I really, really like this book.  It’s set back in the day when people still lived in castles and knights were the coveted profession of the day.  Siri’s husband and brother both die in Venice and her brother’s will sends her to his friend in their father’s home town of Poitou, France.  When she gets there people start having a very strange reaction to her and she comes to find out she is the spitting image of her caretakers dead wife.  Of course this brings out the best and the worst in everyone who loved Clothilde as she had a tragic death.

Siri immediately falls in love with her caretaker Triston but is it possible for Triston to fall in love with her?  And what about all the other suitors vying for Siri’s hand?  One of the suitors in particular is so suave I actually fell in love with him myself.

Twists and turns and more twists and turns. Illuminations is a really exciting read.  Just when you think you’ve got things figured out you get pulled in another exciting direction.  All of it plausible and a whole lot of fun.

There’s something that cracks me up though about this book and it is that Siri is so beautiful, beyond description, that almost every man that comes in contact with her wants her so badly he tries to force himself on her.  Now obviously this was a different day and age where women didn’t have the freedom and respect that we have now but every time I read about someone trying to have his way with her it just cracked me up.  Except for one point at the end where I was horrified for her but all the other times when men “raked” their gaze across her I got a little giggly.  I mean how pretty could she really be?

Which brings me to a really trivial point but I hate it when the heroine or the hero are on the cover of the book because they never live up to my version of what they should look like.  Sorry if some of you know her but the girl on the cover is just an ordinarily pretty girl to me.  Not the spectacular beauty DiPastena writes about.  I know that’s silly and it certainly didn’t stop me from reading but just a little pet peeve I have with the covers of books.

I highly recommend Illuminations of the Heart by Joyce DiPastena.  A really fun read.

Alisa

I had no expectations of this book when I started reading. And I’m glad I didn’t. I was hooked by the second chapter. It’s a fun, simple, enjoyable read. It’s definitely a romance, full of sexual tension and forbidden love. But there’s also friendship, knighthood, thieves, and a little bit of mystery.

At one point, I felt like it might be a little predictable, but all of the interesting sub-plots kept me distracted from what I thought I might be able to guess. And it held my attention throughout the whole novel.

One of my only critiques is that the main character is described as being so stunningly beautiful that every man lusts after her. First, I have never in my life met someone who could possibly live up to that standard. I believe that everyone has a different idea of what “beautiful” is. And even though some people are clearly beautiful, I don’t think every man would react in the same way. It also bothered me that many of those men would have no problem taking advantage of a woman. I’m sure this wasn’t too uncommon for the time-period, 1100’s. But it bothered me, nonetheless.

Other than that, I couldn’t put the book down. I would definitely recommend it.

Elaine

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You can purchase Illuminations of the Heart at  Amazon

Published by Walnut Springs Press

Visit Joyce DiPastena’s blog.