"Truly good love story of the fae!"
Rosenwyn "Rose" Tremain has finally reached the point in
her life where she's content. She lives in a nice flat in
London, has a great job as an accountant for a bank and she
even gets to travel. Like now—she's in Cornwall to
investigate an inn whose owner has defaulted on the
mortgage. She's hoping the job won't take more than a
couple days so she can pursue the real reason she's in
Cornwall—to find her father. See, Rose's mother was very
flamboyant and an artist—different. Rose is hoping against
hope her father is a plain, ordinary man and she took after
him. When the inn owner's brother, Niall O'Connor, pays off
the mortgage, Rose is very happy knowing she still has time
off from work and can spend it trying to find her father. Even though it isn't his favorite thing to do, Niall goes
to see the druid, Tristan, to renew the spell on his
sister, Ana. He's hoping the check he has will be enough to
ensure his sister's safety from Ciar, the Queen of the
Daoine Sidhe. When Niall turned down the queen's advances,
she became very angry and threatened Ana, so Niall took his
sister and brother and left Ireland to settle in Cornwall.
He had a cottage made for Ana, where she lives alone. Niall
lives with his brother Michael in Michael's inn. Well, this
time, Tristan wants more than money to perform the spell.
Turns out a pisky has come into Cornwall and Tristan wants
Niall to bring her to him. Unfortunately, when he meets
Rose, he's instantly attracted to her and no longer wants
her exposed to Tristan, who just turns out to be Rose's
father. Worry for his sister's safety takes over, and
eventually Niall takes Rose to see Tristan. Turns out Tristan is even more evil than Niall imagined. Of
course, he had to hear the story from Nightshade, a
vampiric nightstalker who happens to be half-pisky.
Somehow, Tristan managed to break the pisky's magic knots—
three interwoven stones all Good People have—and has their
bodies trapped in paintings Rose's mother did. Their souls
are trapped in globes Tristan keeps and is feeding from.
Also turns out Rose is not just a pisky, she's the pisky
queen. And of course, Rose is determined to free the
piskies. Will Rose and Niall be able to free the piskies? What of
the attraction between the two? Will they be able to find
out how to free the piskies? Will Niall be able to keep Ana
safe? THE MAGIC KNOT is a thrilling love story filled with mad
fairy queens, nightstalkers who drink blood, and an evil
druid. Helen Scott Taylor weaves magic of her own in the
telling of this tale of a love meant to be. Both our hero
and our heroine are flawed. Rose never fit in when she was
growing up; she knew she was different from the other kids
in school and will never be as beautiful as her mother was.
Niall is a warrior, just like his father. In fact, he
watched his father train as a child, but the father Niall
worshipped never had much to do with him. Watching Niall
learn to trust was a truly wondrous thing. This story had
everything I love in it: set in England and Ireland; the
Sidhe from both Ireland and Cornwall; magical creatures of
different types and the heartfelt sigh at the end. The plot
moves quickly and doesn't let up. If this is Helen Scott
Taylor's debut novel, I just can't wait to see what she
writes next. Definitely a new auto-buy author for me. I
highly recommend this story to all lovers of magic.
Reviewed by Chere Gruver
Posted January 18, 2009
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First in a series of contemporary fantasy romances set in the mystical rural depths of England, Ireland and Wales. When Rose discovers she is the Cornish pisky queen and her father is a dark druid who has imprisoned her people in portraits, the race is on to discover the fairy lore needed to release her people before her father destroys the piskies forever. She seeks help from the sinfully sexy Irish fairy twins, the O’Connor brothers. Niall’s faint air of menace flutters dark thrills of anticipation through her, but does he want to kiss her or kill her when she accidentally touches his Magic Knot and forges a mystical lovers’ bond with him? And can she resist the seductive glamour of his mischievous brother Michael? With the survival of the Cornish piskies in her hands, Rose must escape from a vampiric, winged fairy, outwit The Queen of Nightmares and surrender her mind, body and spirit to Niall to release her hidden inner fairy. The Tarot cards warn he will stab her in the back, but when she’s in his arms, the last thing on her mind is death.
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