historical

"To Kiss in the Shadows" by Lynn Kurland. The women fear the arrival of Jason of Artane. However, one Lianna of Grasleigh hides in the shadows of her tapestry yet somehow Jason finds his heart's quest if he can make her see what he sees.

"An Interrupted Tapestry" by Madeline Hunter. Desperate to make remittance on her brother's debt, Gisele tries to sell her best tapestry to old friend Hanseatic League trader Andreas. However, though not good for trade, Andreas and Gisele fall in lieben.

"Dragonswan" by Sherrilyn Kenyon. In Richmond, scholar Dr. Channon "Shannon with a C" MacRae ponders the olde English words on the dragon tapestry when Sebastian Kattalakis disturbs her by muttering something about dragons, crunching and ketchup. He must persuade his beloved that not only does she belong to him, but also he will open the history of the world to her.

"Into the Dreaming" by Karen Marie Moning. In Indiana, Jane Sillee dreams of the Highlander and now owns a medieval tapestry that she has no idea who or why it was sent to her. She looks deeply at it when suddenly she is transported back to 928 Scotland where she meets her Highlander, Aedon MacKinnon. She has to break the evil spell that engulfs the man she has loved since she first dreamed of him.

Though each tale is different except for the theme of a tapestry involved in the plot, fans will enjoy these stories due to wonderful lead characters. The contributors have done great jobs entertaining the romance reading troops.

Harriet Klausner

'Tapestry' is four novellas with a common 'thread' (get it, thread?) between them all -- a tapestry of some sort shows up in every story. I thought it was an interesting thought, and I'm glad I picked it up. This is one of the more entertaining anthologies I've read lately.

Lynn Kurland's 'To Kiss in the Shadows' headlines this new anthology book, and rightfully so! I was completely blown away by this very simple, very sweet story. No time travel, no fairy godmothers, and only a pinch of magic (Jason is rumored to be a warlock). It sure wasn't what I expected from Lynn Kurland, time travel queen extraordinaire! Yet this poignant story blows the other ones out of the water. It's the tale of Lianna, the wealthiest maid at court--and the most miserable. She's horribly disfigured by the pox as a young woman, and despairs of ever finding anyone to love her....and then she meets Jason de Piaget. I just loved this story to pieces! Ten stars!

I skipped the Madeline Hunter story, so I cannot comment on it, and moved right on to Sherrilyn Kenyon's 'Dragonswan'. Now, my opinion of Kenyon is very mixed. Sometimes she writes a very smart story, and sometimes she [doesn't]. But 'Dragonswan' is actually a very cute, entertaining story. It's a curious blend of magic and myth, as a dragon-man from the past, Sebastian, meets up with Channon, our modern heroine. They're both obsessed with a particular tapestry, and the story spins off from there involving time-travel, magic, shape-shifting, a good dose of fantasy, and just about everything but the kitchen sink. It's not my normal taste, but it's still entertaining and fun to read.

Karen Marie Moning's 'Into the Dreaming' is the fourth installment in this book, and I liked it the least. I'm just not a Moning fan, though I know she has a devoted fan-base. The heroine is Jane Sillee (which nearly lost me right there--I loathe cutesy), who is obsessed with a man that she dreams about constantly. She knows he is her perfect mate. Only when she meets Aedon, the 'Vengeance' of the Unseelie King, he's her dream man...but nothing like she thought he would be. This story was fast paced and while I'm not a big fan of Moning, it was entertaining to read.

Buy it for Kurland's story, and read the rest while you're at it.

As with all anthologies, this is a mixed bunch. Lynn Kurland appears to be billed as the star of the collection, with her mediaeval tale about the ward of the king who is shunned by all the other ladies of the court because - at least, I assume this is the reason - she is scarred from the pox. During one particularly nasty scene, she's saved by the intervention of a mysterious gentleman, who turns out to be Kendrick of Artane, the knight everyone wants to meet and bed. The strange thing about this story is that it's not Kendrick who is the hero of Liana's story - it's his brother Jason. Now, what's the point of that? For a while, it almost looked as if Kurland was setting up a threesome! No, made no sense.

Madeline Hunter's story about old friends meeting again when she's poverty-stricken and he's wealthy and about to marry someone else is a very nice piece. Giselle pleads with Andreas to loan her some money, but he won't because her brother already owes him far more money than he could ever repay. But there is one thing Giselle owns which Andreas would pay large amounts for... her virtue.

Sherrilyn Kenyon's short story belongs with her Dark-Hunter series, and is her first were-creature story. Unlike the Katagaria in her books, Sebastian is part-human, part-dragon. He has travelled into the future to 'borrow' the tapestry which Channon is studying; in order to get it from her, he sweet-talks her and takes her to dinner. But he has reckoned without the Arcadian gods, who make her his mate for life... Now what can he do?

The weakest by far in this collection is Karen Marie Morning's Scottish story. Come on, publishers - romances with Scottish Highland characters are just *boring*, apart from having been done to death! This one is unconvincing, and the narrative rivals the heroine's novel for purple prose. Aeden has been kept prisoner by a faerie god (okay, start counting clichés here) for five hundred years. He's forgotten who he used to be. Jane Sillee (yes, the pun appears to be intentional by the author, but believe me, it fits!) has dreamed about having sex with him for most of her life. When she is transported back into the past, she has one month to make him remember himself and her. The dialogue here is wooden, and the narrative alternates between eye-rollingly over the top and plain boring. Zero stars for this one, two for the Kurland, three for the Hunter, but four for Kenyon.

wmr-uk