Nightwing
Review by Baron Gideon Redoak, submitted on 11-Oct-1995

_Nightwing_ by Lynn Michaels. Toronto, Harlequin Books (Temptation Series #452), c1995. ISBN 0-373-25642-6

I _may_ have read sillier books, but I don't quite remember when...

Even bearing in mind the publisher. *grin*.

Let me see if I can sum this one up: the heroine, Willy (short for--can you believe it--Willow) lives in a haunted beach house that she inherited from her grandmother. Her ownership of the house is being contested by dark, handsome, mysterious Dr. Jonathon Raven. We are told in the beginning that Raven became a vampire back in the 1800's in Egypt, when he was attacked by an ancient vampire named Nekhat. Why he wants the house becomes clear when it is explained that Nekhat somehow managed to seperate Jonathan into two identities (sounds like a CotN party...): Johnny, the sweet, gentle spirit; and Raven, the evil vampire. We are supposed to believe that Raven is some kind of monster even though we are told that he is still a practicing doctor and has saved several lives because his bite actually contains healing enzymes. (hey, could *I* make this up?).

To make a very long (and stupid) story short, Raven wants to reunite his two halves and become human again. (Stop me if you've heard _this_ plot before). This entails getting several items, not least of which is a stake entitled the Sacred Cedar (and I always thought it had to be ash...). Yes, it's a piece of the True Cross, in only one of a number of things in this book that would outrage the religiously-minded. With the aid of a friendly cleric (and they're always_ around when you want one) called Father Bertram and a trip back to Egypt, the thing is accomplished and Johnny miraculously becomes human again--with some gapes in his memory that Willy cheerfully helps him fill. In a nice human touch, _he_'s the one who cries after sex.

The most interesting thing about this book is the acknowledgement and dedication page. The author thanks Linda Wisdom of _Forever Knight_ and gives"special" thanks to Frank Langella and Geraint Wyn Davies AND Erroll Flynn (?). All of whom I thought would know better (and one of whom I thought was dead...).