Sandy M’s Duckies Do Series reviews of the Immortal Witches Series by Maggie Shayne
Historical/Contemporary Paranormal Romances released Dec 98 – Jan 02

Witch stories run either hot or cold for me.  I have to admit, most don’t do much for me, while a few I totally love.  This series is one I absolutely love.  I enjoyed everything about it, from the characters to the storyline to the villain.  I really like how Ms. Shayne overlaps the characters from book to book, intertwines the storylines while still making each story individual to the current hero and heroine, all the while still giving us the romance we look for.

Eternal Love (Books 1 & 2) (Reissue of Eternity and Infinity)
Released by Berkley Trade 6 Nov 07

Eternity (Book 1)
Initial Release by Jove 1 Dec 98

Raven is a young girl living with her mother in the times when anything unexplained scared people spitless and they accused innocent men and women of witchcraft.  She grows up knowing nothing of her heritage or her power and magic.  It is only as both she and her mother are about to be hanged that she learns everything.  And it is also when she finds the one man meant for her, the only one in the crowd who rails against the wrong done to her and her mother.  But not even he can do anything to save them and Raven’s life ends as he helplessly watches.

Coming back to life later is when Raven begins to learn who and what she truly is.  During the ensuing confusion, it is Duncan who dies trying to save Raven once again, and though she knows he will return to her because of his selfless act of love, it is three hundred years of loneliness she must endure before finding love again.

Of course, it’s never quite that easy either.  Duncan doesn’t remember Raven when they meet again, but he is drawn to her.  Love never dies, as they say, and in this book that is done so very well.  Evil doesn’t seem to die either.  Shayne has created several terrific villains for this series of books.  While Raven, and now Duncan, is a Light High Witch, there are also Dark High Witches, just as immortal but they must consistently kill a Light High Witch and keep their eternal-beating hearts so that they may live a stronger life.  This is done throughout the series, always in a different way, and it’s in the next book that we see it more up close and personal.

These first two books begin in the past for the characters, going through their first death, and then coming at last to present day, still fighting to stay alive and find their true love once again.  Portions of each book are also told in first person, which I enjoy — I’m a throw-back from the days of Victoria Holt, who was a master at first person — but I know there’s plenty of you out there who don’t care for it.  Don’t let that stop you from reading this series, though.  These are not the mundane witch stories we normally see.  There’s so much more going on and done in such a different way that you really don’t want to miss a word.

Grade: A+

Summary:Three hundred years ago, Raven St. James was accused of witchcraft… Only one man tried to free her from the hangman’s noose–Duncan, the town minister, who died trying to save her.Three hundred years later, the accused witch still lives and longs for her love… At last, after centuries of loneliness, Raven has found her precious Duncan. But as he awakens to the passion of his past life, so too does the evil that tore them apart. Now Raven and Duncan must prove their love for all eternity…

Infinity (Book 2)
Initial Release by Jove 1 Oct 99

We met Arianna in Eternity and learned the story of how she was able to save her sister Raven from death, knowing she would be reunited with her in the future. Once again, though, we are first taken into the past to see where Arianna hails from.  We meet her there after Raven has died and we learn how her family has basically fallen apart because of that death.  Arianna seems determined to rebel at every little thing in reaction, even defying her laird as much as she can.  It’s only Nicodimus who can rein her in, just barely.

Arianna knows nothing of her own immortality, though she’s been associating with the local “witches,” and that only fuels the gossip in a superstitious village.  It’s when she pushes everyone and everything too far that the laird demand she marry, hopefully to a man who can control her.  The only man she’ll have, however, is Nic.

As drawn as he is to the little hellion, Nic hesitates when it comes to her ultimatum of marriage.  He’d been married once and it tore his heart and soul to pieces when his family perished.  He’s sworn not to give of himself like that ever again, but he also can’t stop the jealousy when the laird’s sons show their own interest in Arianna.  So he marries her, but his plan is to live his life as usual, going back to his nomadic ways so that the evil that follows him will not harm those he loves.

Arianna wants none of that, but in the end nothing she can say will stop her husband from leaving her behind.  But as all plans are wont to do, evil rears its ugly head and it’s Nic who pays the ultimate price, his heart stolen by a dark witch.  It’s five hundred years later when Arianna discovers that there is a way to bring back those whose hearts are to beat alone forever.  Her only fear is that Nic won’t be able to forgive her for the one act she regrets with everything in her.

This time the first person is told from Nic’s point of view, which I found very compelling.  I also really liked that Duncan and Raven from Eternity are very present in this book, all without giving up anything of Nic and Arianna’s romance. So many nuances throughout each previous books are interwoven into each succeeding one to make it so much more complex.  This book is a terrific followup and we’re set up quite nicely for the next in the series.

Grade: A+

Summary:For five centuries, Immortal High Witch Nicodimus has been suspended in an eternity of darkness. His heart was stolen away in the ultimate betrayal by his love Arianna… Now Arianna discovers a way to bring him back. But the power that returns Nicodimus to her arms also summons an ancient enemy. To fight this dark danger, they must confront the past–and reclaim infinity…

Immortal Desire (Books 3 and 4) (Reissue of Destiny and Immortality)
Released by Berkley Trade 4 Dec 07

Destiny (Book 3)
Initial Release by Jove 1 Feb 01

Nidaba is the truly mysterious character we meet throughout the series.  We’re not even sure for the longest time if she’s an immortal witch, but we do know she has some connection to Nicodimus from Infinity.  In this book we learn of the characters’ history throughout the story instead of at the beginning as we did in the previous books.

Nidaba was a childhood friend of Prince Eannatum of Sumer.  She was a priestess who would be called upon for the Sacred Marriage Rite when the prince married, but before that could happen they fell in love and Natum wanted only Nidaba, even though his father had arranged a marriage to the daughter of a neighboring ruler so that their countries, once united, would reign over the entire land.  Knowing love and passion at his hands, Nidaba knows she can never truly have him.

Leaving with the knowledge she carries his son, something that will at least remind her of the man she loves, she tries to do what is best for all concerned.  When Natum’s attempts to find her end in disaster, he goes on alone, married to a woman he can never love, one who is only power hungry and believes she loves him but doesn’t really know the true meaning of the word.

Centuries later Nathan King is shocked to discover Nidaba in a hospital, under watch to prevent her from hurting herself.  Stealing her away is the only answer so that people will not know who and what she is.  Slowly but surely Nidaba returns to her former self but is still not the woman Nathan knew so long ago.  It was the loss of her son that precipitated her capture by the dark witch who tortured her and experimented on her, putting her through death and rebirth over and over again so that the woman Nathan knew seems truly lost forever.

There is still enough of her buried deep within, so he tries everything to get back what they once shared.  It’s been years since he’s had to fight evil, choosing instead to live among humans, living like he is just a man, but it is Nidaba who brings home to him he is an ancient prince, an immortal High Witch and he should live and fight as one.

In this book is where Ms. Shayne really brings things full circle, giving us all the pieces that fit together like a perfect interlocking puzzle.  Duncan, Raven, Nic, and Arianna all make appearances and are very much part of the story and the resolution.   No first person in this one.  As much as I liked the history of the characters being given at the beginning of the story in the first two books, it works in this one that it’s given throughout because of the way they find each other once again.  And at the end we’re set up perfectly for the last part in the series.

Grade: A+

Summary:She is Nidoba – a immortal High Witch so ancient, so legendary, that for thousands of years she has been the ultimate prize, relentlessly pursued by Dark Witches, she has eluded all who would kill her…until a mother’s grief makes her reckless and she is captured by a madman. After endless physical and mental torment, she escapes, but her captivity has damaged her spirit as well as her body. And though the wounds to her body have healed, the scars on her mind and soul remain.

After more than four thousand years, her destiny has finally found her…

Nathan King now has the peace he craved in the life he created for himself – until the day he sees her again. Can it really be Nidabe – the love he thought lost to him so many centuries ago? But the woman he finds is not the fierce, proud girl of his cherished memories – now her eyes are haunted by a pain so deep, and a hatred so bitter it divides them still. but if he is to understand the source of her anguish and reclaim the passion that was once theirs, he must face the truth that the evil that tore them apart once again stands between them and their chance at forever.

Immortality (Book 4) (from the Out of This World anthology)
Initial release by Jove 8 Aug 01

This novella picks up immediately where Destiny leaves off, only now from the point of view of Puabi, the wife of King Enntanum four thousand years earlier.  She is tired of trying to gain Natum’s love, even in the modern world where he calls himself Nathan King, and when Nidaba is once again in Nathan’s life, Puabi has to again fight them both just as she did before.  And as they did before, they have beaten her, left her to die in the fire that is devouring Nathan’s home, and Puabi has at long last lost her will to live.  Throwing herself over the cliffs into the ocean, she welcomes death, somehow knowing that her immortality will not save her this time.

It’s not immortality but Matthew Fairchild who saves Puabi this time around.  He’s ensconced himself on his private island to grieve for his wife and child who he’s recently lost when he discovers Puabi in the waters just offshore.  He’s stunned when he realizes her resemblance to his dead wife and and he feels a pull to this woman that he’s never experienced before.   It’s during their efforts to outrun an approaching storm that the truth is revealed and Matthew finds out what really happened to his wife and son.

I wasn’t sure I’d like this short story all that much because it’s about one of the villains of the last two books, but Ms. Shayne pulls it off and you want Puabi to finally find happiness if at all possible.  With a couple of twists here and there, she does pull it off and gives a different happily ever after than we’ve gotten with the previous three books.  A good story, not quite as good as the others, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Grade: A-

Summary:

Her name is Puabi—and she’s an Immortal High Witch whose past is littered with dark secrets. Convinced she has eluded death for the last time, she is shocked to find herself being rescued by a mysterious stranger who fills her with a desire she thought was lost forever…

His name is Matthew Fairchild—and he is a millionaire tormented by guilt over the tragic death of his wife. The last thing he expected to encounter was a beautiful woman who possessed an uncanny resemblance to the woman he loved and lost. But Puabi is like no one he’s ever met before. Is it possible this enigmatic beauty can heal the bitter wounds that have nearly cost him his heart?

This is a terrific series of books with complex characters and plot, storytelling that is compelling, and love and romance portrayed with longing, integrity, and that is never ending. These books will be sitting on my shelf for quite a long time.

  Overall Grade:  A+