"There's no escaping destiny, or a fate preordained"

Julienne Hunter was taken from a life she could have never imagined, by a mother who could not bear the madness and torments of her own gifts. Raised in hiding, never staying in one place long, her childhood prepared her for the demanding lifestyle of a model. The excesses and the daily damage of drugs, high living, and near starvation. But all that came to an end with the slash of her ex-husbands blade to the face that brought her fame.

Now, her body weakened from a near fatal overdose, and the months of depravation from the drugs, she's returning to the world once again. A world she has no idea how to face. She's broke, ill, and now dependent on the strangers her mother took her away from years before. Her grandmother, who her mother hated, and the man her mother reviled, accused, and blamed her own madness on.

Julienne must return now, to her family. The family and the dark heritage bequeathed her mother, and herself by the rites of blood, and the bond of the Blackthorne women to the man they serve.

Morgan Saint - Evanston. Dark, brooding, appearing cruel and uncaring, unfettered and as cold as the darkest ice. An immortal, hiding for the moment, knowing that the time of reckoning, his return to his own dimension, is growing steadily closer, and with it, his own death. A death he seeks, demands, looks forward to with equal parts fear and impatience. A death he begins to regret with the return of Julienne.

Julienne's destiny is irrevocably tied to Morgan, and his to her. The bond is strengthened further, by Julienne's grandmother in a rite that will form an unbreakable tie between her granddaughter, and the man who rules the Blackthorne riches.

The ties that bind, can now only be broken in death. Morgan knows this, and Julienne will soon learn. No amount of knowledge on Morgan's part can stay the hand of desire that riots through his blood, or the need that leaves him longing with ever increasing degrees for the woman now tied to him by blood.

As Morgan is drawn relentlessly to his own destiny, he finds that Julienne will fight by his side with the last bit of her strength. Standing by his side, defiant in the face of his enemies.

ECHOES OF ANGELS resounded with life, torment, longing. It echoed with the lost voices of Morgan's long and tortured past, and the stirrings of life and love within Julienne's heart. It kept me up, when I wanted to sleep. Morgan's voice would not be silenced, demanding, beseeching in turns, until the story finished, and I knew I would eagerly await the next installment in his tale.

Ms. McKenna has crafted the perfect dark hero. A hero whose past is fraught with pain, and the dark self-recriminations of his own choices. Blood stains his hands, the dark power of his race flows through his veins, and the legacy of his birth, despite his own denials, cannot be denied, just as the bond with Julienne cannot be escaped. Weaving a skillful, subtle mastery with words, Ms. Kenna has brought to life a story, and a hero that can't be denied. A man fighting his own destiny, his own knowledge, and the gift of love that refuses to be denied. A heroine, despite her fears, grows, steadies, and becomes a woman who will hold his heart for all time.

This story is a keeper. One you'll want to revisit, re-read, just for the joy of finding a story that immerses you in its characters. takes you from reality, and reaffirms that love, despite its pain, it's often cruel and dark recesses, is more than worth the fight, or the blood shed to have it.

Reviewed by Shadoe Simmons
Posted June 13, 2002

Summary

Twenty-one years ago, Cassandra Blackthorne and her daughter, Julienne, fled their family home. Ironically, circumstances lure Julienne Hunter back to her birthplace--Blackthorne Manor in Virginia--and into the clutches of the man her mother hated, Morgan Saint-Evanston. She soon discovers that Blackthorne balances between two worlds, that of mortal reality and the dimensional enigma known as Sclyd. Come Halloween, they will merge and Scyldian entities will be free to hunt the weaker human race for slaves and sacrifices to appease their dragon god, Ouroborous. Destined as a keeper of eternity's gates and protector against the armies of darkness, Julienne's legacy will be costly, for she must sacrifice her soul to save mankind.