Lara, Domina of Terah, born to a mortal father and fairy mother, has long known that she has a destiny that must be played out. Her destiny often wars with her desires as a wife and mother but as a woman she rises to each and every occasion. While waiting for her destiny to be made clear so that she knows what steps to take next Lara visits her friend Noss, who has been caring for Lara's oldest children while Lara fulfilled a part of her destiny.
Desperate to find his wife, Magnus Hauk seeks the aid of Prince Kaliq of the Shadow. He quickly learns that dark magic is to blame for Lara's disappearance. Being mortal, he has no power to aid in finding or retrieving Lara and he's forced to rely on Kaliq and Ilona, Lara's powerful fairy queen mother, to find and rescue his wife.
Kol, the Twilight Lord of the Dark Lands, revels in the fact that he's managed to steal Lara for himself. The Book of Rule states that a fairy woman is destined to give birth to the next Twilight Lord. Kol knows that she will never come to him willingly and fairies' do not give children to those whom they do not love. He has to devise a way to convince her that she loves him and wants to give birth to his child. His ambition extends beyond that. Kol intends to use her powers to conquer Hetar and Terah.
During Lara's visit to the Outlands, she makes the decision to take her older children, Dillon and Anoush, to live in Terah with her new husband, Magnus. It's obvious that Anoush is being influenced by her grandmother and cousin's poisonous words toward Lara and the events surrounding the death of Vartan, Dillon and Anoush's father. Before they begin the journey, Lara disappears from her bed. Dillon, who is coming into magical abilities but is yet untrained, has a strange dream about his mother before he discovers her missing. Dillon relates his dream to Kaliq who realizes immediately what happened, but also knows that this is a part of Lara's destiny that must be played out. Magnus is ready to do whatever necessary to get his wife back. Kol is determined to keep Lara for himself and use her powers for his own evil purposes. Back in Hetar, the self centered and greedy Emperor has learned of Lara's disappearance and plots an attack on what he believes to be a now vulnerable Terah. How will Lara's destiny affect everyone involved?
THE TWILIGHT LORD is the third book in Bertrice Small's THE WORLD OF HETAR series. In order to fully appreciate this story and truly understand the characters and their relationships I highly recommend reading the first two books in this series - LARA and A DISTANT TOMORROW. With THE TWILIGHT LORD we're treated to an amazing twist in Lara's destiny which I was stunned by but was so impressed with her ability to adapt and accept that everything that happens in her life has a reason regardless of how difficult it may seem. I loved getting the opportunity to learn more about the characters introduced in earlier books, especially Og, the gentle giant, and Kaliq whose adoration for Lara is obvious throughout this story. Magnus is a wonderful man and a perfect husband to Lara. He's strong and tries to accept that she has her own destiny that she must follow which may exclude him.
I've been a long time reader of Bertrice Small's historical novels and absolutely loved each of them so I was very impressed when I learned that she branched into a new genre. With this fantasy series Ms. Small boldly combines all the passion and angst we love in her historical novels with magic, mystical beings and amazing worlds to give her readers a new and exciting storyline that we'll want to continue long into the future. My favorite thing about Ms. Small's novels is the simple fact that the heroine's are always gutsy and possess an inner fortitude that rivals anything else I've read in a very long time. Beautifully written Ms. Small!
Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)
