Review: Great Start to the Sisters of Magic Series!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 24, 2012
An emotional and adventurous novel, Shadow Magic by Donna Grant is a great read and a fabulous start in the Sisters of Magic Series. Stunning characters and a passionate romance make this a novel with plenty of heart that you won't want to miss!Serena has long since given up on fanciful notions of love and family. She is a bana-bhuidseach, a witch, destined to live her life alone. For if she loses her heart to a man, the curse among her people will eventually take him away. Yet that does not stop Serena from noticing Drogan, Lord of Wolfglynn. Despite her best efforts to avoid endangering her heart, she cannot resist the pull that brings them together.Yet Drogan has a past of terrible secrets threatening to pull him into the darkness, making sure he is lost forever. Serena may make the darkness retreat, but he cannot endanger her welfare by acting on their mutual attraction. When their friends are endangered, Serena and Drogan must travel across the lands to Wolfglynn and ensure their safety. When they finally face the evil villain, Serena's powers show her a bleak future...sacrifice herself for love or allow the evil to take Drogan from her forever. Serena wants her happily ever after with Drogan, but fate may have other plans.Drogan was the kind of hero you always expect and rely on in historical novels. He was tough, strong, wildly attractive and protective. Yet underneath it all he was what I love best in romance...the tortured hero. While that was intriguing enough, I also found that perhaps what was most stunning about him was his honesty. He never denied his past, just could not give voice to the horrors he had committed. With Serena, he held hardly nothing back, always eager to know more about the woman and for her to know more about him.He snorted. "I've seen beauty before, Serena, but only once have I gazed upon a woman who might make flowers cry."The jealousy within her roared to life, and despite her attempts, she couldn't keep the sarcasm from her voice when she asked, "Really? And who would that be?""You."Serena was the self sacrificing heroine always seeking to make others happy before considering her own happiness. Her assumption that her future was bleak and dark made her more determined to see that others did not suffer the same fate. What was so fascinating about her was the passion for life and love that Drogan brought out in her. As you read Shadow Magic, you see an intelligent, yet pessimistic woman turn into a fighter. Not just a fighter for others any more, but finally for herself.While you have great inspirational characters, they also contribute to a stunning romance. Both of their situations in life cause them to live for the moment and the passion they shared because of this was scorching. It is a very character driven story, which in my honest opinion, is the most essential element to any romance. You have descriptive prose expressing details of the time period and the adventure, but it is the character of our hero and heroine that make the heart of this story. Their struggles, their failures, their triumphs and their love make this a worthwhile read. It truly can't get much better than that.Shadow Magic was a novel I had great difficultly putting down. The romance Grant sets up between these two characters seems nearly impossible, so I became engaged wanting to know the ending. Serena and Drogan are such emotionally wounded characters you not only come to find them endearing but desperately root for their happily ever after. In Shadow Magic, Grant determines the couples future, but leaves a few other details of the series unresolved. Other established characters are set up for continuing story lines and I'm sure we will see Serena and Drogan again along the way. Shadow Magic is a lovely story about redemption, learning to accept and forgive our past, but also about trust and learning to accept that fate doesn't always have the final say. Readers looking for a charming historical romance with a light paranormal flare will want to add Shadow Magic to their `must read' lists!