The Wizard of Seattle » (Reprint)

Kay Hooper is the award-winning author of Sense of Evil, Touching Evil, Whisper of Evil, Once a Thief, Always a Thief, the Shadows trilogy, and more. She lives in North Carolina where she is at work on the next installment in the Fear series.

She looked like a ragged, storm-drenched urchin, but from the moment Serena Smyth appeared on his Seattle doorstep, Richard Patrick Merlin recognized the spark behind her green eyes. Serena had crossed a country to find him, guided by her determination to become a master wizard. She knew he could be her teacher—but she never expected the charismatic, seductive power that was Merlin's. Nor had she dreamed of the fire he ignited in her body and soul, a flame that burned even hotter than the powerful talent she possessed but did not yet understand. Their love forbidden by an ancient law, Serena and Richard will take a desperate gamble and travel to a long-lost world to change the history that threatens to separate them. But they risk being torn apart forever, destroyed by a cursed land...and their own fierce desires.

Publishers Weekly

In 1984, 16-year-old Serena Smyth appeared on the doorstep of wizard Richard Merlin in Seattle demanding that he take her on as an apprentice. The body of this silly novel picks up nine years later, when Serena and Richard are secretly attracted to each other but still keeping up the pretense of being uncle and niece for the benefit of the ``powerless'' world. Serena's high jinks prompt a local reporter to write an article about them questioning their relationship, which in turn brings them to the attention of the Council of Elders--a ruling group of wizards. It seems Richard has ignored an age-old law stating that no women be trained to use magic. Richard and Serena then travel far back in time to Atlantis in order to find out why this rule was created and to rectify the situation. There they find male and female wizards living in separate communities, with mutual mistrust and hatred. Common sense says that powerful Richard could fix this ancient war of the sexes with a flick of his impressive staff, so Hooper ( The Matchmaker ) must continually work at creating suspense through arcane regulations, i.e., time travel is too risky to be attempted more than once. (June)