Remembrance

November 28, 1994
Every cause has its champion. Now past-life therapy-the practice of curing neuroses through hypnotic regression into previous lifetimes-has its own in bestselling romance writer Deveraux, whose latest concerns a similarly bestselling romance writer whose problems stretch back centuries. Hayden Lane becomes so obsessed with her fictional hero, James Tavistock, that she loses her fiance, her editor's favor and, increasingly, her sense of reality. After a visit to a psychic convinces Hayden that her troubles are due to past-life tragedies, she consults a hypnotist who transports her back to Edwardian England, when Hayden was Catherine Tavistock, Lady de Grey, and married to Adam Tavistock (the embodiment of the fictional James). Adam is about to divorce Catherine for alleged rampant infidelity, but in fact Catherine is still a virgin, with Adam unable to consummate their marriage. To get to the bottom of this problem, Catherine, whose body now contains Hadley's consciousness as well as her own, allows herself to be hypnotized back to Elizabethan times, where the tale unfolds of how earlier incarnations of Catherine/Hayden and Adam/James loved one another but betrayed that love. It is the curse of lost love and dashed happiness ensuing from these 16th-century events that Hayden/Catherine must now break in Catherine's era, changing history and allowing Hayden to find happiness and her real hero. The novel gets off to a shaky start as the author has her alter ego rattle on about the virtues of romance writers and the vices of the reviewers who fail to praise them, but once Hayden discovers her past lives, this is standard Deveraux-that is, a smart and savvy swoon of a yarn. Doubleday Book Club main selection.

August 1, 1994
In the sort of time travel tale that has become more popular among romance readers (see Kristin Ramsdell, "Romance," p. 64-66), romance writer Hayden Lane is transported to Edwardian England, where she inhabits the body of the notorious Lady de Grey.

December 15, 1994
Hayden Lane is a successful but lonely romance writer whose inability to maintain a serious relationship leads her to seek the guidance of a clairvoyant. Under hypnosis, she travels back in time to Elizabethan England where she meets her soul mate and lover, Talis, and learns that the root of her current problems is a curse that will not allow them to remain together. Fueled by their desperate unhappiness, they commit suicide, thus sealing their tragic fate--they will be united in future lives but never permanently. In their next encounter, which takes place in Victorian England, Hayden is Lady de Gray, and her husband, Talis (now Adam Tavistock), is about to divorce her. It is here she uses her tough, outspoken 1994 persona to break the curse, so that Talis and she might find peace together. Unfortunately, their happiness is short-lived because Hayden must return to the twentieth century. True to the romance tradition, Deveraux writes of the unfulfilled love this couple has shared for centuries while delivering a tale of intrigue and deception that readers will find fulfilling. This quirky, fast-moving novel should appeal to all romance readers, particularly those interested in the time-travel subgenre. ((Reviewed December 15, 1994))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1994, American Library Association.)