Feather & Flame

4.5stars-heart breaking,edgy and dramatic

4.5 stars--FEATHER AND FLAME is the second instalment in Nina Lane’s contemporary, adult BIRDSONG age-gap, romance trilogy focusing on twenty-two year old Nell Fairchild , and forty-four year old, photojournalist Darius Hawke. FEATHER AND FLAME should not be read as a stand alone as it picks up immediately after the events of book one SPARROW AND HAWKE.

NOTE: FEATHER AND FLAME focuses on terrorism and war, and was written prior to the attacks and invasion of Ukraine. If you have not read book one there may be spoilers in my review.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Darius and Nell) FEATHER AND FLAME advances the series approximately four years, four years in which Darius and Nell went their separate ways. Having graduated from the New York Art Institute, Nell struggled to find a job but what our heroine never expected was to find the man that broke her heart. Darius Hawke has been on the front-lines of many war –torn countries, and our hero is about to leave again, for places unknown. Bitter and heart broken with no job prospects in sight, Nell volunteers to work with Global Rebuild, an organization that helps rebuild and repair cities and towns decimated by war. Working and living in the fictional Eastern European country of Krasnovar, Nell finds herself falling for a people and a country about to be pulled into another war. Enter Darius Hawke, the man Nell has loved most of her life, and a man who is about to sacrifice everything for the woman he loves. What ensues is the rebuilding friendship and romance between Darius and Nell, and the fall-out as war comes to Krasnovar, destroying everything in its wake.

Darius Hawke’s attraction to Nell pushed our hero out of her life but Darius never stopped thinking about the young girl now woman that had stolen his heart. With another war of the horizon, Darius places himself in the direct line of fire to save the woman with whom he has fallen in love but Darius is about to face the demons from his past, demons that continue to haunt his daily life. Nell Fairchild is a little naïve, stubborn and determined, and with it comes the inexperience of a young woman who believes she can make it on her own but the atrocities of war are non negotiable, and our heroine battles between head and heart, taking a stance against the man that she loves, placing herself and everyone else in danger.

The relationship between Darius and Nell has been building for several years, a relationship predicated upon family and friendships. Darius is good friends with Nell’s father, and late mother, and the guilt of an age-gap romance sends our hero in the other direction. Nell has only loved one man all of her life, and the man is about to change the course of the relationship, to save the woman he loves. The $ex scenes are intimate and passionate without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

There is a large ensemble cast of colorful, energetic and interesting secondary and supporting characters, most of whom we meet in Varaz, Krasnovar.

FEATHER AND FLAME is a story of second chances and love, war and destruction, and a struggle to survive. The premise is heart breaking, edgy, dramatic and intense; the romance is seductive and emotional; the characters are broken, dynamic and lively. FEATHER AND FLAME ends on a cliff hanger-you have been warned.