Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Ewan is one of Boston’s leading genealogy experts. When a would-be bridegroom comes looking for confirmation that there are no skeletons in his ancestral closet, Ewan considers turning the job down. Trey is a jerk of the highest order and yet Ewan experiences an infuriating attraction that’s easy to justify. Trey’s exactly his type—a carbon copy of the man Ewan’s been looking for his entire life.
Harder to explain is the sense of recognition that leaves Ewan speechless the moment Trey steps into his office. Or the stomach-churning sensation at the thought of casting the job aside.
Trey gets more appealing by the day, leaving Ewan struggling with forbidden desire for his client. Desire not helped by strange voyeuristic dreams that have started to haunt his sleep. Dreams that appear to be an echo of the past…
Lovers Entwined by Lillian Francis is a moving, romantic story, one that I loved. Based on the belief that true love has no boundaries, even that of time, it follows the deep love of Ewan/Owen and Trey/Tristan through centuries of tragedies until we find their latest reincarnations in Ewan, a leading genealogist, and surfer/playboy Trey, a groom whose future father in law is looking for reasons for his daughter to dump him. Ewan has been hired to look into Trey’s family background for anything that could embarrass Trey’s fiance along with her father and his huge political aspirations. But what Ewan finds soon starts to bind Trey and Ewan together, as odd facts, places and names trigger nightmares and recollections they should not be having.
As Trey spends more time with Ewan, it ignites the flashbacks to the other couples they once were and the tragedies that ended their lives but never their love for each other. As each follow the other through death and time, the names change only slightly as does the location and Francis connects them all in a manner that is logical and meaningful. And heartbreaking. Prepare to have the tissues close by when each one meets their death once more. I was sobbing like mad several times in this story, even though I knew it was coming. But the power of the descriptions and the emotional strength of those moments won through and I was lost.
There are some important, believable secondary characters too. Trey’s grandfather, Pops, for one. I adored him. And his nurse. Much harder to understand was Trey’s fiance who was more of a one-note character. Her transformation from someone who Trey could love to the cold woman we met was never fully explained so she came off as just too one dimensional in a story with characters you believed in and a love that lasted through time.
Flashbacks can be a tricky thing, especially when going back not just one era but several. But Francis handles each flashback and couple almost as a separate story, giving them the attention each is due. She gives us a real connection to every reincarnation, and as that love is lost, all that affection and hope is transferred to the most recent couple…Ewan and Trey.
Lillian Francis is quickly becoming a “must read” for me. I loved her “Theory Unproven“, and now her “Lovers Entwined”. I highly recommend both of these stories and author Lillian Francis!
Cover art by Meredith Russell. This cover really works. It establishes the characters of Ewan and Trey as well as their counterparts of Owen and Tristan. I loved it.
Sales Links: All Romance (ARe) | Amazon |
Book Details:
ebook, 2nd edition
Published August 3rd 2015 by Smashwords Edition
(first published December 6th 2012)
ISBN139781310580345
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 