Loading ...Beltane By Erin O’Riordan
Zenobia Van Zandt is a witch whose twin sister Allegra is a pagan priestess. Both women are beautiful, although Zen is fair and Allie is dramatically dark. (When a suitor remarks on Zen’s blondeness, she informs him that she is not a natural blonde, something he verifies for himself in very short order.) Zen has the gift of empathy and the ability to read others’ emotions, a gift that sometimes brings her sorrow and often brings her grief. She would give a lot, for instance, not to know that her new brother-in-law, Paul Phillip, does not want children although he has led Zen’s sister to believe otherwise. She also wishes that she didn’t know the reason behind Paul Phillip’s decision.
Zen’s got her own troubles of course, and they center on Orlando Parisi, who has just discovered that his wife Catherine has been cheating on him with his best friend Vlad. Orlando wanders into Zen’s shop, “Light and Shadows” in search of answers and much to his amazement, Zen knows all about the questions plaguing Orlando, especially his fear that he did not father the boy he calls his son. Orlando is a tortured man and his affair with Zen is filled with great angst and even more amazing sex.
Unfortunately, the heat between Orlando and Zen is not as steamy as it could be. There’s nothing subtle about the author’s description of Zen’s romps, which often seem more clinical than sensual, possibly because O’Riordan uses such frank language to create her word pictures of their passion. Moreover, Orlando feels a little bland in the face of Zen’s fierceness.
There are some great elements to the book, particularly the fresh Midwestern setting of Milwaukee. (Are other readers as sick as I am of books that take place in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago?) Zen and Allie live in a believably multi-cultural world, a place where a Japanese organic gardener could be their foster mother and Zen’s lover could be a first-generation American whose Slovenian mother is always available to babysit his son Armin. There are also neat little details, like the name of a particular kind of cherry brandy that Orlando drinks and which Zen quaffs in preparation for their liaison.
The characters, however, are not particularly riveting or original. Allie sports the “ink” we’re used to seeing on heroines of urban fantasy novels. It’s a great visual, but not enough to make us believe she’s an intelligent, edgy presence. Zen is one of those women beloved of a certain kind of romance novelist, who is so beautiful that she attracts every male that goes by her. (Shades of Bella in Twilight.) The sisters are surrounded by women who follow different paths, but who are all strong enough to wrestle with destiny and bend it to their own will.
Overall, the problems besieging the Van Zandt sisters feel somewhat manufactured and definitely of their own making. I have very little sympathy for Zen’s travails sleeping with a married man; and not much more empathy for her sister, who has committed to a man who does not share her goals. The big twist that affects both sisters is a welcome surprise, but also filled with contrivances to make it work. (And everybody is ever so civilized about how things shake out which is actually harder to the believe than the dollops of witchery and precognition are.) This is O’Riordan’s first novel and the first in what’s planned to be a series of 12, so it isn’t fair to judge her too harshly; but future stories in the Pagan Spirit series will need to be a lot more engaging.
Book Stats:
- e-book, digital format
- Publisher: Eternal Press
- Book Length: Novel
- Language: English
- ISBN: 978-1-897559-57-4
To purchase an electronic copy of Beltane click here.
To visit the author’s website go here.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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