Reincarnation,Wicca & destiny

Read Into the Wind by Katherine Kingsley. The heroine, Serafina Segrave has been raised in remote Wales by her maternal aunt & a faithful retainer in run down circumstances. The aunt has hidden Serafina's financial circumstances from her & raised her to believe in an odd mix of Wicca & Anglicanism. Meantime, Serafina daydreams & builds castles in the air around one Aiden Aubrey, Earl of Delaware who was formally betrothed to Serafina sight unseen when she was nine. Poor Aiden, he was nearly bankrupted by his alcoholic father & returns home from the Carribean to discover he has to marry Serafina ASAP or face breach of contract suit.

Not exactly an auspicious beginning to a marriage. Never having seen Serafina, Aiden confesses all to an innocent maid in a wood the day before his marriage. Serafina of course is quite upset to discover her groom is the embittered man from the day before- not her fairytale perfect dream husband. Throw in the meddlesome aunt, a conniving invalid, a harpy of a former mistress & some reincarnation and you have yourself an overly busy plot.

My biggest problem with this book is that I am supposed to accept that this young woman (21) has been raised to be completely innocent of the manners & deportment of her time & position. Yet the aunt made sure Serafina knew she was to marry Aiden and become a Countess. Aiden himself was well drawn, as was the invalid & the alcoholic father in law. I really had trouble coping with Serafina's flightiness, terror of sex & lack training. The whole Wiccan/Anglican/reincarnation side plot made things more complicated.

I've read other Kingsley titles & liked them, but this one had one too many problems. Nearly a wallbanger,but not quite.