HEART JOURNEY

Author: Robin D. Owens ISBN: 9780425234549 8/2010 PARANORMAL/FURTURISTIC Publisher: BERKLEY

Helena, a renowned cartographer, is exploring Celta when she finds out she has a HeartMate. Yearning for a partner, she is drawn to meet him. Actor Raz Cherry is dedicated to his career. Uninterested in long-term commitments, he ignores an oracle that foretells of his HeartMate. Though passion ignites, their lifestyles clash. Only when mysterious thefts threaten their families can they overcome the obstacles on their journey to love.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

HEART JOURNEY continues the astoundingly creative Celta series and is book nine. Once again, Owens finds new pieces of her world to share and brings varieties of amazingly well-crafted characters to life.

Heroine Del Elecampane is thirty-six, a frontier woman who travels her world making maps. Cities make her uncomfortable, and the only thing that can bring her into Druida for an extended stay is the double discovery that she has a HeartMate and an orphaned relative to care for. It never occurs to her that her HeartMate wouldn’t want to live on the open road like she does.

Hero Raz Cherry is twenty-eight, an actor in every sense of the word. He cares about his family, but mostly wants to be a huge star, which requires life in the big city and complete self-absorption in the package he offers.

Unfortunately, these two are HeartMates. What to do now?

SPOILER ALERT:  In terms of romance, these characters are the novel’s downfall, because the hero and heroine are so opposite in what makes them happy, that the only way to bring them together is in one of those formulaic “I suddenly realize I love you because you’re about to die, and besides, there’s a baby on the way” scenes that rescue any romance novel where there’s no real way to resolve conflict.

That said, you have to read these novels for the world of Celta alone. The imagination behind this series is simply awesome!

HEART SEARCH, book ten in the series, arrives August 2, 2011.

Heather Hiestand