June 25, 2001
Historical romance favorite Medeiros (The Bride and the Beast) once again puts her personal spin on a classic fairy tale, this time lightly adapting Sleeping Beauty
by casting a man as the sleeper. Laura Fairleigh, orphaned by her rector father, has been raised by a kind benefactress who leaves her Arden Manor upon her death, provided Laura marry before she turns 21—just three weeks away when the story opens. Laura learns that her benefactress's estranged son, Sterling Harlow, a roguish duke known as the Devil of Devonbrooke, plans to return to claim his home. Laura, determined that Sterling not throw her and her young brother and sister out, literally prays to God for a man. Her prayers are answered when handsome Sterling suffers a bad fall from a horse and she discovers him unconscious. She has no idea who he is. Her kiss wakes him, but he has lost all memory of his identity. Ever resourceful, Laura convinces him they are betrothed. Will Laura get him to the altar before he discovers her deceit? And what will Laura do when she realizes that the man she plans to wed is her sworn enemy? Sweetly tinged with Christian overtones, tartly spiced with bawdy references and sexy love scenes, laced with light humor and populated with a cast of fun characters, this latest not-so-Grimm tale should please Medeiros's sturdy fan base, perhaps winning her a few new converts as well.
June 1, 2001
The irrepressible Medeiros pens another irresistible fairy-tale romance. Her Sleeping Beauty is Sterling Harlow, the devilish Duke of Devonbrooke, who becomes amnesiac after being thrown from his horse. Found by orphaned Laura Fairleigh, who had been taken in by the kindly Lady Eleanor, he awakens to her kiss. Laura must marry before her twenty-first birthday to inherit the dilapidated manor her benefactress left her, so finding a handsome gentleman in the woods who doesn't know who he is seems the perfect opportunity to create the man of her dreams. She assures him that he was too gallant to kiss her and that he never takes spirits; she then finds him a position as a parish rector. Soon he falls in love with Laura and her younger siblings, who restore the joy he lost when his father sold him as an heir to his abusive uncle, but family entanglements and old resentments threaten new love, Laura's inheritance, and future happiness.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)
August 3, 2001
Laura Fairleigh needs a husband, and she needs him in three weeks at least if she wants to keep a roof over her family's head. According to the terms of Lady Eleanor's will, Laura has to marry by her 21st birthday in order to inherit the house; otherwise, it will go to the infamous Duke of Devonbrooke, a man not known for his charity. But husbands are hard to come by, especially for penniless, intelligent vicars' daughters. So when fate lays a handsome, unconscious stranger across her path who, when she impulsively kisses him, wakes up with amnesia, Laura does what any desperate woman would do: she claims they are betrothed and sets out to plan the wedding. An intrepid heroine who knows what she wants, an arrogant hero with a past to repair, and a plot built upon deception but laced with sensuality and humor result in an entertaining reversal of the classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Medeiros (The Bride and the Beast) is a popular writer of historical romances with a humorous touch; she lives in Tennessee, and this is her first hardcover.
Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.