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"Serafina finds the Will to love in new Wings Romance!"

Colonel Willem Stone had been part of a covert operation to infiltrate terrorist cells as part of "Operation Enduring Freedom." It was to have been a quick mission. The goal had been to plant spies, launch strikes, and pull out. The mission had been a success but Stone had been captured before he could reach the U.S. chopper at the extraction point. He had been held in a cave and tortured unmercifully by his captors, but they could not break him. He would have died before he would have betrayed one of his own. He did not succumb to the pain, rather he lost himself in it. And there he found something, someone to live for.

Serafina. Was she real, or a figment of his feverish mind? It didn't matter. Though the beautiful, gifted, and kind hearted gypsy girl obviously lived in another place and time, he loved her. He shared her thoughts, her life, and watched helplessly as those who should have loved her betrayed her time and again.

He was her spirit guide, the gentle voice inside her head who was always there when she needed him. She was a gifted seer, much more so than her jealous older sister, but illness had been slowly weakening her. Will had been there when her sister and her beloved fiancé had betrayed her. They had left her alone in a cave with the vampire that had been stalking her tribe. There she had learned that she was one of the Chosen, a carrier of the rare Belladonna antigen. The factor would have caused her to die young if Bertrone had not brought her across. Only those with the antigen could become what he was. She had loved him in a different way, but eventually he too had left her. Her spirit guide had been with her then, had given her the will to go on. He had claimed to be real, a mortal man, from a place and time far into the future. Then he too had left her to grieve. Since then she had even lost Dante, the last remaining member of her family (see TWILIGHT HUNGER). He had left her for his lover.

Will was barely alive when he escaped his captors. Feverish from the infection in his broken foot, he passed out in the desert before he could find help. He awakened stateside in a hospital sometime later. His life had been altered irreparably by his experience. He was a hero without a job, without a home. If this was not enough, he could no longer find his way back to Serefina. She had saved him, but she was not real. Or was she? Then long nights of walking the hospital halls brought Will in contact with a creature he'd not really believed existed. Jamison Bryant was a twenty-first century vampire, looking for a little "take-out." Will promises to cover for him in exchange for some answers.

Amber Lily Bryant is special, the only child born to a vampiress (see BORN IN TWILIGHT). She is the teenaged daughter of Jameson and his wife Angelica. She is not vampire, nor the usual human, making her a prime target for vampire hunters. She is however a typical teen, in that she is anxious to test her wings, spend some time having fun in the big city without her parents. Jameson knows that to refuse her will only cause the rebellion to break out some other dangerous way. He also knows that Amber's skills would allow her to detect any vampire he assigned to look after her. He had been impressed with Willem Stone however, and he owed him one.

It is there in twenty first century New York City that Will and Serafina meet again, just where he had told her he'd be. She has hardened over the years and has sworn never to experience love and loss again. But when the DPI rears its ugly head once more and captures the child of promise, the two will risk their lives to save her. In the end, will love conquer all?

The magic of Maggie Shayne is in the believability of her tales. For the first time, her vampire finds love with a mortal, not one of the Chosen. She must face eventual loss of this love, and decide whether it is worth the pain to experience the joy, for whatever time is left to them. She also faces her own mortality. We experience with the Bryants the difficulty of allowing a beloved child to test her wings and the lengths they will go to keep their child safe, the sacrifices they are willing to make to save her. On the other side of the coin we see how greed and the potential for tremendous power can warp and twist an individual like the recurring villain, Stiles. These are things we all can relate to. Fans of the Wings series will definitely enjoy this new romance, as well as the return of several of the series' beloved characters.

Copyright © 2003

Reviewed by Leslie Tramposch
Posted March 22, 2003

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