Adventitious story of love in the making.
348814
This story is an adventure. Two lives spiraling and enter twining with sadness, friendship, mystery, heartbreak, forgiveness, and love. Truly an adventurous ride with a turn that catches you totally off guard. I would recommend this to anyone that loves an adventure and a little saucy love scene. Excellent job Mrs. Willard, you continue to surprise me.
2460635
The different life stories of the characters unravel in a subtle then more vigorous momentum trapping the readers attention. The love moments are intentionally omitted leaving room for reader's imagination. The message of true love and being truthful to yourself as the only way of real happiness is splendid.
4455236
This beginning installment of a coming-of-age saga takes place in a delightfully not Earth, not now place and time. The scenes take place in lavishly described other-worldly places. The characters: the Prince, his friends and those others who influence him,the spirits, undead, and immortals, a henchman, a want-to-be royal, the royal court, even a dragon - are all well spoken in-kind, believable in the story's contexts.

A touching oft romantic adventure tale you'll want to devour, savor, and find elements touching you as they do the story's characters.
4174500
Weaving together different historical and cultural threads, Chris Angus has written an imaginative and fast-paced tale of love, loyalty, betrayal, and sacrifice.  He has created a wonderfully elaborate story based on very human ingredients, such as greed, patriotism, and the common good. The pacing builds to a suspenseful and satisfying conclusion. An inventive adventure.
2491084
3.5
Between 1848 and 1866, the little Church of St Marys in Huntingfield, Suffolk, underwent a transformation from a small, dank country church to the site of what seems to be a glorious internal expanse of religious art. And it was done by the rectors wife.

This is a fictionalised account of how that might have happened, with a fair bit of imagination about the people and their interaction. To me, the story is revealed much like a television docu-drama, as if were witnessing a true story unfolding with a narrator who is sometimes restrained but occasionally bursts out with a sudden lusty scene.

I found it less engrossing than some historical fiction, but I know others have loved it. The author creates a good sense of place. William and Mildred Holland have been travelling abroad, where she, particularly, has been enthralled with exotic locales, costumes, and climate. Now William is returning to take over the position hes been waiting for as the rector of the little St Marys Church.

A dismal sense of damp filled her nostrils as Mildred pushed open the door of St Mary the Virgin church. In the entrance, she waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark. Air was cold on her cheek and a regular dripping sound echoed from somewhere. A trickle of anxiety ran through her.

She is deeply unhappy and lonely in the village while her husband is admired by all and in his element as the new rector. They are cut from different cloth. But she presses him to clean and renovate the church.

Shed been inspired by a wonderful painted ceiling when she and William visited the Church of St Martins in the Swiss alps.

What kind of person could be fixated on such a vast, intricate and painstaking task, in the sure expectation that few outside his village would ever see it? Only God would be his witness. Now she asked herself; was she embarking on a similar road?

This is the story of how she embarked on that road  how a dank little English church gained new life due to the dedication of Mildred Millie Holland.

There is a lot about paint and painting, but I particularly liked the gold leaf, ordered for the angels wings.

With deliberate care, books of gold leaf are lifted from the heavy leather pouches in which they have travelled from London. These glittering pages reveal no stories but magic dances on their mirrored surfaces. A gentle breeze could tear the shiny sheets from uncertain fingers, so fine and thinly beaten are they. Only the heat from Mildreds hand makes the gold leaf rise like a magic carpet from the books of gold.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Urbane Publications for allowing me a copy to review. The quotations are from this copy, so they may have changed in the final edition, but they will give you a sense of the author and her style. I expect she will attract many more visitors to Huntingfield.

Heres a link to St Marys Church in Huntingfield:

[...]

And heres a link to the Swiss Church of St Martins, where Millie got her inspiration:

[...]
456692
I enjoyed the simplicity of how love was born in the story. The grafics of part of the story were almost too much. Would loved to have had a continuation to see where Enis and Madeline's lives would take them. Refreshing to know that a persons real attraction is not in surface attraction!
3995549
This is one of the sweetest, most sincere love stories I've read in a long, long time. Too often, these books race along and, because of their length, don't allow any time for readers to wrap their mind around why two people are supposedly drawn to each other -- other than the old stand-by, lust. I always wonder in that fictitious part of my brain whether most of these characters would still be together say, 15, 20 years down the road.

In this story, Lucy Monroe introduces us to two characters who genuinely grow to like and love each other. It helps that they're both very nice people -- also an oddity for Presents books. Yes, there's a physical attraction, but that really pales in comparison to the love, companionship and support they give each other. So many real-life romances and relationships work because each person makes the other one a better, more complete and happier version of themselves. That's the basis of this story.

As reviewers have pointed out, there isn't any of the high-edge drama leading to love everlasting, but it would have been totally out of place in this story. These two were interesting enough in their own right and had a strong, believable connection between them physically, mentally and emotionally. It didn't need any artificial angst.

Nicely done. I'm looking forward to the second book.
38868
A wonderful love story that could have happened. The characters were believeable and interesting.  I loved it and was enthralled all the way through.
2825878
I began reading this story on my kindle while visiting Arkansas with my wife.  I didn't expect much, but I had many hours to fill/kill.  I was almost immediately engrossed in this true tale of love frustrated and delayed, enjoying every minute watching how this romantic tale would turn out.  I was so enchanted I went on to read the woman's story in Both Sides Now.  The fact that this was a true story made it all the more delectable.
3554756
This book introduced love in all of its facets.  Learning that her birth mother and grandmother were near her and they wanted to meet her starts this book on an adventure of discovery of how love grows and adapts.  Beautifully written and presented, it will be a favorite.
1576152
Love is found in the most unexpected places and times.
The author has. Made this love real and I want to find out where it will be taken.
4661735
I enjoyed the untraveled path Tessa took in telling a medieval romantic story in a unique, unexpected way. The story was delightful and a page turner. Star-crossed lovers find a way to beat the odds and find a way to be together that goes outside the expected societal boundaries. A real fist bump!
1771428
This was a delightful and creative story that was hard to put down...a cute love story with a few surprises along the way. I hope there's a sequel coming.
1515052
This story was at once, sad and then bursting with the essence of love to come. My wife and I couldn't put it down until we had finished reading. Thank you, Danny and Debbie Scott.
4283594
This story starts out slow but builds into a captivating love story about two equally damaged souls, it  knits them together into an unlikely union. Unique?  No, not really, but portrayed with such exquisite timing as to be satisfyingly charming. The love story alone would only rate 3+ or 4- stars at best. Where the story gains leverage is how these two unique individuals enrich, challenge, and deliver polished, professional students, in spite of a system designed to produce mediocricy qqat best and failure at it's worse. Words and Pictures is well worth the time spent to watch...Enjoy
524683
What is great about a story like this is that there are many elements to play around with. But what was more surprising was how ready I was to accept the hero's love. Still working on understanding it.
3973282
What a tense, dramatic, love story.  Yet, one could almost imagine that it might have been played out in many hearts during different time periods.  So well written and thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end.