Shape of Imagination Exclusive Review: Between Good and Aeval

Between Good and Aeval
By Dayna Hart

(Book Two of The Curtain Torn Series)
ISBN: 1-60504-040-1
Fantasy Romance/ebook
Release date: June 10, 2008
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
www.samhainpublishing.com


Between Good and Aeval is Ms. Hart’s second book in the Curtain Torn series and reconnects readers with the characters Claire and Dell from her book, Go Between.

Claire has a unique job. She’s a go-between, a person who monitors the portal between our world and that of Fae (which happens to be in her bedroom closet). But she is more than a mere human on border patrol. Claire is also part investigator, part peacemaker/advocate for Fae rights, and part judge and jury against those who cause mischief on this side of the curtain.

When a human woman comes to her concerning the mysterious disappearance of her human husband, Claire wonders why she, of all people, should get involved. Once she gets to the bottom of the woman’s story and the real reason why the husband vanished, Claire realizes this case is most definitely connected to the realm of Fae and under her jurisdiction.

A faery Goddess named Aeval and her cult of followers are kidnapping men accused of not pleasing their wives sexually and punishing them for the transgression. It’s up to Claire and Dell to find out why the faery women are continuing to hold the men hostage, and to rescue them from their captors. To do that though, Claire will have to pretend that Dell is her husband, and he isn’t pleasing her in bed–and at the same time fight the attraction she’s felt for Dell since they first met.

Ms. Hart has created a beautiful, romantic love story set within a magical world that is both whimsical and crystalline pure. The chemistry between her two main characters is spellbinding and ethereal. Claire’s doubts about Dell are believable. He is after all, from Fae, and faery folk are known throughout myth and legend to be fickle.

Fantasy romance aficionados will enjoy the blending of realities between Fae and our world, and readers who enjoy the sensual over the more sexual flavors of erotic romance will delight in the story’s playful side. While Ms. Hart’s voice is unique, it is also flavored with the same fantastical wonder of author Charles DeLint’s earlier works.

I found the book delightful, but would suggest readers pick up her first book in the series, Go Between, in order to enrich the underlying detail and subtle complexities in Between Good and Aeval.