Combining the best of both worlds

REVIEWS BY BARBARA SAMUEL

There has always been a fine line between historical romance and fantasy novels. Writers who have the required skills for excellent historical romance—a sense of language and setting and superior world-building—are often quite talented at rendering good fantasy as well. Happily, mixing the two is becoming more and more popular, and otherworldly beings such as dragons, telepaths and vampires are showing up everywhere. As ever, when a subgenre becomes popular, there are masters and journeymen writers, and it's immediately obvious which is which. A number of books tackle some angle of the paranormal this month, a month of mysterious moons and uncharted possibilities.

Love, magic and dragons

In the masterful realm is the exquisite The Dream Thief by Shana Abé, the second in a series of paranormal romance novels about the drakon, or dragon-people, who inhabit a secluded shire in 18th-century England. Lady Amalia Langford, daughter of the clan's Alpha, is blessed—or cursed—to see the future, and her visions show her own path is fraught with passion, adventure and a terrible choice she will have to make between her beloved and her family. Attempting to thwart fate, she gallops directly toward it, and into the arms of the man who might very well destroy her. Abé is a multiple RITA finalist, and the reasons are clear—The Dream Thief is a heady, fast-paced, heartbreakingly romantic story rendered in hypnotically beautiful language.


Lured to magic study

Luna Books, the imprint lovingly shepherded by veteran editor Mary-Theresa Hussey, has consistently published some of the very best of this cross-genre crop, gorgeously packaged and presented with cover art that respects the sensibilities of the readership. Magic Study by Maria V. Snyder, is an example of what makes the imprint so intriguing. Yelena, a captive young woman forced to become a poison taster in last year's highly acclaimed Poison Study, has survived and even triumphed with the death of her greatest enemy. In Magic Study, she heads home to be reunited with the family she has not seen since she was six years old, then eagerly undertakes her magic training (or else be put to death). She quickly becomes entangled in a plot between rivals and must fight even her own brother. This book is intensely readable, and there is no trouble picking it up without reading the first, though this reader will certainly be going back to find it.


A sensational start

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh, deserves inclusion here for its powerful mix of sharp-edged world-building and intense romance. In a near-future San Francisco, where rigidly unemotional Psy and animal-ruled Changelings have come to an uneasy alliance, passion in the mind-linked Psy is forbidden, and horrifically punished. Sascha Duncan, a highborn Psy, is struggling against the emotions she is not supposed to feel, emotions that will be brutally punished if they are discovered. When she meets the devastatingly sexy Changeling Lucas Hunter, both man and panther, the danger skyrockets. When a serial killer begins to prey on Changelings, the two are thrown together to track down the Psy murderer. Sexy, crisp, hard-edged and intelligent, Slave to Sensation is a terrific book that begins a new series from Singh.


Other realms of romance

In the non-paranormal area, two other novels, each part of a trilogy, deserve notice this month as well. The first is a thrillingly fast adventure tale set in medieval Scotland, Captive Heart by Sarah McKerrigan, which focuses on Helena of Rivenloch, a proud warrior lass determined to save her sister from a fate worse than death—marriage. A good-humored, action-packed escape.

If suspense is your fare on a moonless night, try Cutline by Bonnie Hearn Hill. New reporter Geri LaRue has come to the city to share the apartment of an acquaintance—who has disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and only therapist Malcolm Piercy seems to have any clues, but he has secrets of his own to protect. Despite a few confusing shifts in the narrative's point-of-view, this is a fresh, intriguing book that's hard to put down.


Colorado writer Barbara Samuel won a 2006 RITA Award for her novel Lady Luck's Map of Vegas (Ballantine).

© 2006 ProMotion, inc.
www@bookpage.com