Taylor Chase: Heart of Night

Avon Historical Romance (Paperback), ISBN 0-06-101290-4

With a cover featuring barely-clad lovers locked in passionate embrace against the backdrop of a medieval castle and scarlet pimpernels, Heart of Night masquerades as a standard historical romance. But be careful, this night dark is not for the faint of heart. Yes, Taylor Chase offers up romance and Elizabethan history as promised, but she also dishes up thrills and horrifying chills — the kind to inspire nightmares.

In love with a man who doesn’t return her affection, betrothed to another and the object of yet another’s deranged desire, the Lady Claire Darren fares better with beauty than love. Only when Bedlam’s most dangerous mental patient kisses her does she realize her heart’s capabilities.

A man with a tainted lineage, a haunted past and a dreadful secret, Sir Adrian cannot give in to his urge to love Claire. He vows never to bring her into his dark world, no matter how painful the choice becomes. Unwilling to deny her heart’s desire, Claire follows Adrian into a twisted world of torture and madness. Perhaps, with love, the two can slay the demons that torment both his past and present.

Surprising for a romance novel, Heart of Night contains more villains than one can shake a stick at, and each one more perverse than the next. Taylor Chase expertly draws a world so dark, demented and dangerous, that one may want to put the book down; yet, she creates characters and situations so compelling that it’s impossible to do so.

Even with all the horror and shocking gore, a satisfying solution to a well-executed story makes this mis-named and somewhat mis-categorized romance a must read in my book.

Lynne Remick

Lynne Marie Pisano is a freelance writer, poet, book reviewer, SCBWI Metro New York LI Critique Group Coordinator and Co-Chair of the Long Island Children’s Writers and Illustrators. She lives in New York with her husband Michael, her son Kevin and a daughter named Kayla, and Dante, a Schipperke.