Freelance journalist, Joanna Clifford, accepts what could turn out to be the assignment of her career when she agrees to write about hypnotic regression. When she was a 19-year-old university student, she had taken part in a test where she allowed herself to be hypnotized. The session was quite fascinating as Jo was immediately regressed back in time to a former life where she was known as Matilda. However, the point in Matilda's life that Jo returned to was a dangerous one and Jo nearly died while under hypnosis. As a result, the decision was made to give her a post hypnotic suggestion that would keep her from ever remembering what had taken place that day and she was told that the hypnosis didn't work.

Now, an adult with a very successful career, Jo is excited to do this series on reincarnation. She's made quite a name for herself by ferreting out the truth before writing her articles on all subjects, so she expects to make short work of debunking such things as previous lives. In fact, she's so sure that it's all a lot of rubbish that she agrees to let herself be hypnotized.

It's at this session that Matilda, Lady of Hay, once again resurfaces. Jo can scarcely believe that this has happened to her but there are the recordings of the session to prove it. At first, she tries to fight the truth of what's happened. But the more she listens to the tapes and does her own research, the more she starts to question her former opinion.

Thrown into this myriad of confusion is the fact that she's just ended a long term relationship with Nick Franklyn, whom she caught cheating on her. Although she still loves him, she won't tolerate that sort of behavior. It was actually Nick's brother, Sam, who introduced them years ago. Sam had been at the first hypnosis session that took place when she was 19 and he had never revealed what had happened.

Things take a dangerous turn when Sam tells Nick what happened at that long ago regression with Jo. Nick becomes determined to save Jo from herself by fighting her attempts to be regressed again. Jo pays no attention and dives headfirst into the life of Matilda.

However, it seems that the past is replaying itself once again in the present as it becomes apparent that Jo, Nick and Sam had all been a part of that life 800 years ago. One of them is going to betray the others and in a very dangerous way. Will Jo find out the ending to Matilda's story without losing her own life in the process?

LADY OF HAY is one of those rare tomes that you just never want to see end. I carried this book with me everywhere I went and felt rather bereft once I had read the final page. Ms. Erskine has been writing books for years, and she does know how to tell a story. You also get some history with this story as she has verified and included many actual historical facts in the telling of Matilda's story. All the ingredients needed to make a great book are right here in LADY OF HAY. It's a timeless book that will always be in style. I only hope someone makes a movie of it someday.

Book Summary

Jo Clifford, successful journalist, is all set to debunk the idea of past-life regression in her next magazine series. But when she herself submits to a simple hypnotic session, she suddenly finds herself reliving the experiences of Matilda, Lady of Hay, the wife of a baron at the time of King John.

As she learns of Matilda's unhappy marriage, her love for the handsome Richard de Clare and the brutal threats of death at the hands of King John, it becomes clear that Jo's past and present are hopelessly entwined and that, eight hundred years on, a story of secret passion and unspeakable treachery is about to begin again...