Many years ago, Cain and Amice were lovers. Amice had every right to expect marriage from him, but instead, Cain married another. He did it out of duty to his family and people, but that doesn't change the harm he dealt her. He reminds himself when Amice arrives that she would've made a bad wife, and that had he not married Luce, he'd have lost his estate to the crown. But the passion still simmers between them, and the ghost Amice is there to get rid of is intent on making sure that's all it does.

A Lost Touch of Bliss is the first book I've read by Ms. Tolnitch, but it won't be the last. It is a historical, but beyond some references to a king, there was nothing in the story to really define the place or time. Yet that worked for this story, if only because it drew all my attention to the love story between Cain and Amice. There was no political intrigue, and only a little bit of what I've come to expect from medieval romance (contract betrothals, fighting between the hero and a villain, ect). A Lost Touch of Bliss was, in fact, quite different from historical romances I've read before. Cain's reason for rejecting Amice was valid, but he displayed a lack of caring by not telling her more than he was betrothed. Amice and Cain were both flawed characters, yet it was easy to see how they could fall in love. And there wasn't a point during the story where I wanted to stop reading, or where I didn't want to root them on. The secondary romances of various characters were also very welcome, though I wish Lugh had gotten a story of his own. What can I say, I have thing for Highlanders! A Touch of Bliss had everything I could want in any romance, great characterization, a conflicted and heartfelt romance that kept me reading, a few small mysteries, a bit of sizzle, and really good secondary characters.

Overall rating:
Sensuality rating: Very sensual

Reviewer: Tara Black
August 4, 2005