"Slow and Sweet, Hot, Spicy, and Unpredicatable"
P.E.A.R.L. award-winner Ann Lawrence is a natural
storyteller. VIRTUAL DESIRE, sequel to her debut
novel
VIRTUAL HEAVEN, is a fantasy of a fantasy -- a paranormal
romance lover's dream. Slow and sweet, hot, spicy, and
unpredictable, Virtual Desire is a testament to the power
of love. I was hard pressed to put the book down even for
a moment. The world around me simply faded away as I too
became part of the virtual adventure. Fans of Virtual Heaven will remember Vad as a secondary
character, a Tolemac warrior and best friend to its hero
Kered. Vad is divinely beautiful, likened to an angel of
the gods. One look at his face and men fear to battle with
him. Women desire him for his beauty alone, uncaring of the
man inside the form. Even Kered had looked upon him with a
flash of jealousy once he'd staked out his lifemate,
Maggie, as his own. Vad has come to resent his looks and
has vowed to forsake the pleasures of women until he has
found his lifemate. This vow had remained unbroken for
three conjunctions. That was before he'd met Gwen Marlowe. She came to him first in the ice fields, a vision, a
mirage, beckoning to him. His quest was to find his friend
Kered on the other side of the field, retrieve the relic
demanded by the council, and to restore their honor. That
the two had been branded traitors was more than he could
bear. An orphan, he had no family, his friend had chosen
love in another world, all he had left was his honor. Cold
and fatigued, she came to him in his moment of weakness, he
reached for her, and she disappeared. Admitting defeat,
failure, he sags to the ice, the cruel surface cutting a
jagged scar into his perfect face. He lapses into
unconsciousness and when he awakens he is in a strange
place and the woman of his vision is cowering, frightened,
behind a strangely dressed man. Gwen Marlowe is the owner of Virtual Heaven (the shop that
had housed the Tolemac Wars virtual reality game that had
launched her friend Maggie O'Brien, now Kered's bride, to
Tolemac). As an unusual storm descends upon Ocean City, she
is preparing to host a Tolemac Wars ball, a fete guaranteed
to bring tremendous business to her store. Staring at the
sorry heap of furs she finds lying in the game booth, she
recognizes the intruder's resemblance to Vad, the Tolemac
warrior, hero of the new game, Tolemac Wars II. Not
surprisingly he claims to be searching for his friend
Kered. At first Gwen believes him to be a confused conventioneer,
then perhaps the model she'd hired for the ball to 'play'
Vad, and finally settles on the idea that he is a practical
joke being played by her friends Kered and Maggie. When
Kered and Vad meet during the ball, Gwen is convinced she
is right. Outside, the conversation between the two is intense. Kered
has chosen love in this place over honor in Tolemac; he
tries to convince Vad he belongs here as well. When Gwen
produces the relic Vad seeks he decides to return home
alone. In the game booth, Vad takes Gwen's hand in
farewell. A flash occurs in the booth and the pair is
transported back to the virtual world. Finding herself disoriented and in a strange, colorful
world, oddly resembling the virtual game, Gwen is forced to
accept Vad for who he had claimed to be. She has no choice
but to follow him on his quest to restore his honor. The
quest is promptly disrupted though, as the peace between
the peoples of Tolemac and the Selaw is being undermined by
an evil influence. Vad feels compelled to aid a Selaw
noblewoman in her cause before continuing with his own, and
the adventure begins. The references to Arthurian legend continue and the reader
is treated to some answers to the mysteries involving
dimensional travel between Earth and Tolemac, shedding some
light on Vad's disappearance as a child. The villain of the
piece was quite a surprise. Enough questions are left
unanswered, however, to allow for another story to be added
to the series. As one might expect, the virtual world is
fraught with perils, each challenge bringing the pair
closer and closer together. The sexual tension between the
couple is truly enjoyable to read as Vad comes to
understand that honor, like beauty, is in the eye of the
beholder and that the only quest worth undertaking is a
quest of the heart. I found myself agonizing over their set
backs, glorying in their victories, and sharing their
triumphant joy as the story came to it's conclusion. I
highly recommend this read and hope that additional sequels
are in the offing. Copyright © 2000
Reviewed by Leslie Tramposch
Posted June 28, 2001
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