Wizard's Daughter (Bride Series) » (Abridged, 5 CDs, 6 hrs.)

Catherine Coulter is the author of numerous historical romances, including the Bride series, and contemporary romantic thrillers, including the popular FBI series.

Dear Reader:
When Ryder Sherbrooke finds a child nearly beaten to death in an alley in Eastbourne, he takes her home to Brandon House. She doesn’t speak for six months. Her first words, oddly enough, are a haunting song:

I dream of beauty and sightless night I dream of strength and fevered might I dream I’m not alone again But I know of his death and her grievous sin.

Ah, and just what does this strange song mean that was seemingly imprinted on the child’s brain?

She names herself Rosalind de la Fontaine since she cannot remember who she is. In her first season in London in 1835, under the aegis of the Sherbrookes, she meets Nicholas Vail, the 7th Earl of Mountjoy, newly arrived from Macau. It is instant fascination on both their parts, but for different reasons.

With Grayson Sherbrooke, they are led to an ancient copy of a mysterious book written by a sixteenth-century wizard. The book is written in a baffling code that neither Grayson nor Nicholas can read.

But Rosalind can, easily.

Strange things start happening. Both Nicholas and Rosalind know it has to do with the old book and, perhaps, even her past, particularly the song she first sang as a child. The urgency builds as they realize Rosalind is the key to a centuries-old mystery.

Enjoy,
Catherine Coulter

Publishers Weekly

Coulter's latest in the historical Sherbrooke series (following Lyon's Gate) stars Rosalind de la Fontaine, a beautiful young woman with an ethereal voice who has no memory of her name, her family or her heritage since being saved and adopted by Ryder Sherbrooke as a girl. Nicholas Vail, the new earl of Mountjoy, returns to England and recognizes her as the girl he has seen in his dreams since childhood chanting, "I am your debt." The two are soon inseparable, and their relationship reaches an altogether new level when they inexplicably discover an old book written in code, with tales of a magical place filled with dragons, wizards and abundant evil: the book urges them toward the realization of Nicholas's "debt" and the interpretation of a haunting song that Rosalind sings spontaneously. Coulter leaves some important questions unanswered, and her emphasis on the supernatural results in a faltering romance, but the suspense and the spirited mystery will keep readers glued. (Jan.)