Love According to Lily

I'm a huge fan of Ms. MacLean and I purchase her books in advance the second they're available for purchase. This effort without a doubt is my favorite so far. Her characterization and story development here was wonderful and I was truly sorry to see the end of the story come. Lily has always loved Whitby. From childhood to adulthood he's the one that she's always wanted. When he comes to her brother James' hunting party she realizes that he has changed. She has no idea that Whitby thinks he's going to die. When he falls ill she is there to see him through and at the same time realizes that she will do what ever she must in order to give him what he needs. She loves him and when they end up married and Whitby ends up not dying they are both faced with a marriage that only one of them wants. Will Lily's love be enough to pull Whitby back from his darkness or will she love in vain? Whitby and Lily are wonderful characters. I truly enjoyed visiting again with Sophia and James, and was totaly captivated by the sensual romance between Lily and her prince Whitby. Ms. MacLean truly knows how to create a romance that will pull a reader in and hold their attention. This is one effort and one author that I highly recommend. Official Reviewer for Romance Designs

I was hooked from the beginning. Page after page I just got sucked in deeper until I closed the book with a happy sigh. It was a totally engrossing read. I found the characters to be multi-dimensional. It was written with an amazing level of intensity and feeling that my heart was pumping furiously with the palatable passion in the story. Full of enjoyable supporting characters and stories. This book had great dialog, hero , heroine , plot, background characters & character development. Lily and Whitby's love for each other builds slowly and deepens until you can almost feel it. Both characters felt "real" and made me believe they were in love with one another deeply. Both had great senses of humor too, which is always a plus. This book had everything you need to create a good romance: a dashing hero, a beautiful heroine and, most of all...PASSION! MacLean developed Lily and Whitby's personalities and motivations very convincingly, to the point where you feel as though you know them well enough to be friends by the time you finish the book. Lots of laugh out-loud, I-can't-believe-they-did-that scenes and oh so plenty of heart warming moments. Love According to Lily was an emotional roller coaster, and I felt all the pain and joy they did. I was so engrossed, I read it in a day. The love scenes are ample & steamy, and the plot is a good one. A fast paced book with an intricate plot that I cannot help but enjoy. Love According to Lily has a strong (but not obnoxious) heroine who is in no way ordinary, a back story which is compelling but doesn't get in the way of the love story, and of course a wonderful hero. Both the hero and the heroine have secrets of their own, which are slowly brought to light by the author, like layers being peeled from a (very good) onion....

If you loved To Marry The Duke this new offering from Julianne MacLean will leave you immensly happy as I believe this story may be her best yet. I can not tell you why, parts of the story were a bit off for me but not in a way to detract from the story. I just could not put this book down. Whitby's reactions made sense to me and Lily's reactions to his made sense also so you are left with a very powerful novel with a lot of depth. I could not help but love the characters. The writing was really good also! Now I am anxiously awaiting Annebelle's story which is out in 6 months! I think I have seriously become addicted to this author!

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 story line 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