Once upon a Kiss (Magical Love) [Paperback]

Claire Delacroix (Author)

Book Description

Series: Magical Love | Publication Date: July 1, 1998

For over a thousand years the brambles grew over the ruins of Dunhelm Castle.

Until an American hotelier decided to clear away the thorny brush--and found a mysterious sleeping beauty...

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Jove (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515123005
• ISBN-13: 978-0515123005
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,634,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A good idea, with poor execution, December 18, 1999

By 

KB "K" (Arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Once upon a Kiss (Magical Love) (Paperback)

I tried to approach this book with an open mind. Page after page, I kept pushing foward...but I finally gave up.

Maybe I'll pick this book up again, when there aren't better books around to read and I've got time to waste.

The idea for the book is good. I like fairy tales and fantasy. However, the fact that Aurelia still believes that she's living in the past by chapter 11 is simply too trying. It's both frusterating and dull when she rushes about to find a father who died (maybe of natural causes) long, long ago.

Perhaps it might be amusing to some, the confusion and the misunderstandings that lead to Aurelia's continued belief that she is in a.d. 800. However, I couldn't stand the fact that every problem she perceives is, well, wrong and an illusion. It would have been so much nicer had she realized that she'd woken up in the 20th century, and dealt with all of the problems and mysteries from that point forward, from that perception and angle...rather than from a delusion.

For instance, she's convinced that the hero, Baird, is actually the invading evil villain Bard...who was attacking her home when the sleeping enchantment encased her.

So she's thinking that her father, the king, has been captured and tortured or killed...and that Baird, who she thinks is Bard, is responsible. Somehow, while a sleeping enchantment is obviously make-believe, the terrible and often silly gordian tangles of logic that Claire indulges to keep Aurelia thinking she's in the past is simply way over the top.

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe I gave up on this book too soon. Maybe I'll pick it up someday and give it another try. In the meantime, I'm going to spend my time on more worthwhile books.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad in a fairy tale sort of way, November 30, 2000

By 

Sarah "sssspro" (North East, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Once upon a Kiss (Magical Love) (Paperback)

Aurelia and Baird's story is a light fairy tale type story, which works, if you like this sort of writing/book. This Sleeping Beauty theme tries to be successful by using the juxtaposition of two people separated by1200 years. Our heroine falls asleep after pricking her thumb and after a 1200 year break (which is later explained), our prince charming finally awakens our princess. Everything revolves around legends, prophecies and reincarnation, so if you do not like these explanations, or feel a book gets stale when everything has been prophesized, you will not find this plot a good one to read.

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Simple, May 30, 2000

By 

June (NY , United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Once upon a Kiss (Magical Love) (Paperback)

I hate to trash a book but I agree with the other readers who found it uninteresting. There's far better books to read.