Brackston's third novel (after Lamp Black, Wolf Grey and Nutters, the latter written under pseudonym P.J. Davy) shows the author is still inexperienced as a writer. Flashing back and forth in time from 2007 to 1639, her historical romance is slow moving and stilted. Borrowing its main conceit from Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, Bess, later known as Elizabeth, spends much of the book telling her life's story to a young wannabe witch, apparently against her own better judgment. The language is strained, even in the present-day scenes; in the flashbacks it seems almost as if the period-piece dialog is entirely fabricated rather than researched. Verdict Public libraries should purchase this only if their patron base is extremely loyal to historical fiction/romance and not particular about the quality. [Library marketing.]-Stacey Rottiers Comfort, Dexter District Lib., MI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This pleasantly romantic historical fantasy debut flips lightly between the past experiences of ageless witch Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith and her present-day life in Matravers, England. After a plague kills young Elizabeth's father and siblings in 1627 Wessex, her mother, a gifted healer, seeks help from ruthless warlock Gideon Masters. He exacts a high price, and Bess survives only to be accused of witchery along with her mother, who is captured and hanged while Bess escapes and begins her new life of immortal solitude. Fast-forward to 2007, when Elizabeth trains teenage Tegan to be a hedge witch and shares stories about Gideon, meeting Jack the Ripper while ministering to the Whitehall prostitutes in 1888, and serving as a nurse in 1917 Flanders. Bess's past adventures are fascinating, but there's a sketchy quality to the contemporary sections that diminishes the effect of the grand finale. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

After nearly four centuries of life on earth, Elizabeth Hardwick settles in a small English village where, always wary of danger, she befriends lonely teenager Tegan and gradually tells the story of her life. Left alone in 1628 after her father, brother, and sister die of the plague, and her mother is hanged for witchcraft, 15-year-old Bess seeks shelter from warlock Gideon Masters, who trains her in magic and wants her for his eternal soul mate. Bess escapes both the witch finder's noose and Gideon, but he continues to search for her when she's Dr. Eliza Hardwick in London in 1888 and Nurse Elise Hardwick in Flanders in 1917. Each time, Gideon takes human form and another anagrammatic name to lure her as she works only to heal, and he leaves the bodies of innocents in his wake. In 2007 Gideon reappears, predictably finding a chink in Elizabeth's defenses as she makes Tegan her disciple. Brackston's first novel offers well-crafted characters in an absorbing plot and an altogether delicious blend of historical fiction and fantasy.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2010 Booklist