As You Wish by Jennifer Malin is part of the Time Passages series published by Penguin Putnam (Jove) and appears to be Ms Malin's first novel.  Certainly there is no indication in the novel of any other works she has published.

This novel is the story of American Tourist Leah Cantrell who while on vacation in England takes a tour of the Solebury House and grounds.  Standing at a spring in the grounds Leah is unsure what she could wish for but as she looks into the water she sees an old fashioned coin dating back to Regency times.

When she tosses it back into the pool she casually wishes she could know who made the original wish with that coin and whether it came true or not.

Her careless words have a startling effect however and Leah finds herself falling into the shallow pool and engulfed in the waters which were shallow one minute and deep the next.

Pulled from the spring by the handsome David Traymore Leah soon discovers that his old fashioned clothes are not part of a historical tour of the house, and that she has in fact travelled back in time to 1815.

David Traymore is the illegitimate son of the Marquis of Solebury.  However of the two sons the Marquis has it is David who is the one worthy of inheriting the estate and not the gambling wastrel who is forever asking advances on his allowance and wasting the money as fast as he receives it.

But while the Marquis is aware of both his legitimate son's shortcomings and his illegitimate son's integrity David is too bitter to accept the man's attempts to make amends, and he stays as far away from Solebury as he can.  His short visit to check on his friend, the new wife of the Marquis is further extended when he pulls Leah from the spring and finds himself keeping a close eye on her.

Unsure whether she is insane, a spy or something worse, David will not believe her story of time travel and is determined to discover the true reason for her appearance and to keep her away from the spring, which he is convinced she was trying to drown herself in.

This story is a good love story but is lacking in historical detail.  Other than references to spying for Napolean there is little indication that Leah is in any particular time at all.

However for those who are not particular about historical detail and focus only on the love story this is still worth the reading.  It especially picks up in the latter half of the novel when there is less need for history to be included.

A nice little romance novel but disappointing in historical content.

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