Thursday, July 23, 2009

The Night Side-Melanie Jackson

The Night Side
Melanie Jackson
Love Spell, Aug 2009, $7.99
ISBN: 9780505528049

The recent rout at Solway Moss battle left Balfour clan without a leader as the laird and his sons were all killed. The new laird is twelve years old George, who resides with his cousin, Lady Frances Balfour, who vows to protect him with the intensity of a lioness with her cubs.

Frances keeps hearing the howling of the ghostly canine Bokey. The residents insist the hound appears and howls whenever a Balfour is about to die. Frances fears that someone could be George as several people want to usurp the chieftain position from the lad whose only protection is the daughter of the dead laird. Frances fears she will be forced to wed. Hope arrives when King Henry VIII sends espionage agent Colin Mortlock to learn what is going on with the Balfour Clan at Noltland Castle; between a ghost and spirited female he learns more than he expected about life and love..

THE NIGHT SIDE is a typical Henry VIII romance that brings to life the intrigue and distrust that permeates much of Scotland and cleverly fostered by the English in the early 1540s. The lead couple is a delightful refreshing pairing as the heroine sees the outsider as her and her nephew’s salvation. Melanie Jackson provides an entertaining historical as the spy comes out of the cold when he falls in love.

Harriet Klausner

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