Title: Dominion
Author: Melanie Jackson
Published in August 2002 by LoveSpell
Genre: Timeswept
IBSN: 0-505-52512-7
Domitien is a being who is tired of the vagaries of Fate, the grabbiness of Death, and the meddling of The Great One. He is truly tired and wishes to be left alone. His stay is about to be interrupted, as he learns when over-hearing two of The Great One's favorite messengers. He has to go back. He has to fall in love with the woman who has already been chosen. Just for him? She was remade just for him? The vow will hold. She may fall in love with him, but there is no place in his mortal existence for love. While mortal, he is dogged constantly by an evil incarnation of Rychard. Over and over they have killed each other as they fought through life after life.
Love has no place with one such as he, and he doesn't know why The Great One can't let things alone. He had love once, and it was ripped away from him with so little care that it has left him scarred to the bottom of his soul for all these centuries. Why should this time be any different? Why is he to be sent back at all, let alone as a grown man? Why is he being allowed to retain his memories? So many questions, and so few answers, but Domitien is resolved. Never will he love again!
Laris has been plagued by some very strange dreams. They startled her in her tiny Los Angeles apartment, and have returned since she came here to San Francisco. The dreams are unsettling, erotic, and yet seem to be echoes from a past long forgotten. Dreams of this man inspire a jealousy of his dream lover, but surely that can't be possible! The dreams are of someone who seems very familiar to Laris, but she hasn't met anyone like him. Her own hopes lie with a performance and a permanent job at the Opera House, but Laris knows she must get some rest.
Her voice is her strength. She has worked long and hard to tune it to perfection, and the lack of rest does not bode well for a performance at her best. The dreams are very disturbing, and she wishes they would stop. Where are these dreams coming from? Why won't they let her alone? Who is this phantom lover who comes to her in the night? San Francisco holds some very personal and life defining surprises for Laris...and her dream man!
Melanie Jackson has once again turned the tables on us and given us a dark but delightful romp through the “times” of Domitien's lives, and his tangled past with Laris and Rychard. Unusual in its depths, it is a truly great example of tragic romance. It has a trail of its own, but it went directly to my heart, and brought back memories of my own. Dominion does justice to love, life, death and history. It lends personality and reality to those things we must all face, yet softens the blow with the gentle reminders. Life is a renewal, a constantly changing and evolving process, a never-ending chance for growth that we should take and embrace with joy. Domitien and Laris learn that life should never be taken for granted, and love is a necessity.
Even if we are blessed with many lives, each should be an experience resulting, hopefully, in a soul's learning and growth. Dominion is a love story that spans not only a few days, but also centuries. Talk about coming from a pain-filled place, this journey is a true masterpiece! Yeah, the idea that love conquers all is an old one, but this goes deeper than that, and really digs into the premise that love, in its own right, truly is immortal and necessary to all mankind. It actually carries a message to all who read it, for the story is filled with a radiant hope. The book runs silent and deep, all the while being a thoroughly enthralling read! Dominion is not a book to miss, or dismiss...If there has ever been a real must read, Dominion is it!
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
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