Title: Love's Liberty Author: Lesley-Anne McLeod
Published in 2006 by Uncial Press
Genre: Regency
ISBN: 1-60174-006-9
Other Books by Lesley-Anne: Three Wise Monkeys
Simon was due to come home! It had been almost five years since Julia Clemence has seen the love of her life, and she can hardly wait now the time for his return has come. She has heard he was injured in the fighting, but it makes no difference to her. Julia has loved Simon Mancroft-Martley since she was hardly more than a child, and as others would nay say her, she knows the truth. It was love. It is love still. She has been turned out in all her glory, courted and danced attendance upon by the cream of the ton, but found no one who moved her as does Simon. She will not be deterred, and even as she sees Simon in the parish church and discovers the actual extent of his injury, she is not swayed. His rejection out of hand, however, has her determined to fight for the man he is, the man she loves. She is reaching her majority, and her independence is at hand. Soon she will be in a position to make her own decisions for better or for worse, and although she may have to fight both families, Julia is determined to have her way in this matter of love.
She has grown into a beautiful and graceful woman, and she stirs Simon's heart, soul, and body. Julia, the love of his life lost to him now, forever. He is crippled, the toll he paid for going to war to fight was a lost arm. No woman will want to deal with such a defect, and Simon Mancroft-Martley would not dream of forcing such an imperfection on anyone. Unfortunately, Julia does not seem to realize this, and she seems to be taking his decision not to marry quite poorly. She does not fully understand she deserves to have a whole man, not one who is damaged in mind and who is missing part of his body. She needs a man with two good arms to love her, cherish her, and to support her. He cannot be that man no matter how hard he tries because he will never be whole again. He cannot provide for her, the war has seen to that and has taken his future from him as surely as it has taken his independence. He can never burden anyone, let alone Julia, with his care and keeping. He loves her, and suffers her loss because of his foolishness in wanting to go to war.
Lesley-Anne McLeod brings to us a poignant tale of love and the effects of war in the Regency period of England. In a time when men were supposed to be dashing providers, one crippled by war, even though a hero could not be expected to be anything but a burden on family, and pitied by friends. This is the fate facing Simon Mancroft-Martley, and he knows very well the woman he loves must feel the same. He is surprised by her determination, her apparent ignorance of convention, her insistence of love for him, and her desire to marry regardless of his injury and deplorable condition. He does not understand that for Julia Clemence, there can be no other. If Julia were forced to marry another, she would be condemned to a loveless marriage. It would be one that could ultimately destroy the woman she is, and would take away the woman she could and should become. In Love's Liberty, Lesley-Anne gives light to a story of love, loss, and of a new beginning when Simon discovers in Julia that love forgives all, and it overlooks the conventions of society to survive. Coming in October 2006 from Uncial Press, Love's Liberty is a wonderful quick read you are sure to enjoy.
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
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