This sounds kind of like my problems with Rosemary Edgehill and her series...the name of which I am *of course* blanking on at the moment. Grrrr...

It had so many of the same bits that you describe in your entry - heroine with past trauma and so forth. No Brian from the Summer Country, though; instead, it was an elf with a sword that he lost and had to get back. All Heroine's friends help her by giving Elf Guy clothes and a place to stay, et cetera, and I just kept wondering *why*. Why did no one follow their first impulse and call up the nice guys in the white jackets? *facepalm*

True love correlations? See: Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey *g*.