Xena: Renaissance Warrior: Till There Was You by S. Anne Gardner

Friday, July 19, 2013

Till There Was You by S. Anne Gardner

Intense. That’s the word that comes to mind when I think about the stories written by S. Anne Gardner. Intense. This story is no exception, it’s just as penetrating and passionate as any of her other works. But, I will say this. In my opinion this story is as close as S. Anne has ever come to a sweet uncomplicated romantic tale.

Notice that I said close. There is still angst, drama, misunderstandings and big blow ups, but unlike her other stories there is no years long separations to endure, or devious deceptions between the lovers to wade through, and there is no vengeful, misguided dark woman blackmailing an ex-childhood friend into a relationship. Nope, this story is about Julia Alston-Vale a rich, closed-off executive that, as she puts it, “Owns the county.”

But Julia has personal demons that she has to fight (another S. Anne standard) The one person in her life that she loves unconditionally is her niece, Nicole. Nicole is the only person that can get passed the walls that Julia has built around her heart. That is until Julia spots Theodora Greyson riding her horse on Julia’s land . . .without permission. (uh, oh) Once she’s confronted by the irate Julia, Theodora makes the unimaginable offense of insisting that Julia would “Please, call me Teddy.” How dare the woman!

After reading that I guess you wonder why I would say that this is very close to being a sweet uncomplicated romantic tale. I say that because the dominate lead character in this story isn’t as dark as the others the author has written about. She is still demanding, and at times questionably aggressive in her desire for Teddy, but the conflicts that present themselves to the women don’t stretch out for overly long periods of time, and it doesn’t really take that long for Julia and Teddy to admit their attraction to one another. But read it for yourself and tell me what you think about Till There Was You.