Once Upon A Kiss [Paperback]

Despite myself, I liked this book, at least the first part. Aurelia was an endearing character despite the phoney new-age mystic fluff added to pad the plot. I particularly enjoyed her 'exploration' of the outside world, and the character of Julian.

Things I didn't like? Aurelia's age isn't mentioned anywhere in the plot. I have difficulty getting into romances if I don't know the basics of the main characters. Also, I liked the character of Marissa. I wished she and Aurelia could have been friends rather than fighting over Baird. Number 1 peeve: Baird! This character had zero personality, and the romance between him and Aurelia was unbelievable. Aurelia was too immature and naive for me to consider the romance with a modern man credible (or satisfying). Finally: Julian. The romance between him and Marissa seemed an afterthought. The author would've given SOME indication these characters were attracted to each other early on.

Started off 4 stars, but ended up being merely an average novel with some good points.

I liked the fact that Aurelia assumes that she had just awoken from a nap and judges everything that happens around her by her 9th century beliefs. She looks for her father, whom she believes is prisoner of her enemy, Bard (Ms. Cross uses a slight change spelling on our hero and enemy's name) and explains all of the changes she sees by Bard's sorcery. In a society that had many conquerors and blended many different religious beliefs (Norse, Christian, Celtic and "pagan"), weird happenings could have easily been explained by magic, sorcery or witchcraft. She holds everyone in the modern world to the customs of the 800's, and it is interesting to see how she interprets things. Baird now owns the castle (which Aurelia assumes he got as Bard by conquering it, though he bought it in modern times to build a hotel) so when he talks to his interior designer, Aurelia assumes that "king" Baird is lavishing his largesse on his layman. Why else would a woman dress like Marissa and be allowed to spend the kings money so freely? There are many more such "misunderstandings" and I think that most of them are well done. Like others though, my biggest criticism of the book is that it took Aurelia SO long to figure out what happened, especially since she knew the prophecy.

I am not so sure I liked the fact that our key players had selective memories, or some remembered all of the past and others did not. Except for ease of writing the plot, there seemed to be no explanation why our villain would remember his past lives and our hero would not, putting him at a distinct disadvantage. Baird could also have been a stronger character all around. For a savvy, cutthroat businessman, he did not come across that way. Probably not the best book I have ever read, but by far not the worst either.