Cirrus@Austlit

'This is the omnibus version of the Lay Lines Trilogy - The Knight by the Pool, The Lady of the Flowers, The Stone of Oakenfast. It follows the story of poet, the Lady Marie de France, and her strange, marvellous and terrifying adventures both in the human world and the Otherworld of enchantment. Marie must cope with political plots, werewolves, shapeshifters of all kinds, Otherworldly rulers of extraordinary powers, and most painful and ambiguous of all, the road to knowledge of her own heart, and passionate love. There is a mixture of real historical figures and fictional characters, magic and realism in the book which makes it a potent spell. Steeped in the atmosphere of the Middle Ages, rich and exciting, erotic and elegant, funny and scary, this is a book that readers seem to love very much, taking you on a journey long ago and far away.'

Source: Author's website users.nsw.chariot.net.au/~smasson/ (Sighted 21/4/10)

'Marie de France, the young wife of an elderly Breton lord, finds the course of her life forever changed by an encounter with a mysterious knight in a deep and dangerous forest filled with magic. A year later, newly widowed, and on her way to her ancestral home, Marie comes face to face with another aspect of her destiny in a passionate encounter with the famous Richard the Lionheart. Like Marie, Richard is a poet and troubadour. But he's also the second son of the king of England, Henry Plantagenet, and his wife, Eleanor d'Aquitaine, not to mention betrothed to the king of France's daughter... But something even more dangerous than the political considerations of kings is stalking Marie, and when long shape-shifting shadows from the past reach out to claim her, she must face their terrifying powers...'.

Source: bookseller's website.

'Marie de France, poet and lover of the famed Richard the Lionheart, is determined to free her faithful knight Llew from the spell that has transformed him into a swan. But to do so she must travel from France to St Non's Well in the magical land of Wales.

'Frustration mounts as the very heavens themselves seem to conspire against Marie's departure from the court of Richard's father, Henry II, at Anjou. And when at last she embarks for Britain, Marie finds she must interrupt her journey again to pay homage to Richard's brilliant, exiled mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, at Salisbury.

'On reaching Eleanor's court, Marie's strange and vivid dreams of an ethereal lady of the flowers are the first hint of the machinations of the magical Otherworld in Llew's fate. And so begins an extraordinary adventure which will change Marie's life irrevocably'.

Source: bookseller's website.

'In answer to a call from the Otherworld, poet and troubadour Marie de France travels to the borderlands of Wales with her beloved knight and betrothed, Llew. When the travellers are set upon in a plot to steal Marie's ancient necklace, dwellers of the Otherworld of Oakenfast come to their rescue, led by the mysterious Greenleaf.' (Publication summary)