The Lady of the Lakes

Kilpack (Forever and Forever) crafts a vivid and highly engrossing tale of first love versus best love in this chaste romance that follows the tumultuous love life of Scottish poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott. From the moment in 1791 when Walter meets Mina Stuart, he is captivated. Though he is far beneath her station and has a limp, years of correspondence, occasional parties, and some stolen moments have convinced Walter, a hopeless romantic, that Mina will overlook their financial differences and they will eventually marry. Despite warnings from his family that he is headed for heartbreak, Walter remains steadfast until Mina admits that she has chosen another, shocking him to his core. Only after a year has passed and he meets 26-year-old Charlotte Charpentier, an independent, sensible Frenchwoman, does he begin to hope that he may still have room for love in his life. Kilpack weaves abundant research about Scott’s life with her own ideas of likely scenarios to create a seamless, lively, and entertaining account of this literary hero. Agent: Lane Heymont, Seymour Agency. (Jan.)