2020 romantic fantasy, first of a new loose series. In the spring of
1915, Major Roland Gospatrick is recovering in hospital, though nobody
will tell him what's wrong with him. Elen Morris is assigned as his
latest nurse, though he doesn't expect her to last any longer than the
others.
The mystery of what's going on with Roland's treatment is solved,
but largely off-page; Elen finds out some things, but it's definitely
a group effort to put it all together and assemble enough evidence to
cause action to be taken. The meat of the book is less that and more
the details of how he and Elen move from an unpromising start to a
friendship, and later a romance – with a strong side note of how
healing works in this hidden-magic setting, combining magic with
plenty of real physical therapy rather than using it as a miraculous
instant cure.
There's also some material on the religions of Albion - rather than a
full syncretism, various healing deities are held to have their own
specialisations, and Elen's particular patron Sirona is a goddess of
long-term healing and rehabilitation.
As usual for Lake it's all quite gentle. I wouldn't want to read these
all the time, but I do enjoy them turning up on the book-selector once
in a while.
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