"A fascinating fantasy romance"

This was a fascinating fantasy romance by the talented Karen McCullough that will carry readers away into another world where dragons live and wizards dream.

Alsa feels the stirrings of wizardry within her and makes a desperate bargain with a reclusive wizard to expand them. She needs to learn to use her magick to aid her village in winning a battle against amassed enemies who could wipe out everything she has ever known. She asks the wizard Korlen to teach her in the ways of magick and in exchange, she will bear him the son he desires, so as to pass his powers on to the next in his line.

Her adventure thus begins when she learns magick is not what she thought, nor is training in her abilities anything she ever would have expected. In the months spent with Korlen, she discovers many hard lessons about his way of life, soon to become hers once her training is complete. Never in a million years though, did either of them expect what the greatest lesson of all would be... that of sacrificing all for love. Can he help her learn what she needs to help her village survive? Can she finally begin to comprehend the choices he has made in his life, and how they will change her forever?

This is a delightful story and Ms. McCullough proves once again why she is a rising star in the world of romance. The world-building is vivid and has so many facets to it that readers will feel as though they are in the village with Alsa and her family, or in the castle where she learns wizardry. Landscapes are so beautiful that one senses the faint stirrings of Breath, the air elemental whom Alsa befriends, and feels the pillowy softness of the rainbow bridge under her feet as she crosses into the wizard's lair.

Most of the characters are skillfully rendered and full of life, from Dragon, the sulky, yet satisfied guardian of the castle and rainbow bridge, to Dortee, the wizard healer, to Adam the precocious child of Korlen and Alsa. Alsa comes across as a brave and selfless young lady willing to do anything to help the village she loves, yet vulnerable enough to cry over the accidental damage she causes in her lessons in magick.

Korlen is a complex individual. He is a loner; having withdrawn from others after something scarred him emotionally in his past, and is afraid to speak of his feelings, even if he's not afraid to show them in other ways. One will love him for his vulnerability at the same time as being frustrated with his refusal to interact with others. The only thing this reviewer would have liked to see regarding him is a look into the events in his past that is alluded to many times throughout the story, but never explained. That is left out and this reviewer can't help but feel that may have made her understand him even more.

In short, this is a very satisfying and quick read that will captivate readers from the first page all the way through to the beautiful happy ending. Karen McCullough is a wonderfully talented up and coming author who is guaranteed to have quite a future in the fantasy romance genre.

© Kelley A. Hartsell, October 2004. All rights reserved.

Reviewed by Kelley Hartsell
Courtesy Love Romances
Posted November 27, 2004

(An expanded version of the e-book "The Rainbow Bridge" published by Dreams Unlimited.)

Summary

When invasion by a coalition of unfriendly neighbors threatens her home town, Alsa knows the seed of their salvation lies within her. But her talent for wizardry won't help them unless she can learn how to use and control it, so she goes to the local wizard, who lives in a castle high on the side of a mountain. To reach his home, she must brave a bridge that appears to be made solely of light and the wizard's ferocious guard dragon.

Neither the bridge nor the dragon is exactly what it seems. But then Alsa finds that a lot of things on the wizard's mountain are not what she expects, including the wizard himself. The bargain she has to make with him to get the lessons she needs shocks her, and the training itself bears no resemblance to what she anticipated. Alsa has a lot of adapting to do and not much time for it. It will take every bit of her intelligence, courage and compassion to master the magic, her home's enemies, the dragon, and even the wizard himself.