given to me by a friend

This will be a semi-wild release.....I plan ‘releasing’ this book at the next Edinburgh Bookcrossing Meet-up, but will offer to Rainbow3 first (if she's there!)

The Edinburgh BookCrossing meetings are held every first Thursday of the month - we’re currently hosted by Biblos bar and restaurant on the corner of Chambers Street and North Bridge.

Book cover: Once He Had Scorched The World.
Once He Had Driven Back Overwhelming Darkness.
Once He Had Loved With Such Passion, His Name Was Legend … Tairen Soul

Now a thousand years later, a new threat calls him from the Fading Lands, back into the world that has cost him so dearly. Now an ancient, familiar evil is regaining its strength and a new voice beckons him – more compelling, more seductive, more maddening than any before. As the power of his most bitter enemy grows and ancient alliances crumble, the wildness in his blood will not be denied. The tairen must claim his truemate and embrace the destiny woven for him in the mists of time.

“An absolutely wonderful new voice…” – KAY MERIAM, Bookseller, RWA Steffie Walker. Bookseller of the Year 2003
“Brilliant and breath-taking … a fascinating unique world.” – ALYSSA DAY, author of Atlantis Rising.
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Rain Tairen Soul, known as Rain (great name), is the King of the Fey, excessively long-lived and lives in the Fading Lands. In the prologue, Rain is coming to grips with the unwelcome fact that an element of his people, the tarien – magnificent magical, winged cats - are becoming extinct. That, Rain carries a soul destroying burden of having killed millions in one cataclysmic burst of magic when bringing to an end a past conflict, is ever an agony to him. It is also a horror that his enemies now castigate him with this act telling all who will listen that not only was it an unforgivably brutal act, it was also unnecessary.

Ellysetta Baristani lives in another land hundreds of miles away as the eldest child of adoptive parents who watch over her protectively with loving but troubled eyes. Ellie has always struggled with strange uncontrollable fits which are a grave concern to her parents who collude to hide the fact from others.

Unknown to each other Rain and Ellie have a matched destiny and this novel tracks the gut wrenching pull they have toward each other and the torments that pull them apart highlighting the travails each suffer to come together. Rain has a dual personality a fey element and a tarien element and the when his tarien side becomes aware of the existence of his truemate the compulsion to demand she remain by his side where he can protect her almost totally overwhelms the man. He is so aggressive he terrifies Ellie. Their first meeting sets the scene for many misunderstandings and fireworks. It is a brilliant driving force in the rest of the novel.

The lives of Ellie's family and friends are inevitably altered drastically because of the political repercussions that occur when such important individual as Rain recognises her as his mate. Yet, even as Ellysetta finds increasing danger touching her family and friends she is overwhelmed with the joy of coming to terms finding the love she always dreamed of.
pg 92 "The temptation of knowing a love so deep, so complete, so unconditional, was a powerful lure that appealed straight to her deepest, most secret desire."

As the book comes to a close the ominous feeling of an approaching war looms over the the fey and human characters alike. We feel in the background the dark forces of the Elden Mage's uncoiling the loops of dreadful plans many, many years in the making...

It is easy to rave about how enjoyable a reading experience this was, rich in character developments and intriguing in plot background and detail, for it was all that but yet it also turned into a frustrating read. Frustrating because, as the end neared and the tale became more animated it became increasingly clear that instead of a feeling of completion; a tale well told yet furnished with beguiling pointers to new developments,
the momentum was going to be abruptly severed as the book finished with some key plot threads sheared.

I do detest feeling so manipulated, being visited with an urgent need go find the next book in a series. Still that illustrates, I suppose I have to admit in terribly grumpy mood, that I was gripped greatly by this tale and enjoyed it immensely.

To be fair I thought I ought to record here, after groaning on about the disappointment of massive cliff-hangers and author manipulation (as above), that this book 'Lady of Light and Shadows' the second book in the C. L. Wilsons, Tairen Soul series, is as complex and thrilling as the first but a much more satisfying read.

More satisfying because, happily several major issues had been well developed if not fully resolved by the books end though there’s clearly more epic adventures to be encountered beyond this book. And i can continue with the fun as to my great joy as well as offering up Lady of Light and Shadows, Edinburgh City Libraries has the third in series King of Sword and Sky, yahoo!!!

Read and enjoyed soon to be released...

Release due sometime within the next week...

WELCOME TO BOOKCROSSING!

To the finder of this book: thanks for picking it up and I hope you enjoy reading it. Please keep it or set it free when you're done. If the book is of no interest to you, please release it into the wild for someone else to find and enjoy.

I hope you will make a journal entry so its journey can be tracked and to let me know the book has been found. You can remain anonymous if you wish, but if you join BookCrossing, you are in for a great experience and I do hope you will use me, rainbow3, as a referring member.

...this didn't get as far as the Always Sunday Cafe as I suddenly thought of another reader for this so picked it out of the bag again...

Happy travels little book, off into the post tomorrow. I'm hoping this lands safely and is enjoyed...I'll hold onto the mystery by not adding any more for now - GRIN!

I got this in the mail from my friend Lynn from Scotland! Thanks, Lynn! I needed something new to read and this looks good.Thanks for including a book mark with it.

Well, I thought this book was just a wee bit to romancy for me. Typical story line, typical man/woman relationship go wrong,get right, etc. This did tend to drag a bit in places then it had a sorry, typical Star Trek ending. Chop it off and leave it for next week or next novel.