BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT - Gracie C. McKeever

Siren Publishing - http://www.sirenpub.com/

ISBN: 1-933563-35-4

February 2007

Erotic Interracial Paranormal Romance
Sensuality Rating: Scorching

Los Angeles, CA and New York, Present Day

Nova Foxx is a beautiful woman with a great life. She had a fiancé in LA, a good job, and she enjoyed rock climbing in her spare time. Everything changes when she suffers a freak accident on a mountainside, and she nearly dies. After the near death experience, she is plagued by visions of a man in terrible danger, a man she cannot help but desire passionately. Though her fiancé, Matthew, and her friends think she's lost her mind, she packs up her things and heads for New York City because this is where her visions tell her that Mystery Man is waiting.

BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT then skips forward a year, where Nova is working as a commodities trader in New York. She's certainly made the most of that year because she has everything back in place already, everything she left behind in LA. Except her fiancé. Though she's still having visions, she is beginning to lose faith in her own sanity because she's never had a vision that would let her locate the man of her literal dreams.

This man does exist. His name is Zane Youngblood and he works as a counselor to troubled teens. In addition, he's recently acquired custody of his teenaged nephew because his sister passed away. Zane has known more than his share of heartache, as he lost his wife only a few years back as well, who was also pregnant with their first child at the time. So he could use a little good news, even if it comes in the form of a woman his nephew attempts to mug in trying to impress some hoodlum friends.

When Ransom, Zane's nephew, tries to steal Nova's purse, she kicks his butt and they both wind up downtown waiting for Zane. Nova realizes immediately this is her Mystery Man, so she is desperate to think up some way to get to know him better. Why? Well, not only is she hot for the body she's only seen in dreams, but her visions also carry portents of terrible danger. This man will die without her, and the way his luck has been running, the reader wouldn't be too surprised.

She offers to let Ransom work off the cost of her broken cell phone and headset by doing chores around her house, so Zane and his nephew turn up at Nova's place the following weekend. As it turns out, this is the house Ransom used to live in before his mom died, and what an amazing coincidence that Nova happened to buy it. This is where things begin to strain credulity, overstressing the whole "meant to be" angle of the book.

While this story was enjoyable enough, it ran long and could have used some tighter editing. The other problem with BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT was that the author revealed who wanted to kill Zane almost from the beginning. In fact, we received scenes from the villain's point of view. This lack of suspense left the book a bit flat. BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT is well-written, however, creative, and the two leads possess excellent sexual chemistry. In addition, the secondary characters, like Nova's parents and Zane's mother, crackle with life. Gracie McKeever does an excellent job in rendering multicultural characters. Despite its flaws, if you’re looking for something different and spicy, you might enjoy BETWEEN DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHT.

Ann Aguirre