Remembrance
Remembrance by Jude Deveraux is the story of a woman who is determined
to improve her life in the present by altering her past lives.
Hayden Lane is a romance writer obsessed with James Tavistock, the hero of her latest novel. Her fascination with the character and his life drives away her fiancé and slowly she becomes immersed in her unfinished novel to the extent that she believes that Jamie is the only man for her.
On an impulse she visits a mind reading psychic named Nora who unknowingly convinces Hayden that Jamie is not only real, he is her soul mate, and destined to be with her three lives from the present one.
Faced with this dilemma Hayden does what any modern woman, used to getting her own way, would do. She decides that she is not going to wait three life times, she is going to find him in this one!
But this task is not as easy as it seems. Hayden does not know what form he has taken, nor does she know where in the world he is. And most distressing of all they are both cursed to remain apart in this lifetime.
Using the curse as a starting point Hayden decides that she will find a way to break this curse and under regression hypnosis (against the advice of Nora) she travels into the past, and the body of Lady de Grey.
In the body of Catherine she finds herself married to her soul mate, Lord Tavistock, who is about to divorce Catherine in favour of another woman.
During this part of the novel both Catherine and Hayden occupy the same body and Hayden soon realises that Catherine is as much a victim of the curse as she herself is. Neither of them seem destined to have their soul mate.
Deciding that the only way to get back to the 20th century is to be hypnotised again she goes to an Edwardian mesmerist who sends her back. Only not to the 20th century, back to the beginning of her lives.
From this point onwards the story reads as a normal medieval novel. Hayden is not active in the body of her previous existence. I like historical novels without a hint of the paranormal but if you are someone who does not as a rule like these you may not want to read this novel, for a large part of this story is the lives of Callie and Talis, the first incarnations of Hayden and her soul mate.
The story of their lives is relayed in Part 2. A pure love story of two souls who are manipulated by those around them as they struggle to remain together. Neither can live without the other and their story is as romantic as it is tragic as we discover the curses of both Callie and Talis that have lasted through time to the present day.
After the telling of the story at the beginning Hayden finds herself back in the body of Catherine. She played no part as Callie and seemed merely to watch the events unfold with no control over the body she was in.
As Catherine she now sets to work to break the curse, but can she succeed and return to her own time. And even if she manages this, how will she ever find her elusive soul mate in her present life.
A good read, but as a large portion of this book is plain historical romance many of the time travel fans may find themselves impatient to finish the lengthy Part 2. If you like any type of historical romance I recommend treating yourself to this book.
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Also by Jude Deveraux : The Summerhouse, Legend and A
Knight in Shining Armor