I really, really like this right up until the end when it lost me a bit. The characters are great and the realistic dreams and their settings worked wonderfully but I had waaaay too many questions left at the end. ( )

This is a story about lovers who would, under normal circumstances, never even meet. Separated by several decades in time, only the mysterious workings of an elderly aunt might bring the two together. ‘Aunt Violet’s Present’ works both ways, I think, and it takes present-day Matt and historical-Joseph a while to figure it out.

Matt is an artist and lonely. His previous ,over cheated on him, so he ends it. Not that it’s easy. But when he ‘meets’ the man he’s watched in his elderly aunt’s photo album for years, his heart is ready for a new man. The dreams he has of Joseph seem more real than normal dreams, and so does Joseph. Matt slowly falls for the man who dies in the 1940s – which is both romantic and made me very nervous. This couldn’t possibly end well, could it?

Joseph, at least as seen through Matt’s eyes, is a bit of an enigma. He is very young, scared of having to go to war (who wouldn’t be?) and desperate to have one positive experience with another man. He thinks he has dreamed Matt up, and in a way that is true, and soaks up every loving touch and word he can get.

The final scene is heart-wrenching. These two guys are clearly meant for each other, but their situation seems so hopeless. I had tears in my eyes. Thank God this is romance and I knew it had to end well, even if I couldn’t figure out how. Good old aunt Violet. If you like deeply emotional stories about lovers in seemingly impossible situations, if a touch of temporal magic is something you don’t mind, and if two men meeting and falling in love across 70 years of temporal separation sounds interesting, you will probably like this short story. Personally? I liked it so much I am hoping for a sequel!



NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )

Matt attends his great-aunt Violet’s funeral with his mother. After the funeral his mother gives him Violet’s photo album that he loved from childhood in Kim Fielding’s VIOLET’S PRESENT. Matt always looked at the photos of his ancestors and was fascinated by a cousin of Violet’s, Joseph who died in WWII. Matt returns home with the photo album and begins dreaming of Joseph.

VIOLET’S PRESENT is a poignant story of a young man who did not have the opportunity to live before being sent off to war. In Matt’s dreams they meet and share passion. I hoped that they would have a chance but I could not see how they could as the men were of different generations. What Kim Fielding gave me though was a magical story that gave me the ending for which I had hoped would happen. I loved the story and the characters. I feel blessed for the opportunity to have shared in their story. ( )