Stars in Your Eyes

October 26, 2015
Family antics save Kurland’s plodding 14th de Piaget time-travel romance (after Dreams of Lilacs) from crumpling under the deadweight of the spineless heroine. Phillip of Artane has managed to ignore his family’s oddities and quirks while growing up, but when Imogen Maxwell tumbles from nowhere into his castle keep, he has to accept not only that time travel actually exists, but that his relatives hop in and out of timelines on a regular basis. Imogen, an American working on a movie set in Scotland, is horrified when she touches a medieval sword and gets thrown back into the Middle Ages. Despite her terror, she is comforted by Phillip’s promise to help her get home and enjoys visiting his gregarious family. Phillip never gets in trouble and is chivalrous to a fault; so much perfection in one hero is grating. Meanwhile, Imogen is a doormat who just gets trampled over. Readers are advised to follow the de Piagets’ example and blithely ignore potential paradoxes or confusion around time travel and the sequence of events. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary Agency.