ParaNormalRomance.org

"A wonderful tale of love, and fantasies fulfilled"

Shannah Biondine's SLEIGHT OF MIND is a treasure which will remain on my bookshelf to be read again.

Harmonie Ashlar is a determined, spunky 19th century woman who takes action against men who prey on women. She enjoys her mission. Causing disruptions is exciting and satisfies her dramatic flair.

We meet Harmonie as she is disrupting the society wedding of the year. She races out the side entrance to the church and is happily about to divest herself of her pregnant woman disguise when her escape is blocked by a doddering old man. She careens into him, dislodging his white wig and tumbling them both into the street. This causes a horse to rear and overturn the vegetable cart it is pulling. The vegetable cart is not the only thing upset.

The groom and his party are shouting for Harmonie's arrest, the vegetable vendor is bellowing about his destroyed produce and the old man who turns out to be Wil Bregon of Astute Investigations is furious. Wil is on the trail of a gang of jewel thieves and is losing the man he was following. The two of them are hauled off to jail.

Harmonie finds Wil to be "an irritatingly handsome man" and when he glares at her across the paddy wagon, she is stunned to discover that he had the moss green eyes of the man of her dreams!

Her verve and sensuous innocence captures Wil Bregon's hardened heart in spite of himself.

Shannah Biondine weaves a wonderful tale of love, fantasies fulfilled, thieves and killers thwarted, even a ghost! SLEIGHT OF MIND kept me turning pages into the wee hours of the night. It is richly populated with well-drawn believable characters.

Harmonie is adventurous, vivacious, strong-minded, yet vulnerable. Wil is worldly-wise and tough minded with his own vulnerabilities. The lovemaking is hot and adventurous, too!!

Harmonie and Wil are a fascinating couple. I only hope Shannah Biondine will tell us more stories involving Astute Investigations. Perhaps Argyle will find a love and adventure of his own?

Reviewed for PNR Reviews by
Dee Lloyd, Author

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted December 22, 2006

While working a smuggling case for Astute Investigations, Denver detective Wil Bregon is drawn to San Francisco's rollicking Barbary Coast. Formerly an Eastern lawyer and experienced gun for hire, Wil's not daunted by outlaws and ruffians or prowling foggy dockside taverns. But he isn't prepared for ghostly visitations from his dead wife or finding himself powerfully attracted to a young blonde who bears a noticeable resemblance to his late spouse. Harmonie Ashlar is a charlatan, a girl with a local reputation for staging pranks for monetary gain. Is she purposely masquerading as Wil's deceased wife as part of some confidence scheme? Has someone paid her to threaten Wil's sanity, or is his own imagination playing tricks on him, in an eerie, inexplicable Sleight of Mind? Wil Bregon seems to be everything Harmonie has always yearned for: a man who's handsome, resourceful, rugged, and shrewd. He's also deeply troubled—and there is someone watching the pair. Someone willing to do anything to keep them apart. Caught in a web of deceit, can Harmonie and Wil escape the danger looming over them and the lingering phantom of Wil's turbulent past?

Buy From Publisher