The moment Aubrey Griffen met Edmund Bryant, the Marquess of Dalsbury, their connection was instant.
Thus begins Kiki Howell's novel 'Torn Asunder.
' Societal conventions should have kept them apart--he was a member of the highest circle of Regency English society, and she was a common citizen.
Edmund was engaged to Lady Elizabeth Ward, a woman whose social standing equaled his own.
Although she never could have admitted it in Edmund's presence, Aubrey was a witch, learning the magical Craft from her cousins Lord and Lady Sanderly.
Their attraction was inevitable, though, and against their better judgment, Aubrey and Edmund fell irrevocably in love.
His overbearing aristocratic mother would never accept her son's love for Aubrey, though, and with her high social standing, she could have made life very difficult for Aubrey.
Aubrey did what she felt was the responsible thing to do.
She fled.
Edmund followed her.
So Aubrey turned him into a dragon.
To her amazement, Edmund shape-shifted back to his gorgeous, ruggedly refined human form.
Slowly it dawned on Aubrey he had his own magic.
Reunited, the lovers still had to face Edmund's mother...
and his long-lost biological father, a powerful dark wizard.
Could true love survive with an angry Lady, a frightening wizard and society itself against them? Readers who enjoyed Howell's 2009 novel 'A Modern Day Witch Hunt' will not be disappointed by this book, though Howell has shifted the setting from modern times to the 18th century.
Once again Howell contributes a likably strong-minded, magical heroine and a hero worthy of a thousand fantasies.
Jane Austen would be proud.
When Aubrey and Edmund come together, sparks fly even as circumstances threaten to tear them apart.
Somehow, Howell manages to make even Edmund's beastly forms seem appealing.
Her men are the kind who seem too good to be true...
but then turn out to be true.
Once again, Kiki Howell had this reader enraptured by her magic literary spell.
'Dream Lover' (Cleis Press, May 2011), edited by Kristina Wright, is a collection of diverse, elegantly erotic tales of paranormal romance.
It's my favorite genre, I can't get enough, and this collection is an especially sweet one.
The anthology begins with "Love Resurrection" by Justine Elyot.
In it, the ghost of a long-neglected Victorian poet haunts the academic who comes to his ancestral home to research him.
The tale is perfectly imagined.
A.
D.
R.
Forte's "Rainmaker" is another well-crafted tale, so vividly so sensual it feels like the air before a thunderstorm.
Kristina Lloyd contributes "Living Off Lovers," an atmospheric piece in which an apartment building becomes a character and a woman lusts for a man about whom she knows only a name, "Peter.
" Sacchi Green's "Freeing the Demon" is a startlingly beautiful gargoyle story.
Given my personal preference for wolf tales, it may come as no surprise my personal favorite in this collection is Alana Noel Voth's "Moongirl Meets the Wolf Man.
" It's always wonderful when a lone wolf meets her one true mate.
The vampire tale, "Lust as Old as Us" by Madeline Moore, puts a fascinating twist on the teenage vampire genre.
These are only a few of the stories in 'Dream Lover.
' There's much more in its 240 pages.
Disclosure: I received 'Torn Asunder' as a free e-book from the author.
I received a free paperback copy of 'Dream Lover' from the publisher.
I was not otherwise compensated for these reviews.