Guest Review: Till There Was You by Lynn Kurland

Zachary Smith is finished with high-maintenance women, impossible clients, and paranormal adventures. But when he walks through a doorway into a different century— and meets Mary de Piaget—he knows his life isn’t going to turn out quite the way he planned.

Zachary is no stranger to ending up in a different century. He spends his weekends with his brother-in-law finding “gates” and marking them on maps. Sometimes these gates just show up and you’re not sure how it happened. One such gate appears when least expected and Zachary is thrust into the 13th century – in a hallway in someone’s castle. He tries to get away but ends up a guest in the castles dungeon. He’s not quite sure how he’s going to manage to get out of the dungeon much less get back to the 21st century.

Maryanne de Piaget is trying to find a way out of her father’s castle. She’s 27 years old and has managed to get her father to refuse all the offers for her hand in marriage. But this time she’s pretty sure her father will accept the offer from Geoffrey of Styrr and she wants no part of it or him. She feels if she can free the prisoner in the dungeon then he can help her get away. Unfortunately things don’t always turn out the way they’re planned.

This was a wonderful story. The romance that ensues between Maryanne and Zachary is touching yet heartbreaking. Zachary has finally fallen in love and now he has to leave this woman 750 years in the past and go home. He knows that he cannot have this woman he loves and can’t explain to her his reasons – he can’t leave a “footprint” in the past that might affect the future. He falls back on the “I’m not titled therefore not acceptable to your father” excuse and tries his darndest to leave. But in the end he just can’t find it in him to leave her to Geoffrey of Styrr and the horrible things that he feels Styrr will do to Maryanne.

There are so many different issues going on with this story – Maryanne’s father, Maryanne’s cousins, her brother, time travel, murder, intrigue – but it was just a great story and a sweet romance. At first I didn’t think that not having read the previous books was an issue but as the book went on I found myself wondering who all these people were that were involved in the story. The author does give a good description of everyone’s roll in the story but there were some holes that I needed filled. Despite that the story didn’t suffer for lack of my information.

I think this is a great book and would recommend it to anyone who likes a story that contains contemporary, medieval and paranormal elements.

Rating 4 out of 5