Traveling through time can alter so many scenarios. What if you could be transported back to twelfth-century France to the court of Richard, Duke of Aquitaine? It was a turbulent time in history when brothers fought brothers, all for the incessant desire to increase their power, their sense of self-importance. What if your presence caused a significant change in history? Alixandra is faced with this dilemma. Given a brooch that dates back to this era, presumably connected to Richard, she is somehow transported back in time, falls in love with Richard. But in the attempt to keep intact the history she knows from her studies in the future, she threatens the powerful attachment she feels for this man. Jolted back to the future, she studies a new history, one that she caused to shift and not in a favorable direction. But she can’t go back to fix it. Or can she?

Pamela Todd-Hunter’s time travel historical fiction novel, The Making of a King: A Medieval Time Travel Romance (Coeur de Lion Series), is the second book in the series, picking up where book 1 climaxed. The anomalies presented by time travel are well presented and the historical aspect of the book, the author’s knowledge of the twelfth century, and King Henry II’s fractious sons empowers the plot with vibrant action combined with historical accuracy. The plot is well developed and the story moves along with ease. There are two points of view used, Alixandra’s primarily as well as Richard’s, but the jump between points of view is well identified. There is an intense love story that binds the plot together, the love story between Alixandra and Richard. A fascinating read with a lot of historical inferences.

In The Making of a King: A Medieval Time Travel Romance, the second book in the Coeur de Lion Series by Pamela Todd-Hunter, a young and beautiful woman, Alix Evans is transported to twelfth-century France and is under the protection of Richard, the Duke of Aquitaine, with whom she falls in love. King Henry uses her to persuade Richard to abandon his claim for the throne and acknowledge his brother, Hal, as the rightful heir. Richard is determined to keep Aquitaine, a duchy he sees as his legacy. By asking him to pay homage to Hal, Alix becomes a traitor in Richard’s eyes. But when Hal unexpectedly dies, Henry refuses to name Richard the next in line and Richard sets out to escalate a conflict that might become a full-blown war. When she gets back to the twenty-first century, Alix quickly learns that she has changed history by coming into Richard’s life. Can she go back and fix the mess and can she do it without losing the man she deeply loves?

This is an intelligently plotted and breezy story filled with tradition, culture, and history. In this novel, Pamela Todd-Hunter explores what could happen to the present should someone who never was in the past be inserted into that past. The characters are well-written, realistic, and memorable. The romance between Richard and Alix is interesting to follow and it is good to see how the author uses it to advance the plot. Alix is one of my most favorite characters in the story; she is sophisticated and I enjoyed seeing the dilemmas the author puts her in. The Making of a King is a gorgeous read for fans of historical novels as it brims with drama, exploring the conflict within a royal family, and the adventure of a beautiful woman that gets entangled in the life of a robust, historical character. Cleverly plotted, deftly written, and fast-paced, this novel is an engrossing and mischievous quest that will delight fans.