Susan Spencer Paul, Touch of Night

Touch of Night

Susan Spencer Paul

St. Martin's, Aug 2005, $6.99, 352 pp.

ISBN: 0312933878

In 1818 England, Niclas Seymour has the ability to "read" the emotions of people, but had not understood the need to consider human feelings until three years ago when he learned the hard way. He found out that the wife of his best friend Drew was cheating. Feeling it his responsibility he informs Drew, who committed suicide. His magic led to blood spilling, which places the user under a curse to atone for his mistake by performing a life risking deed for a blood relationship of Drew.

A despairing Niclas no longer sleeps properly as the guilt fills his mind. He roams the night stopping muggers, but also knows that he is losing his mind with living being more painful than death. The family patriarch, Europe's most powerful wizard Malchi Seymour, warns Niclas that his sanity is slipping, but asks a favor. Drew's distant cousin Miss Julia Linley needs help to rescue her aunt from a forced marriage she does not want. Though not a curse-freeing level deed, Niclas escorts Julia on a dangerous trek through faery land where evil lurks under every rock. To his shock her voice, touch and sight eases his depression. However, he fears her reaction when she learns what he did to her relative.

This fabulous romantic fantasy will grip the audience from the beginning as readers meet a tormented Niclas struggling with guilt and slipping into insanity as he cannot cope with what he caused. The storyline enables the audience to believe in wizardry and sorcery, but even more so in the healing magic of love. Susan Spencer Paul writes a robust tale in which the worst demons are inside a person's soul.

Harriet Klausner