Eternally Yours (Love Letters) [Mass Market Paperback]

Lara Peale is recently divorced in the last year, and the last thing she wants is a controlling guy to run her life despite the many times her bestfriend has tried setting her up with someone. Mark Vereker works for the local historical society and has just recently called it quits with a busy body in town. It's Lara's thought to renivate her new home (which she gained in her divorce) that brings Mark Vereker in her life. It is by a letter which is found that starts a string of a haunting attachment to Lara and Mark. Jennifer Malin has such a great talant to capture the magic in the fist chapter. If you like mystical love, or haunting romances, then grab yourself a cup of coffee, a warm blanket and enjoy. You won't be sorry! :)

Lara Peale plans to remodel her recently purchased Victorian home. Mark Vereker of the Falls Borough Historical Society hopes to talk her out of changing the home where his ancestor, renowned poet and lover Geoffrey Vereker, once lived.

Meanwhile, Geoffrey haunts Lara's home as punishment for abandoning his child and her mother. His only hope to end his infamy is to play matchmaker to a reluctant but loving duo. He sees his descendent Mark and his home's current resident Lara as the perfect pair to insure he finally leaves this plane for the next. However, in spite of his otherworldly machinations, Geoffrey begins to feel the lack of hope of the abandoned as neither Lara or Mark want to follow up on their obvious attraction to one another.

Though the stubbornness of the lead couple can be irritating to readers as well as the resident ghost, paranormal romance fans will enjoy ETERNALLY YOURS due to Geoffrey's actions. The amusing story line moves forward briskly due to Geoffrey's matchmaking efforts. As individuals Lara and Mark are competent charming characters, but as a duo their obstinate refusal to accept love makes them less likable then perhaps if this were a pure contemporary. Geoffrey retains his roguish Victorian ways so that he brings depth, seriousness, and amusement to the plot and turns Jennifer Malin's novel into a strong entry in the Love Letters series.

Harriet Klausner

Lara Peale lives in the centuries old Victorian home she got in her divorce from her husband 6 months earlier. Lara is a teacher during the school year but her passion is her art, she hopes to convert the study in the home to a huge studio full of light to paint in. Unfortunately, she used all her money to buy out her ex-husband's portion of the equity so she has applied for a grant from the historical society. In order to determine if Lara's plans for renovation meet the guidelines of the historical society, they send Mark Vereker to interview Lara. During the course of the interview, Lara finds out that Mark is a decedent of her favorite Victorian poet, Geoffrey Vereker. As Mark is looking at a window, they discover an old letter that seems to have been written centuries earlier. When Mark and Lara read the letter, a series of bizarre events begin to take place in the house. Lara and Mark set out to discover who the author of the letter is and along the way discover that things are not always as they seem.

Eternally Yours is told alternately from Lara and Mark's point of view. Both are attractive people with a strong sense of what they believe is right and wrong. Both are stubborn and unbending in their own point of views. Both are coming off of unsuccessful relationships and as a consequence, are not very trusting of the opposite sex. There are a few supporting characters in the book, most of whom just pop up every once in awhile and we don't really learn a lot about any of them. Mark's ancestor, Geoffrey plays a strong role in the plot and we do get a short glimpse of what his life may have been like.

I would like to say I enjoyed this book, but I just can't. Lara and Mark both get angry at each other at the drop of the hat and over the silliest things. It's just one scene after another of them snarking at each other. It starts out with Mark getting angry because Lara wants to tear out an outside wall of the house, then Lara gets angry at Mark for getting angry at her. She seems to think it's no big deal; I have to say I thought the whole idea of Lara applying for a grant from the historical society to tear out an outside wall, in and of itself, was just a bit silly. Lara is a high school teacher, so not some ditz, you would think she would have realized that no historical society is going to approve changes to the outside of a building unless it going to take the building back to it's original state. In her case, it was altering the house completely, huh? Mark doesn't like his ancestor's reputation and that makes Lara angry, Lara's appreciation of his ancestor makes Mark angry. It's like being back in elementary school and was just tiring. I almost abandoned the book a number of times but persevered and finished it. There are also a lot of editing issues with the book that don't help matters. While not a horrible book, I just didn't enjoy it. The concept was good, and there were parts that made it almost enjoyable, the parts where the ghost makes an appearance are usually fun.