Julianne MacLean, Love According to Lily

Love According to Lily

Julianne MacLean

Avon, Aug 2005, $5.99, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0060597291

In 1884 Lady Lily Langdon knows she has always been attracted to her brother's best friend Lord Whitby, but he never seemed to notice her as more than just a little sister. As an adult, Lily realizes that her adulation has turned into a full love, but Edward Wallis treats her as a younger sibling.

When Edward becomes gravely ill from what seems like Hodgkin's disease which killed his father, Lily, encouraged by her American sister-in-law (see TO MARRY A DUKE), decides to take matters in her hands so that she can always remember her beloved. Meanwhile Edward detests that his odious cousin Magnus will inherit and probably destroy his sister Annabelle. Lily offers Edward an alternate plan to give him an heir, which he considers not just for Annabelle's safety, but also because he wants Lily in his bed even if in some ways that feels like incest. She seduces him and they agree to marry, but miraculously the illness goes into remission leaving Edward to either disdain or rejoice with his now pregnant wife.

LOVE ACCORDING TO LILY is a fabulous Victorian romance that grips the audience with what does not occur as much as what does. Cryptic as that sounds the storyline is character driven as the lead couple struggles with his pending death from illness (thankfully not a drawn out attempted homicide) and their attraction especially on his part for one another. Edward is realistically portrayed as he displays anger and impatience behaving like a young person facing mortality. Fans who have waited for Lily to star for a few years will appreciate her love story.

Harriet Klausner