Twilight Magic
Shari Anton
Warner, Nov 2006, $6.50
ISBN: 0446617555

In 1145 London Lady Emma de Leon is frustrated with King Stephen as she petitions him to allow her younger sister Nicole to come home from Bledloe Abbey to live with her married other sibling Gwendolyn. The monarch has no time for Emma as he is fighting a civil war.

The King's brother Bishop Henry offers strong circumstantial evidence that accuses Flemish mercenary Darian of Bruges of killing Edward de Solis. Darian provides no alibi so Stephen says he must be executed. However, Emma says he was with her last night. Henry is irate and insists she lies; but Emma describes scars on him. She knows Darian intimately though they never met before as he has been the man this witch has made love with in her dreams. He wants nothing to do with her, but Stephen forces them to marry. They flee the city for Kent though Darian plans to investigate who framed him for murder starting with which friend betrayed him.

The second de Leon "magical" medieval romance is a fun tale that hooks readers from the moment Emma speaks up and never slows down until the final confrontation with a sly villain. As with the first novel (see MIDNIGHT MAGIC), readers obtain a taste of the impact of the English civil war between Stephen and Maud. On the top of a whodunit, the relationship between the witch and the mercenary make for a superb historical as she knows he is the one and he knows she is the one he must avoid as she bewitches him.

Harriet Klausner