Kindle Edition Category:  Romance Copyright: 2012 A love story with a mystical bias, set in the beautiful locations of Brittany, France and Oxford, England As she has done since childhood, Sophie spends the summer with family friend Rory Ballantyne in his old stone longhouse in the heart of Celtic Brittany - a ravishingly beautiful region filled with ancient customs and steeped in the mystery and romance of Arthurian legend. But this year things are changed: her family are involved with their own lives, so she stays there without them. At first she is troubled by tension and quarrels between Rory and his wife, but she is soon distracted by the arrival of gorgeous artist Jason Ryder. Sophie becomes increasingly drawn to Jason but she also realises that Rory is not the older brother figure she had thought him, but a fascinating and attractive man. Then a series of strange dreams opens her to the energies of the land there, forces that seem to want something from her. At eighteen, Sophie is no longer a child, and she sees the local area and people through different eyes. Gradually she realises that the energies she senses, along with her dreams, emanate from a holy spring dedicated to Sainte Nicole, a Christianisation of a Celtic deity whom locals refer to as the Lady. The spirit of the land is reaching out and Sophie's quest to fathom its message brings her, through love and loss, to an understanding of herself that helps her cross the threshold into maturity and gives her the strength to follow her own truth.  Excerpt It seems long ago, that strange, turbulent, haunting summer when I left the last of my childhood behind. I may never know the true nature of the force that found expression through me and transformed my life; yet I remember so well how it all began. I woke from a dream of extraordinary sweetness. I couldn’t remember it, yet it had seemed so real; that promise of something unnamed, the wild happiness, the sense of belonging and now the feeling that I had lost some essential part of myself. I slipped from bed and went to stand at the dormer window, looking out over the moonlit landscape. Across the valley, the oak woods lay at peace under the milky light, and nearer spotted cows dozed by the neighbouring farm. It looked strange to me, disorientating. I was still caught in the grip of the dream and couldn’t shake it off. That golden inner warmth clung to me, more immediate than the polished oak boards under my feet or the rag rug tufting at my heel. I sighed and pulled on my old cotton dressing gown. The only thing to wake me up properly and restore perspective was a cup of tea. I went along the passage and downstairs as quietly as I could, but as I reached the bottom step I could hear Rory’s voice from above me, and then Wendy his wife shouting in reply. I tried not to listen, it was none of my business, but it was obvious that something was wrong between them. I had sensed it yesterday when Rory collected me from the ferry, a tension about him that hadn’t been there before; and later, over supper, I couldn’t ignore his defensiveness and Wendy’s unhappy face. If I were to spend the summer with them, things would be very awkward if they didn’t resolve their problems. Besides, I thought the world of Rory; I didn’t want to see him hurt. Although we weren’t related, I had known him for much of my life and he was almost as much a part of my existence as my immediate family. He and my father had been friends since I was about nine years old. They were of a type, both longhaired and bearded; though Rory was a quite few years younger than Dad and his youthful outlook had made him more approachable to me at times. I often thought of him as an older brother.

A Truly Addictive Reaf
Within this romantic and beautifully written story the contrasting elements of time and place between rural Brittany and historic Oxford help make this a remarkable and imaginative novel. Through powerful characterization the reader enters a magical world, evoking a sense of mystery as the interwoven lives of the characters unfold.
In short, this is a book that is a truly addictive read.

Beautifully Evocative
This book has such beautiful, vivid imagery and descriptions of the landscapes and of the character's emotions that you feel as if you are there yourself, experiencing it all. The story unfolds in such a way as to keep you interested and unsure of what the outcome will be, rather than with many romantic stories where you know from page 1 exactly what's going to happen at the end. A really lovely book.

A Beautiful and Haunting Book
At its centre The Sacred Marriage is a love story, but the book is so much more than that, taking us into the heart of the countryside and immersing us in the spirit of the land and the mystical power of the earth energies there. The story is seen through they eyes of Sophie, a young English woman staying in southern Brittany. We follow her journey of self-discovery and her quest to find a reason for the dreams and strange happenings that mark her emotional journey through a sensuous Breton spring and summer. How she finds herself and resolves certain issues in her life make for powerful reading.