Description:

Synopsis:

In the blockbuster tradition of Diana Gabaldon, award-winning author Glenna McReynolds makes her stunning hardcover debut with a wondrous and wholly original tale.  Shimmering with breathtaking romance, fantasy, and adventure, The Chalice and the Blade sweeps you into a rare world of ancient magic, fierce passion, and evil intention--a world that once entered will not soon be forgotten.

The place is twelfth-century Wales, a land of forbidding castles and ferocious knights, sacred prophecies and unholy betrayals.  In the bowels of the earth, deep in the caverns below the towers of Carn Merioneth, dragon nests await the arrival of one who holds the key to an ancient legacy.

She is Ceridwen, daughter of a Druid priestess, unaware of her immense power--until fate leads her from the safety of a secluded abbey into the unbreachable tower of a feared sorcerer.  Dain Lavrans knows he has no magic in himself, only the secrets of medicine he uncovered while a soldier in the Crusades.  But with the appearance of Ceridwen, he will finally behold true--and terrifying--magic.  

For there are many who seek the maiden, none for her own good and all meaning to use her.  Carodoc, the dreaded warlord whose father slaughtered her people and left her orphaned, wants her as his bride so he can claim the riches rumored to lie beneath Carn Merioneth.  Helebore, a depraved ex-monk once sentenced to death for his sins, wants her blood so he can unlock the dark mystery of time.  Rhuddlan, leader of the wild folk of the woods, wants her to take her rightful place as decreed by ancient prophecy.  Dain simply wants the ethereal Ceri, for himself alone.  Now a battle of epic proportion is about to take place.  And at the center of the clash of power stand Ceridwen and Dain, struggling to escape the dangers and snares set by friend and foe alike, while discovering that neither can resist the love that promises to bind them forever.

Weaving a spell of fantastical imagination and the all-too-human world of passion and evil, The Chalice and the Blade is unique and unforgettable, a sumptuous novel by one of today's most stirring storytellers.

Publishers Weekly:

Filled with long passages of awkward prose strewn with passionate kisses and much ripping of chemises, McReynolds's hardcover debut, a historical romance with strong fantasy elements, may well please its apparent primary target audience of romance readers while leaving fans of Celtic fantasy befuddled. In Wales, during the period of Richard the Lionheart's disastrous Crusade, Ceridwen and Mychael, the twin children of the priestess Rhiannon (who traces her lineage back to the Mother Goddess), escape the destruction of Carn Merioneth with their druidic nursemaid, Moriath. Fifteen years later, headstrong, beautiful Ceridwen, fleeing her enforced betrothal to the monstrous Caradoc, lands in the arms of Dain Lavrans, a stunningly handsome sorcerer with a dark and tortured past. Ceridwen and Dain becomes pawns in a deadly game involving mystical creatures that reside in a maze of time centered under Carn Merioneth, a group of the Quicken-Tree (basically, elves) and the deadly politics of this barbaric period. McReynolds focuses less on plot than on the power of love, thus weakening both the fantastic and historical elements of her story. Readers who care more for steely blades than for rods of steel will want to pass on this one, but incurable romantics may find it to their liking, especially given the generously low cover price. (Sept.)

Biography:

Glenna McReynolds has won numerous awards for her writing.  She lives with her husband and two children in the Rocky Mountain West.  This is her first historical novel.