Description:
How far will
you go to protect the one you love?
Finally,
after many long and lonely years, James Wentworth’s life is falling into place.
Together with his wife, Sarah, the only woman he has ever loved, he has found
the meaning behind her nightmares about the Salem Witch Trials, and now they
are rebuilding the life they began together so long ago.
But the past is never far behind for the
Wentworths. While Sarah is haunted by new visions, now about the baby she
carried over three hundred years before, James is confronted with painful
memories from his time with the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears. Through it all,
the persistent reporter Kenneth Hempel reappears, still determined to prove
that the undead walk the earth. If Hempel succeeds in his quest, James and
Sarah will suffer. Will the curse of the vampire prevent James and Sarah from
living their happily ever after?
Author:
Meredith Allard is the Executive Editor of The Copperfield Review, an award-winning literary journal
for readers and writers of historical fiction. She received her B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from
California State University, Northridge. She has taught writing to students
aged 10 to 60, and she has taught creative writing and writing historical fiction
workshops at Learning Tree University, UNLV, and the Las Vegas Writers
Conference. Her writing has appeared in journals such as The Paumanok Review, Moondance, Wild Mind,Muse Apprentice Guild, The Maxwell Digest, CarbLite, Writer’s Weekly, and ViewsHound. She lives in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
Links:
My Review:
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This novel
picks up a year after the first novel.
James and Sarah continue to live life, making up for 300 years of being
apart. Their family is even completed
when Grace, their re-incarnated child, finally joins them by adoption. Everything seems to be going perfectly,
except for the reporter is still out there trying to “out” vampires.
I loved
Geoffrey so much. I know, I know,
irritating vampire, the maker of James, but he is too funny. His constant nickname for Sarah “puny human”
makes me giggle, because in my head it is said with the perfect amount of love
for her and disdain for her being human all mixed up together. I also enjoy Geoffrey living in the 21st
century, but not knowing names and uses of certain modern technology. It is like he is living in a cave when he
calls a blackberry a “bumbleberry” and an iPod and “iPig”. I laughed through the whole conversation. I think there were clues to who Geoffrey
actually is in this book, and I’m dying to find out! I think that Geoffrey will be a great
character to get to know better.
Sarah is a
great character, as she has grown a lot in the last year. She has almost completely come to accept her
past life as well as her current one.
She is stronger because of it and is ready to face almost any challenge.
James is a
bit angsty, which makes it harder to connect to him. What with his guilt about the past 300 years,
and for being a vampire. Actually, that
seems to be his biggest regret. But in
the end, his courage is what makes this book great. Because we all have to get over our regrets
to become the person we need to be.
This book
is definitely darker than the first book in this trilogy. With the discussion of human rights with the
Trail of Tears and the parallel occurrences of rights for vampires, you can be
sure that this book is going to make you think.
It makes you think about our country’s history, about whether we
actually have changed as humans in response to people/creatures that are
different from us.
I had a
hard time when the television segments were written. There was no real distinction to let you know
that you are reading a television show the characters are watching or if the
characters are thinking. Also, the
journal entries are a bit confusing.
They are separated out by italics, but there is no date, and we only
have the assumption that James is the one who has written these journal
entries. All of this could have been
made clearer with appropriate labels and font distinctions.
Overall,
this is a great book. I’m really looking
forward to reading the next book (2013 can’t come fast enough!). I highly recommend it!
Other Books:
Her Dear & Loving Husband
By Meredith Allard
James Wentworth has a secret. He lives quietly in Salem,
Massachusetts, making few ties with anyone. One night his private world is
turned upside down when he meets Sarah Alexander, a dead ringer for his wife,
Elizabeth. Though it has been years since Elizabeth's death, James cannot move
on.
Sarah also has a secret. She is haunted by nightmares about the
Salem Witch Trials, and every night she is awakened by visions of hangings,
being arrested, and dying in jail. Despite the obstacles of their secrets,
James and Sarah fall in love. As James comes to terms with his feelings for
Sarah, he must dodge accusations from a reporter desperate to prove that James
is not who, or what, he seems to be. Soon James and Sarah piece their stories
together and discover a mystery that may bind them in ways they never imagined.
Will James make the ultimate sacrifice to protect Sarah and prevent a new hunt
from bringing hysteria to Salem again?
Part historical fiction, part romance, part paranormal
fantasy, Her
Dear & Loving Husband is a story for anyone who
believes that true love never dies.
Click here to see the review for this book.
Click here to see the review for this book.
Happy Reading!
Cana
