Paranormal/Futuristic
The Flame & the Shadow
By Katherine Petersen
Dec 1, 2008 - 5:36:14 PM

Cenda lost her child and gained incredible powers as a fire witch, abilities she’d sooner do without. Nonetheless, many individuals, none with Cenda’s feelings in mind, want her powers and will bribe, cheat, threaten and fight to achieve this goal. Cenda never had much confidence. She struggled with the easiest spell during her witch training and thinks of herself as gawky, clumsy and useless, so the idea that a beautiful man would sweep her off her feet seems ludicrous. She can’t deny her attraction to him and the ultimate sensuality of his touch.

Grayson of Concordia, better known as the Duke of Ombra, plans to seduce Cenda as the first step in his scheme to rid himself of an entity he calls Shad. Gray has led a difficult life, and for him, Shad represents the dark and evil of his soul. He believes without him, he can restore himself to the light. The bargain he strikes to rid himself of his shadowy companion involves kidnapping the fire witch. But these two tormented beings, don’t count on their feelings for each other or the ultimate hurt of betrayal.

Denise Rossetti has taken the fantasy genre by storm with her print debut. THE FLAME AND THE SHADOW bursts with action, mystery and passion. Rossetti has a beautiful writing style, apparent in her descriptions of the world, her realistic dialogue and her highly developed characters who have weaknesses, learn lessons and grow as we turn the pages. Not only they, she deftly draws us into her plot, encourages us to care about the characters and keeps the anticipation going so we’ll stay up long into the night to find out what will happen. Her ability to write erotic scenes that exude sensuality without sounding at all cliché impressed me the most. She has an extraordinary gift of language as if the words themselves create magical patterns on the page as they flow one into another so seamlessly.

Rossetti possesses an ability to show us rather than tell us about her characters and their situations: Cenda’s insecurities, naivety and struggles with how and when to use her powers and Gray’s relationship with and feelings for Shad and vice versa. I highly recommend this novel to fans of erotic romance and fantasy alike and can’t wait to get my hands on the next installment.