"An unusual time-travel romance"
In 1692 Salem, eighteen-year-old good witch Morgana Stuart
confronts her
best friend and cousin, Adair, with the deaths of her
father, Duncan Stuart, as
well as that of two other men. Adair doesn't bother to deny
it, and Morgana
begs that Adair give herself up to head off the witch-
trials that are sure to
follow. After all, Adair has broken the coven rule to "do
no harm". But Adair
has become evil and has another plan. She's built a special
fire to help her
escape into another century. In the flames both women see
the future, and
Adair sees more... she sees Morgana's fate, a man to love
her and give her
children. Morgana and the enraged Adair struggle and
Morgana falls into the
flames, but instead of being burned alive she arrived
unscathed in the
modern-day flower garden of a kindly old woman named Hilda
Jones who
takes her in. Eight years later, Morgana, now called Morgan, is a
successful artist in
Billings Montana. She lives a quiet and happy life, if
lonely since Hilda died
years earlier. At a showing for her paintings she meets
rich and famous
mystery writer Alex Beaumont and both are smitten. He seems
familiar and it
doesn't take long for Morgan to realize he's one of the
faces that she saw in
the fire. But as their attraction grows, Morgan becomes
aware of someone
else lurking in the shadows, a hidden presence in her house
and watching
her from afar. Adair didn't die as Morgan had thought.
Instead she reached
this century, and jealous of Morgan's future happiness has
determined to
steal it from her, using the upcoming Ostara, the spring
equinox, as the right
time to send Morgan back to the past and into the waiting
arms of the Salem
witch-hunters. In her insanity, Adair believes she will
then be able to take
Morgan's place with Alex. Shadows in the Fire is an intensely creepy tale at times,
with Adair forever
watching and scheming in the background, while Alex and
Morgan discover
and explore their new love. Adair comes off as mildly
wicked in the beginning,
to completely insane by the end of the book. Alex is strong
and noble who
manages restraint when it comes to the inexperienced
Morgan, waiting for her
to be ready to accept him as a lover. He's had
relationships before but hasn't
found true love yet. Morgan is a strong witch who prefers
not to use her
powers unless necessary, and generally keeps to healing.
She's cautious
with Alex until she knows he's the one for her... and then
she throws caution
to the winds. Around Alex and Morgan are a wealth of other characters who
are fun and
supportive, and much attention is given to making them seem
real, such as
Alex's housekeeper, Emma, and her husband, Will, Kyle,
Morgan's best friend
and owner of the art gallery, Shelly, his secretary and
right hand girl, and
Alex's wayward sister, Josie. Since these minor characters
become Adair's
targets, it's important that we care about them. Even
Penny, Morgan's dog,
has a part to play in the story. The writing is strong with lots of great descriptions
particularly of the
beautiful
Montana winter countryside and Morgan's evocative
paintings. There is a
running bit about Morgan's broken down furnace that I found
delightful. It
seems she can fix human bodies and broken plumbing, but not
mechanical
things. Of course having evil Adair playing nasty tricks
doesn't help any. The
descriptions of the magical interludes, where Adair and
Morgan "meet" during
the course of the book were excellent. Overall, this was a fine book, an unusual time-travel about
a man and woman
from different worlds overcoming their hesitancy about
love, while a
madwoman stalks their happiness.
Reviewed by Janet Miller
Posted February 3, 2003
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also available in electronic format Ostara...when the hours of the day and night are equal. The
perfect time for a time travel spell... Morgan Stuart has a secret. Torn from a Seventeenth Century
Salem Village in a spell that backfired, she's made a new
life for herself as an artist in modern-day Montana. She
considers her life normal...until she meets Alexander
Beaumont. But when Morgan realizes that the handsome mystery writer
is her destiny, her life turns upside down. Her enemy from
the Seventeenth Century will stop at nothing to keep her
from finding the elusive happiness she seeks. The deeper
her love grows for Alex, the more imperiled her life
becomes. Alex soon finds out that the beautiful artist has a
troubled past...a past he can't even begin to imagine.
Strange things happen when they are together, things that
are only explained by magic. As the hours of night and day
advance on one another, Alex realizes he must fight a
supernatural force to keep the woman who has captured his
heart, before Ostara falls and he loses her forever.
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