The Master
Melanie Jackson
Love Spell, Sep 2005, $6.99
ISBN: 0505526433

Qasim the hobgoblin has come up with an ingenious plan to free his peers. All he needs is several hundred human children to die. To attract the kids to him, this Pied Piper intends to pose as Santa at the mall.

At about the same time that Qasim begins implementation of his brilliant strategy, hybrid (human, Fey, and Goblin) Zee Finvarra flees with her two younger siblings from her Goblin kin. She recognizes the disguised Qasim and knows he cannot be up to anything good. However, a nasty ice storm created by her relatives pursuing her detains her from warning anyone. Dr. Nicholas Anthony is also caught by the sudden storm. He ends up sharing a cabin with the stranded Zee. Though a non-believer, he willingly risks his life to keep the Finvarra siblings safe from creatures that just cannot exist as a confrontation between good and evil is about to occur on a Nevada desert.

No one does romantic fantasy better than Melanie Jackson does (see TRAVELER, DOMINION, and THE COURIER). Her latest thriller is another winner as readers will root for the lead couple to defeat the vile villain (as nasty a malevolence as fans will find) and make it with one another. Especially interesting is the metamorphosis of Nicholas from non-believer to doubter to convert as he learns there are plenty of mysteries under the heavens including his own bloodline. Ms. Jackson is at her masterful best with this exciting tale.

Harriet Klausner

The Stonehenge Gate
Jack Williamson
Tor, Aug 2005, $24.95, 320 pp.
ISBN: 0765308975

The Four Horsemen (though one is a female) of Eastern New Mexico University English literature Will Stone, astrophysicist Derek Ironcraft, archeologist Lupe Vargas and linguist Ram enjoy their weekly poker game. However, instead of cards this time, Derek shows his colleagues ground penetration radar photos of under the Sahara that contains objects that look like huge gates. When Ram explains that his enigmatic loving grandma came from the area, the foursome agrees to go explore the gates though Will is reluctant and Lupe thinks they are loco.

However at the entrance, a gigantic insect grabs Lupe and takes her inside the portal. The trio gives chase, but soon Derek is taken too. Will and Ram search for their friends, but soon are in a strange world divided by racial discord. To their shock, the natives believe Ram, with a special birthmark on him, is their god Anak, returned from the dead. Civil war over Ram breaks out and a deadly plague is released devastating all except those who released it as they are immune. Will and Ram escape through another gate to another planet, but remain in pursuit of Derek and Lupe and to learn more about the ancient geniuses who built the elevator like portals.

The grandmaster of science fiction adventure provides an exciting action-packed thriller that never slows down from the moment the four professors give up poker for the expedition. The story line moves forward at a rapid rate hopping from one escapade to another, but by doing so at the speed of light the key cast is never fully developed except for one general trait each. Still fans of creative hyperspeed science fiction will want to be the fifth wheel on this invigorating trek.

Harriet Klausner

Matty Groves
Deborah Grabien
St Martin’s Oct 2005, $23.95, 255 pp.
ISBN 0312333897

Musician Ringan Laine returns home to Sommerset, England to find that he and his group Broomfield Hill are invited to perform at the Callowen House Arts Festival. He eagerly accepts the invitation and takes his girlfriend Penny Wintercroft-Howles with him. Residing there is the benign ghost of Lady Susanna who was murdered in August 1629 unlike the two spirits Ringan and Penny exorcised last year who were not as benevolent.

When they arrive, Jane, a member of the band, dreams that she is Lady Susana brutalized by her beloved husband’s cousin Andrew. Ringan is possessed by Andrew and almost rapes Penny, hurting her ear and mouth. He is a malevolent incubus and can cause death to the living so he must be stopped before that happens. Penny, who is the power source that wakes him up, feels it is her responsibility to get rid of this evil; with the help of her lover they research records to learn the truth about what happened over three centuries ago so they can send him to hell where he belongs.

Although the antagonist is a ghost, he is just as evil, malevolent and sadistic as the most deranged mortal killer. He plays a major role in the storyline as the protagonists struggle to stop the evil that he perpetrates. The love between Ringan and Penny is so strong that she knows immediately it is not her lover who is hurting her but someone using his body. The investigation to learn the facts about what happened to Lady Susanna is a journey through historical forensic records and it is fascinating to see the pieces come together. Deborah Grabien has written a great mystery wrapped around a terrifying ghost story.

Harriet Klausner

Wanted: One Sexy Night
Judi McCoy
Avon, Sep 2005, $5.99, 384 pp.
ISBN: 0060774207

Mira has mixed feelings about being one of the nine women chosen for Project Rejuvenation; on the one hand she knows the importance of achieving the objective that could mean saving her species, but on the other she hates leaving her home world and family to find her suitable chosen mate on that backwater planet earth. Still duty calls so she says goodbye to her dad, the highest ranked elder.

On earth, Mira wastes no time in meeting her objective of mating with Lucas Diamond, Director of the Division of Interstellar Activity. He cannot resist her siren’s call starting with her elevator proposition. As the couple falls in love, Mira knows that once he finishes her mission by impregnating her, she knows leaving for home will break her heart even if though she will be carrying a piece of him.

The final tale in the wonderful “Starlight” trilogy is a terrific science fiction romance that fans of both series, especially those who enjoy first contact tales will appreciate. Mira and Lucas is a perfect couple from that first special kiss until she explains all to her beloved. Hopefully, Judi McCoy does not wait fifteen years before providing her audience with a follow up on the other six females who sought their ideal breeder on planet earth.

Harriet Klausner

Siege of Night and Fire
John Helfers
Five Star, Oct 2005, $25.95, 339 pp.
ISBN 1594142262

In the Wyrling Forest live many humanoid races that regard humans as their enemy. The short green Vaarblog use their claws to dig tunnels that connect their lairs and are the most powerful of the inhabitants of the forest. Klarshk, the warrior shaman of the clan has united all of his species into a fighting force. He will use magic as well as mundane battle techniques to take control of Wyrling Keep and from there conquer the rest of the Eightfold Kingdoms.

Teris Rathden and Syrena Marsena, royals in their respective countries, are getting married as part of the peace treaty. As soon as the vows are pronounced the Vaarblog and their allies, the grayskins attack, forcing the wedding party to retreat into the fortified keep. Teris is pleased with his bride, a warrior woman who can fight as well as any man and who helps the soldiers and the healer during the siege. During the two day battle the pair falls deeply in love even though they are surrounded by danger from within and without the keep. In a daring move that could mean his death, Teris and his allies strike deep in the enemy camp in the hope of killing the one being whose death will end the battle.

John Helfers has created an imaginary realm so detailed and believable readers will believe it actually exists. The battle scenes are so intricately described so that the audience can see it in the mind’s eye while the romance between Teris and Syrena is used as a tension reliever. This novel will appeal to romance and fantasy readers who like reading fantastic cross-genre novel. It would be a joy if the author places future books in the Eightfold Kingdoms.

Harriet Klausner

The Smoke Thief
Shana Abe
Bantam, Delacorte, Sep 2005, $15.00
ISBN: 0553804480

In 1737 in Darkfrith, England lives the Drakon shapeshifting race. For well over a millennium, the Drakon have kept secret from their neighbors who and what they really are, but now THE SMOKE THIEF may end their anonymity. The felon steals jewels before seemingly vanishing in a puff of smoke.

Alpha chief Marquis Christoff must stop the thief from further exposing their clan. He uses the Langford diamond as a lure; he succeeds capturing the rogue Clarissa, who is actually a hybrid half human half dragon with the ability to change. However, in capturing Clarissa, Christoff loses the precious diamond he used as bait. Considered his property based on Drakon law, he forces her to work with him to regain the gem even as passion erupts in the skies and on the earth between them.

This exciting historical romantic fantasy grips the audience from the moment that readers begin to comprehend the skills of the thief and the danger she places the Drakon side of her heritage. The story line is action-packed from the beginning and takes several in air twists that add to the fever pitch of an invigorating thriller. The lead couple is a delightful charming pairing of individuals falling in love, an emotion neither wants, but cannot avoid. Shana Abe provides a terrific tale that screams for similar future novels in the Drakon universe.

Harriet Klausner

Four and Twenty Blackbirds
Cherie Priest
Tor, Oct 2005, $13.95, 288 pp.
ISBN: 0765313081

Eden Moore lives on Signal Mountain overlooking Chattanooga raised by her maternal family especially Aunt Louise since her mom died in childbirth. She sees ghosts especially three spirits who are always there for her. Eden knows the trio is her mom and her aunts. These deceased sisters struggle to keep the child safe initially from a God fearing killer who wants her dead before she can follow the path of her evil wicked great-grandfather; a necromancer and mage who cursed the living and enlivened the dead.

The threesome knows that something even more dangerous is coming for Louise and then Eden. They try to reach out to Eden to warn her, but she fails to fully comprehend what her mom and aunts want her to know. Eden realizes she must confront something very evil without the aid of her beloved Aunt Louise or Uncle Dave. Thus she slips away heading to a family mansion and other Antebellum ruins in Georgia seeking what she does not know only that she must find this unknown to save what is left of her family.

Besides making believers out of readers that ghosts do exist, the key to this enchanting horror tale is that the readers never know what to expect next yet when that subsequent event happens it seems very obvious. The cast is terrific especially the preadolescent heroine who holds the thriller together. Contrasting the mortal heroine and otherworldly guardians to the assassin and the malevolence add depth to a must read journey of adventure. Readers will enjoy traveling into a world filled with nineteenth century supernatural curses trying to destroy twenty-first century offspring.

Harriet Klausner

Only with a Highlander
Janet Chapman
Pocket, Oct 2005, $6.99
ISBN: 0743486323

In Pine Creek, Maine, businessman Matt Gregor enters the art gallery owned by sisters Winter and Megan McKeague. He buys “Moon Watcher” and asks her as the artist if she would paint a picture of a home for him that he will have constructed on Bear Mountain, which he now owns. Winter worries that her elderly friend Talking Tom who lives in a cabin on the mountain will be displaced so she agrees if he allows Tom to stay.

Father Daar informs Grey, who he brought forward eight centuries, that his tree of life is dying and only Winter can save it. He wants to train her to be a Druid to kill his long time enemy Curam who he believes is killing his tree; if the tree dies, the earth will die too. However, Daar insists she must remain a virgin or lose her power; he may be too late as she loves Matt, who she has been seeing for the last couple of weeks though she still knows little about him.

The attraction between the lead couple is terrific as they grip the audience throughout like when Matt knows while conducting business in Utah that Winter needs him now on the New England mountaintop. The amazing and fabulous twists will shock and entertain the audience while refreshing a tale enhanced by the return of stars from the previous novels playing critical roles. Though the use of the tree dying was a prime theme in a previous tale (see TEMPTING THE HIGHLANDER) and a wonderful twist involving Tom lacks motive, fans will cherish this powerful entry in a fine romantic fantasy series.

Harriet Klausner