Linda Howard, Raintree: Inferno

Raintree Inferno

Linda Howard

Silhouette Nocturne, May 2007, $5.25, 276 pp.

ISBN 0373617623

Dante Raintree is the Danir chieftain because his psi powers are stronger than anyone else in the Raintree clan. His heir Gideon wants Dante to marry and produce children so these offspring can be the new Danir if something happens to their leader. Dante, owner of the Inferno casino, sees on the security that a woman is winning too easily.

He has Lorna Clay brought to him to find out how she is controlling winning when he realizes she is a powerful though untrained psychic who he believes is a stray or a member of the Ansara clan that the Raintree clan defeated in a war hundreds of years ago. Once he makes sure she is not his enemy, he acknowledges that he has romantic feelings for her and she reciprocates those feelings. However, members of the Ansara clan have grown powerful in the centuries of their exile and plan to kill the Danir and the rest of the royal family. Dante and Lorna don't know they are targets and the fire and accidents weren't accidents at all.

Linda Howard has the magic touch when it comes to writing paranormal romances and RAINTREE: INFERNO is one of her best to date. It stars two protagonists who act like cats around each other until they have to trust one another. The attempted assassinations by the enemy add a nice twist of excitement and suspense to this enthralling tale. Next month read Gideon's story in Raintree: Haunted.

Harriet Klausner