After reading Lessons in French, in which "Callie tried to make a daydream for herself. It was what she always did when she could not quite bear what was real." it was a surprise to meet Maddy, the heroine of "Flowers from the Storm," as a very down to earth, practical member of the Society of Friends. As the major support for her blind father, Maddy helps him work mathematical conundra with the mathematical genius, but dissolute Duke of Jervaulx. Through the travails of Jervaulx's health and their different beliefs, Laura Kinsale pulls us through a variety of trials and into their growing love.