Sandy M’s review of Silver Silence (Druids of Avalon, Book 4) by Joy Nash
Historical Paranormal Romance published by Love Spell 27 Oct 09
I’m one of those who likes to read a series in order. However, Sybil has pretty much broken me of that habit over the past number of months. But once in a while there’s a series that just needs to be read the way it’s intended. This is one of those series. It’s not that you miss anything from previous books or you don’t know who the characters are or anything like that. In this case it’s the feel of the story.
Ms. Nash has given us her spin on the Arthurian legend, and her research and ultimate writing is so rich and lavish, so full of a magical essence that reading the series in order would enhance the pleasure received when sitting down with these books. The reader would gain so much more from the series as a whole than just reading one or two of them or reading the last one first, as I’ve done. Do I feel that I lost a little something in just reading this one book so far? Yeah, I do. There’s so much more to it, more to be had in all those variable nuances that I know from reading this book will be in the others and will bring the series together.
Rhys is a Druid from Avalon and he’s been traveling most of his life to find young ones who have the promise of magic in them to keep Avalon and its magic and mysticism alive. After so many years, he’s tired and longs for home, but though he visits when he can, Avalon hasn’t been his home for a long time. This visit is brought on by the sudden urge to see Breena, despite everything in him telling him he shouldn’t. She’s much too young and innocent for man such as himself, but she’s also someone that he desperately needs.
Not having heard from Rhys in nearly a year, Breena finally gives in and scries his whereabouts just to make sure he’s all right. But she gets more than she bargained for when she witnesses him heading into the arms of another woman. Though she tries to put him and what she sees out of her mind and heart, when Rhys finally comes home, she finds she can’t harden her heart toward him. She’s loved him for too long to do so. But nothing has changed for Rhys, and after an argument when he tells her there can be nothing between them, Breena has the opportunity to be her own woman and to right the wrong she’s had visions about for so many years.
Whisked three hundred years into the future by Myrddin, a powerful Druid, Breena is cast into the middle of war between two lords who want the same woman, the woman who she must help protect to save the Avalon and Britain she knows from a dark and ugly future. After searching for Breena when she’s discovered missing, Rhys follows a nearly hidden, magical thread right into the future to bring Breena home. What they run into and experience in that space of time before they do get home hits everything from grief to unadulterated joy, with all kinds of magic thrown in.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. There’s a little of everything for every type of reader, and the romance between Rhys and Breena is a hard road, but one that is worth every dogged step it took to get there, for them and for the reader.
Grade: A
Summary:
Dark Magic dooms Rhys to wander the endless roadways and wild forests, searching for druids strong enough to battle the coming evil. Duty demands that he lead a solitary life, taking women to his bed but not into his heart.
Dark Passion drives Rhys to commit acts that shame him, especially when he believes they’ve been witnessed by the innocent druidess he’s sworn to protect. Breena is young and pure, and Rhys hates himself for his dark longing.
A Dark Spell steals Breena away, leaving Rhys to follow her through the Lost Lands to Britain’s grim future, when the danger Breena has foreseen threatens to extinguish the Light of Avalon. Only together can Rhys and Breena unravel the secret linking their past with a future King, and break the… Silver Silence
Read an excerpt. (scroll down)
Other books in this series:
