Sage Fire Reviews

The story takes place in the imaginary world of Yrth. Katrione is a healer and a healer is the only hope there is for saving the country from complete destruction.  It is a heavy burden for such a young woman and the burden grows heavier when Katrione is pushed to marry a man she has healed at a younger age but does not love.

On the other hand, there is a man she does love, a common blacksmith she believes.  Only after escaping to follow this man, and eventually marrying him, does she come to realize that people are not always what they appear to be.  Her husband has secrets, dark secrets, that endangers their lives and the lives of many others but she is not aware of the truth until she is faced with choices that no woman would want to make.

Katrione is the heroine every woman would like to be.  She is faithful to the man she loves while she still has the inner need to save the world and nurture the people around her.  She is inquisitive yet sensitive to the needs of her husband.  She has a strength the reader can admire combined with an innocence that makes us wonder how long she can continue to face each day without being able to use her gift as a vessel or her own mind to decide what she wants for herself.

Can you love more than one person at a time? Can you follow your heart and your destiny at the same time? Can you be a nurturing lover, a simple housewife and still battle for the life of a child and your future?  Katrione proves that a woman can do anything if she sets her mind to it and feels it can be done within her heart.

This book mixes adventure with romance and just enough fantasy to keep the reader waiting anxiously to see if the path our heroine takes will make it possible to remain true to herself.  The story is filled with action, some of which is graphic without being gory, and heart-tugging emotions that causes the reader to wonder if there are secrets in their family that could burst from a hiding place and change lives forever.  It also adds credence to the old adage, "Love can conquer anything."

Suzanne Francis is a captivating author.  Her writing pulls you from the realm of reality and places you into the world of imagination so smoothly that you may not know you have arrived there.  She uses colorful and graphic wording that is not overly done and yet manages to paint the story for you as an artist might paint on an easel.  The romance is not full of hot and steamy details but you feel the emotion between the lovers, even if it is not a pleasant encounter.  She manages to keep things mysterious and sensual while leaving any vulgarity out of the text.  Suzanne has written a story that could only be done by a true romantic and a true lady.

Dianna Doles Petry is a freelance writer residing in West Virginia, USA.  Her work has been included in Kudzu Monthly Magazine, Woman's World Weekly, Gambit, Blue Mountain Thunder and Storytime Tapestry as well as various web sites.  She is the author of "Memories, Stories of real life in the mountains."  Her writing affiliations include the West Virginia Writers and the West Virginia Poetry Society.

www.myspace.com/diannawv