Liquid Silver Books, $4.50, ISBN 978-1-59578-348-6
Fantasy Romance, 2007
The Gates of Infinity is a fantasy romance about a woman who walks into an antique store one day and touches an antique sword only to learn that she has some kind of special connection to it and its owner, Ethionne. In fact, Verity Mathison learns, in that little store in Avalon Inlet somewhere in Northern Maine, that Ethionne turns out to be the hunk that she has been for some reason dreaming of all this while. A cut of her finger by the sword sends her to the world of Thaer where she encounters Ehtionne Mahjrah and the crew of The Scarab, just in time to watch Etionne’s enemy Darius closes in on them.
Ethionne calls her Veranna, apparently his girlfriend/destiny, but Verity is not Veranna… is she? Veranna isn’t just the Captain’s moll, though, she is also a sorceress that allowed them to stand against the villainous Darius and his crew. Unfortunately, Verity here who may or may not be Veranna seem to be unable to cast magic. Oh no, what will happen now?
The Gates of Infinity may have some explicit some love scenes, but I have to warn readers who are looking for a happily ever after ending that they won’t find one here. This story is more conceptual than romantic since it focuses on magic and adventure rather than love. Having said that, I would have no problems with this story and its ending were not for the fact that it is too short to allow author Denysé Bridger to do much with this story. Veranna and Ehtionne’s backstory is underdeveloped and the story rushes to its ending in a very abrupt manner that leaves me very dissatisfied.
The concept behind the story is interesting, but the execution doesn’t have much going for it since the story is too underwritten and rushed to do much when it comes to entertaining me. Ms Bridger would have probably done better if she spends more time developing this story instead of rushing it into publication upon meeting the word count.
