalrous, private, studio musician who likes to restore expensive cars and doesn’t want to talk about his past, preferring to believe that he doesn’t have one – at least one that doesn’t date back hundreds of years!  When he sees Tess he finds himself drawn to her as she takes his breath away.   John has been living in the present for the past eight years without too many difficulties and then he meets Tess.  Originally John was only going to stay in present day England for a year then return to his time to live the life of a fourth son to a lord, but due to an incident that was not anticipated he has chosen to stay in the present.

John presents a mystery that Tess would like to solve.  However, he also presents a problem that she would like to avoid – that is time travel/paranormal activity and what exactly has become of her sister who had gone into the past to find her own happiness.  Both characters want to avoid certain aspects of their lives, but they are not always free to, as Fate has decided to conspire against both of them.  Since Fate will NOT be thwarted, these two are going to have to learn to work together as there is definitely someone or something else working against them!

One Magic Moment is a sweet, tenderhearted time travel romance with endearing characters and visits with old friends introduced in previous books.  Lynn Kurland makes you want to find one of those infamous gateways to the past and find your very own knight in shining armor!  I truly enjoyed One Magic Moment, a heartwarming tale from one of my favorite scribes.

One Magic Moment started out slow as Tess and John are introduced, but their interactions in the following pages were well worth the wait.  I found myself eagerly anticipating their verbal banters throughout One Magic Moment.  The scene where Tess and John have a disagreement and she acts a little rashly was a bit humorous – I know a little over the top, but it seemed to fit with her character.  I also liked the scenes where John admitted that Tess bothered him and didn’t think they should see each other anymore.  Yet, he couldn’t seem to stick with his suggestion for very long.  Later, of course, Tess admits that John bothers her as well.

Given Tess’ scholarly knowledge of medieval times one would think she acted a bit idiotic when she was placed in the actual situations, but in her defense I have to say that knowing how something went and actually being on the scene when events transpired are two remarkably different things.  In my opinion, Ms. Kurland handled that situation true to form in One Magic Moment and if I were Tess I would be ecstatically over the top with joy because John de Piaget had my back!

John de Piaget is a true romance hero, one that you long to have by your side in all things.  He is a bit alpha, but not at the expense of Tess and he has the knight aspect down!  You don’t even miss the fact that there are no bedroom scenes because One Magic Moment is more about the growth of these characters outside of the bedroom.  I also liked that John and Tess could actually reason out what the other was thinking as they spent more time together so that they could then cut off any potential misunderstandings before they blew out of proportion.  John’s proposal to Tess was very charming and honest: he vowed that he would “shield you with my name, protect you with my sword, and sheepdog you until you begged me to stop.  I want forever.”  Of course I was ready to yell out YES!!   One Magic Moment was full of several magic moments and I enjoyed every one of them!

I eagerly away Ms. Kurland’s next offering of time traveling journeys and these magnificent characters’ that she brings to life in her stories.  Because they make you believe that chivalry is NOT dead, not when you can go back to the past and get one of those fantastically hot knights to take care of you the way you want to be taken care of!   I Joyfully Recommend One Magic Moment for no other reason than I just love a good, sweet romance.