"Great world building and storytelling"

In 1659 Paris, Sir Jack Marstone rescues the muddied filthy Catherine de la Fer from assailants. She remembers little of her past, but he provides her a safe haven while she heals at least physically. When she recovers from her injuries, he teaches her how to use a sword and other skills so she can defend herself. However, his kindness and nurturing cannot protect her from the nightmares she suffers from every evening.

Jack realizes he must escort his ward to her family and betrothed, the vile Marquis de Bauvin, but is reluctant to do so. Instead he feels a need to keep Catherine safe, something he believes would not occur if he handed her over to the Marquis, rumored to be an evil sorcerer. As Jack and Catherine fall in a forbidden love, they know that soon they will have to confront the sorcerer who plans to use her to obtain her family's supernatural powers that will enhance him to levels so superior to mankind they will seem like ants to be stepped on. Only Catherine the skilled swordswoman and her lover stand in his way.

Showing the width of her talent (to the chagrin of her Regency devotees), Karen Harbaugh provides a strong paranormal romance that hooks the audience because the otherworldly environs seems so real in the author's mid seventeenth century Europe. The story line is the classic good vs. evil theme with the twist being that one of the good guys (gal in this case) is slated to be the mate of the malevolent menace. As she did with NIGHT FIRES, Ms. Harbaugh enchants her audience with a dark tale lightened by the goodness of love.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 15, 2003

Summary

Author Karen Harbaugh returns to the dark, sensual world of her acclaimed novel Night Fires...a world of danger and desire, sorcery and seduction...the glorious world of the beautiful, doomed de la Fer family. For here, the ravishing fugitive Catherine de la Fer battles the deadliest sorcery of all: the seductive power of one man's endlessly erotic touch. A shattering act of violence drives Catherine de la Fer to flee into the dark and deadly night. Now a hunted criminal, the wily French noblewoman enlists the services of English mercenary Jack Marstone to teach her the art of self- defense. But she has cast her lot with a man whose terrible secret plunges them into a world of depravity and deadly seduction. Their taboo desire takes them from the moon- shadowed highways of Paris to the treacherous palace of the Sun King—the prey of a highborn enemy with the mind-bending powers of a sorcerer's dark arts. As day becomes endless night, as they enter a place of unimaginable pleasure, France's most notorious swordswoman and her forbidden lover will attempt a daring act of rescue—one that could promise them eternity in each other's arms...or damn them both forever.